Comments on: Vanity URL for Social Media Profiles

By: Peter Chang

Peter Chang — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 01:27:25 +0000

I think vanity URL is also important overall because of the SEO benefits it would have. it is important to ensure the URL contains structures that you would want to be associated with via a keywords search.

The other usefulness of social profiles that augment your own website is the rank the domain already has. If you have a page on facebook, it is likely to rank higher than a new domain more easily, so by combining SEO strategies with the different sites you can achieve better ranking overall for your chosen keywords.

By: Grafton MA Real Estate

Grafton MA Real Estate — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:00:46 +0000

Some of the best advice you gave is to work on your own website and spend less time on things that don’t make a difference like vanity names at Facebook and other social sites. The only thing I can see this useful for is if you have a name that could be much more easily remembered using a vanity URL.

By: Patty Gale

Patty Gale — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 01:17:25 +0000

I completely agree. I registered my vanity url for my personal blog years ago and probably a good thing, too. I’m not the only Patty Gale, so if I were to try to register it today, most likely, it wouldn’t be available.

I, too, use pattygale as my username for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. I don’t for YouTube as we’re using our company’s name on YouTube and on the Facebook fan page.

My kids names are too common, so they are not available as domain names. Actually, both of my sons’ names were also the same names of a couple of top 10 school baseball and football players, so that didn’t work. Their last name is not Gale, by the way.

I tried registering Emily’s name, but apparently, it also belongs to a lot of other Emily Gale’s, too.

By: Rahman Mehraby

Rahman Mehraby — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 06:51:44 +0000

I also prefer to keep my one property and get social media profiles all with the same name pointing to it. One thing is for sure: My site remains there as long as I’m there to work, but I don’t have the same assurance about the social media!

By: Palace

Palace — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 13:54:41 +0000

I like the idea of vanity url’s but really see no value in all these local companies storming facebook in order to get there url registered. On another note when the vanity urls came available I registered my friends account to facebook.com/iamanidiot LOL

By: Luke

Luke — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 05:50:03 +0000

People who don’t know you personally can contact you easily since you’re using vanity URL. It’s also a great way to build your popularity right? Much beneficial for your friends and relatives who want to know the newest update in you.

By: Coree Silvera

Coree Silvera — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 04:23:14 +0000

I agree it’s important to have the consistency of your user name across the board. When I first started my blog I opened all my social sites with MarketLikeAChick as my user name…which is ok since it’s consistent, but as I look back I wish I had done it with my name: /coreesilvera.

By: Radiant Barrier Houston

Radiant Barrier Houston — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:59:41 +0000

But what I’m actually referring to is a true Vanity URL, which is a domain name that you register and then point to your social media profile. Example: LynnTerryonFacebook.com
A vanity URL is a domain name, created to point to something to which it is related and indicated in the name of the URL. In many cases this is done by a company to point to a specific product or advertising campaign microsite. In theory, vanity URLs are creatively linked to something making them easier to remember than a more random link. source: wikipedia

By: Nilz @ e-Shopping

Nilz @ e-Shopping — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:05:42 +0000

I actually use a rather consistent username in all of my social profiles, i guess it would be easier for my friends to catch me up there.

By: Ed Harris

Ed Harris — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:05:48 +0000

Actually, I don’t use Facebook for business purposes. But after reading this, maybe I should. I guess I assume that people that surfing Facebook, are not looking to buy a product…at least at that moment.

By: Jonathan@Local marketing

Jonathan@Local marketing — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:05:53 +0000

Seems like the vanity URL idea is just another way for the social media sites to make their service more enticing.

By: Turkey Travel tours Guide

Turkey Travel tours Guide — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 10:39:41 +0000

No, it’s not going to hurt your marketing. When you’re online and you drop a link – just drop the link to your facebook URL so people know exactly where they are going if they click on it. If you want to use the vanity URL offline with friends & family, or during audio or video online, no big deal.

You’re not really branding yourself anyway, are you? I imagine you’ll be branding “stayboosted” across the social media profiles?

By: Lynn Terry

Lynn Terry — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:22:17 +0000

I use domain redirects for affiliate promotions and offline campaigns. That’s just smart marketing

You bring up a good point… I wonder that tracking is their reason?

By: Lynn Terry

Lynn Terry — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:14:37 +0000

on that note… you should also register your childrens’ names as domains on their behalf

By: J guildford

J guildford — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 20:42:20 +0000

Um i don’t know if i would have vanity urls for a social site but we do use them to create shorter urls for mailshots and flyers.