Enhance your social media presence with vanity URLs

In the digital age of business, social media is the focal point of nearly every successful marketing campaign. With the click of a button, companies can leverage this tool to connect with audiences of almost any demographic. As a result, fewer barriers stand between companies and potential customers.

Unfortunately, the powers of social media are often diminished by a few simple mistakes. One of the most common malpractices is neglecting to use a vanity URL (uniform resource locator). Consequently, viewers are less likely to return to your page and engagement stagnates. Whether you’re on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram or X, creating a vanity URL can work wonders in promoting your business online. The key is understanding why vanity URLs are a vital aspect of social media marketing and how to effectively deploy them in your campaigns.

What is a vanity URL?

A vanity URL is a customizable URL for websites and landing pages, including social media pages. You have creative control over what keywords are featured, making it clear and concise for your audience.
Instead of the mind-boggling index of letters and numbers a page is sometimes assigned, a vanity URL is short and memorable. When a viewer can easily recall the address to a social homepage, they’re more likely to return and to share it. Vanity URLs can increase the success rate of a marketing campaign by up to 35%.

For context, here is an example of an assigned URL versus a vanity URL:

Assigned URL
www.example.com/business-1234?jklmno%

Vanity URL
www.example.com/business

Six tips to craft the perfect vanity URL

Fortunately, creating a vanity URL isn’t a painstaking process. As long as you follow a few simple rules, your social pages will garner a multitude of new users and repeat customers. Here are six tips to craft a spellbinding URL:

1. First and foremost, a vanity URL should be short and sweet. In addition to being memorable and easy to understand, they should also use attention-grabbing words that will entice readers to click.
2. Avoid random characters, such as irrelevant numbers and hyphens. Specific details such as these might make the URL more difficult to remember. Furthermore, they are unproductive when it comes to SEO strategy.
3. It’s also advisable to avoid using words that are difficult to spell. Confusing or uncommon words may make your URL difficult to remember and in turn, difficult to access.
4. Integrate your SEO strategy when creating vanity URLs. For instance, it’s suggested to use relevant keywords in your URL, as well as consider which keywords you already rank for on Google.
5. Don’t hesitate to claim your business’ name for your social channels. Once this is done, be consistent across all your social networking platforms. If you have the same vanity URLs for each platform — and they feature your business name — your audience will be able to access all of your accounts without having to think twice about it.
6. Know when it’s appropriate to use a vanity URL. As mentioned above, sometimes your page will be assigned an unintelligible URL. However, in other cases your page may automatically receive a concise and notable URL. In this instance, creating a vanity URL isn’t always necessary.

A vanity URL goes a long way in making your social media accounts more visible. However, this is only a minor facet of a comprehensive social media strategy. Whether it’s expanding your presence with influencer endorsements or harnessing the powers of boosted content, Talon Media has an arsenal of tactics to enhance your social media presence. Visit our blog to learn more.