FeaturesPricingEnterpriseSupport
LoginGet started

What are vanity URLs?

Promoting your brand online can be a challenge. And these days everyone is scrolling through their feed at top speed, while it’s loaded with other stuff. But when you’re launching a new product line or marketing campaign, you want to immediately grab people’s attention. So how do you stand out from the crowd? 

One of the things that’s important is an eye-catching link that’s easy to remember. Vanity links are shorter and more readable, making them ideal for sharing on social media, in emails, or in print materials. They also have a number of additional key benefits. 

Benefits of using vanity URLs:

One of the biggest advantages of a vanity link, especially for marketing purposes, is that you can make it short. Especially when using a vanity domain. It’s way easier to type in a short and simple URL in the address bar from the top of one's head instead of a long one with many dashes and hyphens. 

With a vanity link, you can create branded links. You can pick a domain name or URL that’s specifically devoted to your brand, product line, or marketing campaign. This will increase your brand awareness.

If you come across a long and complicated URL, it doesn’t automatically mean it’s less trustworthy or less secure than a short one, but it does feel a bit more ‘scary’ to click on it. Somehow long and complicated URLs have a sketchy feel about them. 

Compare for example these two URLs: 

https://www.example-website-123456789.com/very-long-url-with-lots-of-hyphens-and-dashes-987654321/12345-page

example.com/page

You’ll probably feel more comfortable clicking on the clean and clear URL. 

You can add or adjust your links in no time, at any given moment. For instance, you can adjust the destination link of your redirect while keeping the vanity URL the same. But you can also easily redirect new vanity URLs to an existing destination link. 

Users are more likely to click on a clean, concise URL that clearly indicates the content's relevance.

As you may have noticed, a vanity link and vanity URL are used interchangeably. Another term that is often used is "vanity domains". 

What's a vanity domain?

A vanity domain is essentially a custom domain to further improve the effectiveness of the vanity link. 

A vanity domain is specifically customized so that it’s easy to remember, and well-aligned with the brand. The name usually features the brand or a relevant keyword for the business, product line, or campaign. Vanity domains can be used in all kinds of places, such as social media, emails, print publications, or other offline marketing activities. Here are a few real-world examples of vanity domains: 

  • YouTube (when sharing video's): youtu.be 
  • The White House: wh.gov
  • ESPN: es.pn
  • Amazon: amzn.to

You can see that organizations also tend to use custom top-level-domains (the part after the ".") make the link even more memorable. 

Is a vanity domain the same as a vanity URL? 

Even though the domain name and top-level-domain are part of the full URL, they are not required to create a vanity URL. A vanity URL can also be created while using the primary domain name of the organization. For example, AirBNB simplifies their URLs for specific cities and holiday destinations: 

Vanity URLDestination (actual) URL
airbnb.com/nycairbnb.com/s/New-York--NY/experiences
airbnb.com/amsterdamairbnb.com/amsterdam-netherlands/stays
airbnb.com/miamihttps://www.airbnb.com/miami-fl/stays

How to create vanity links? 

There is one thing that’s absolutely important when you want your vanity link to work smoothly - it needs to be properly redirected to the destination page. 

Without the help of a redirect service, figuring out how to do this can be challenging. And the last thing you want is to encounter unexpected errors while your marketing campaign is underway.  

Fortunately, with redirect.pizza, redirects can be set up in a few clicks! As a domain-to-domain redirect service, we specialize in redirecting vanity domains, or vanity URLs outside of the primary domain that the redirect links to. We will ensure your vanity links provide guaranteed access to your online marketing efforts. 

Learn more about how to implement and use a vanity link with redirect.pizza.

 

Pricing Background
Domain redirects delivered hassle-free

Get started right away

  • Free plan
  • No creditcard required

What are the benefits of using redirect.pizza for your vanity links? 

redirect.pizza also comes with an extensive analytics tool. This helps you keep track of key performance metrics of your links. It provides detailed information on metrics like the amount of hits per period, traffic sources, and your visitor’s geographical location.