Our Blog: where do you stand?

Corporate Blogging 101: The Importance of URL and Blog Title

By: Marijean Jaggers | 09/16/2008

What's the most important decision to make before your corporation begins to blog? Some think it's the WHO -- which person in the organization will be the voice to represent them? WHAT is undeniably important, and a key decision to make early on, and if you can't agree on the "what" then you might as well take a step back and invest in some strategic planning. WHEN is obvious -- the answer to that is YESTERDAY. If you're still wondering WHY, remember that in the 112 million bloggers worldwide, there lies your audience; reading, listening, writing and interacting. Can you afford to refuse to engage in that space?

Certainly the WHERE comes into play, as organizations consider free services such as Blogger and WordPress (we recommend self-hosting and sidestepping any URL that looks like this: http://yourcorporateblog.blogspot.com/). So how important is the WHERE decision, that which leads to the creation of your blog URL and title?

The URL you choose is of utmost importance. Whatever you choose, you are married to it for life. Changing a URL will reset the clock and make it very difficult for your readers and subscribers to re-find you. Many will not make the effort. When you choose your URL, do it carefully and recognize that you're stuck with it for life.

The URL and the blog title should be direct and relevant to your organization. If you sell widgets, your URL should be http://www.wesellwidgets.com. Your blog title could be slightly more creative than that, but a tagline should certainly include the fact that selling widgets is your business.

Take this blog for example: Where Do You Stand? uses a tagline that sums up our business: "thoughts on public relations, strategic communications and issues management from Standing Partnership." The whole title includes the name of our organization and what we're addressing in the blog content. The title CAN change, and may over time as our capabilities and areas of expertise grow and change. The URL, however, will remain the same.

Keep these things in mind when choosing your URL and title: keep it simple and direct, short is better than long, (thus the abbreviated Where Do You Stand? here), make it memorable and above all, consistent with your brand.

Other posts in this series:

Corporate Blogging 101: What to Consider Before You Blog

Posted in Digital Communications, Corporate Blogging: 101