Custom URLs: 5 Key Reasons Why Small Businesses Need Them + Top 5 Tool Recommendations (2022)
What is a Custom URL?A custom URL is otherwise known as a vanity URL. It functions as your brand's home base, where customers and fans can purchase your latest release, enter a giveaway, or to become well acquainted with your brand.
Although choosing a custom domain has several branding advantages, it is essential if your company advertises. You must also reserve a custom domain to benefit from social advertising fully. This article will explain why brands need custom URLs and the top five trusted websites to help you get those URLs.
Why Small Businesses Need Custom URLs
1. Acts As A Reputation Booster
Your brand's vanity or custom URL can help increase visitors to the website or social media campaign and make it more distinctive. This URL may contain details about your brand, such as its marketing efforts and relevant keywords. This allows buyers to effectively recall, search for, and navigate the brand's marketing campaign. According to research, 97% of people search local businesses online, so it is important to boost your reputation. Post pandemic customers have dramatically shifted to online platforms as per McKinsey report, at times like this custom URL and a custom domain helps your brand become trustworthy. It also shows that you have invested in your branding which can act as a boon for your small businesses.
2. Helps Attract New Customers
There is absolutely no fault in your local business surviving your local community but new customers mean more sales which can never harm. According to a recent survey by Deloitte, two thirds of the SMEs said that becoming digitized helped them get more revenue. A custom URL that belongs to a custom domain makes it easy for your customers to stumble upon your website through google search or referral.
3. Makes Your Brand Look More Professional
According to Pew Research Center, almost two thirds of Americans go online every day, so it is important for your small business to be where your customers are. To make your presence felt you need a custom domain. A custom domain will give the impression that your brand is real and professional, which can act as a booster for the reputation of your small businesses in front of your other competitors. It conveys your concern for your users. Additionally, custom URLs are simpler to remember, which helps with customer retention because it increases the likelihood that consumers will return to the link you provided.
4. Helps Grow a Soft Spot on Google
Custom domains, branded links, personalized URLs, and vanity URLs are a few favorites of the Google search bar as it prioritizes branded URLs above the non-specific rivals in its search algorithms. As a result, with a custom domain generated from a URL changer, individuals exploring online catalogs or deals will locate you more quickly, enhancing your organic traffic. As per BuzzStream, 62.7% of small businesses know what link building means and on average these small businesses spend at least 46.3% of their marketing budget on link building.
5. Helps You Compete With Bigger Brands
Small businesses have more to offer then the big brands, they have personalized services and unique products. It is always difficult for small businesses to show what they got because they have low budgets, and less of a reputation. As per latest reports two thirds of social media users say that they bought something through social media platforms. This is where a custom URL can help. It helps attract customers and share key business information.
Although choosing a custom domain has several branding advantages, it is essential if your company advertises. You must also reserve a custom domain to benefit from social advertising fully. This article will explain why brands need custom URLs and the top five trusted websites to help you get those URLs.
Why Small Businesses Need Custom URLs
1. Acts As A Reputation Booster
Your brand's vanity or custom URL can help increase visitors to the website or social media campaign and make it more distinctive. This URL may contain details about your brand, such as its marketing efforts and relevant keywords. This allows buyers to effectively recall, search for, and navigate the brand's marketing campaign. According to research, 97% of people search local businesses online, so it is important to boost your reputation. Post pandemic customers have dramatically shifted to online platforms as per McKinsey report, at times like this custom URL and a custom domain helps your brand become trustworthy. It also shows that you have invested in your branding which can act as a boon for your small businesses.
2. Helps Attract New Customers
There is absolutely no fault in your local business surviving your local community but new customers mean more sales which can never harm. According to a recent survey by Deloitte, two thirds of the SMEs said that becoming digitized helped them get more revenue. A custom URL that belongs to a custom domain makes it easy for your customers to stumble upon your website through google search or referral.
3. Makes Your Brand Look More Professional
According to Pew Research Center, almost two thirds of Americans go online every day, so it is important for your small business to be where your customers are. To make your presence felt you need a custom domain. A custom domain will give the impression that your brand is real and professional, which can act as a booster for the reputation of your small businesses in front of your other competitors. It conveys your concern for your users. Additionally, custom URLs are simpler to remember, which helps with customer retention because it increases the likelihood that consumers will return to the link you provided.
4. Helps Grow a Soft Spot on Google
Custom domains, branded links, personalized URLs, and vanity URLs are a few favorites of the Google search bar as it prioritizes branded URLs above the non-specific rivals in its search algorithms. As a result, with a custom domain generated from a URL changer, individuals exploring online catalogs or deals will locate you more quickly, enhancing your organic traffic. As per BuzzStream, 62.7% of small businesses know what link building means and on average these small businesses spend at least 46.3% of their marketing budget on link building.
5. Helps You Compete With Bigger Brands
Small businesses have more to offer then the big brands, they have personalized services and unique products. It is always difficult for small businesses to show what they got because they have low budgets, and less of a reputation. As per latest reports two thirds of social media users say that they bought something through social media platforms. This is where a custom URL can help. It helps attract customers and share key business information.
Top 5 Tool Recommendations in 2022
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1. Bitly
Use this platform to shorten long URLs and make them more shareable. |
Bitly helps small businesses achieve brand awareness, recall, and sales objectives because branded links are frequently seen as more reliable and generate more clicks. Brands can utilize this marketing tool in the following ways:
1. Pixelfy
Use Pixelfy URL shortener to build short, brandable URLs which are easy to track and to develop a relationship with your consumers. You can organize and distribute these links in a matter of seconds and monitor your hyperlinks' use to click, share, and interact.
According to recent data, an average of 35% of people click more on short branded links. Why? It results from increased customer trust through branding, increasing brand exposure, loyalty, consumer engagement, etc.
Brands can increase traffic by utilizing specific, personalized links with clear CTAs. Furthermore, with Pixelfy, they can easily track URLs with maximum clicks and conversions. It will help improve marketing efforts by retargeting pixels and leveraging those clicks.
2. Rebrandly
Rebrandly is an appropriate link management tool to build short custom domain names that are easy to track and share. It offers four alternative options to modify URL domains and emoji add-ons, which provide a fresh alternative.
Like Bitly, the tool provides individualized link statistics and compiled analytics to emphasize the communications sending increased traffic to your business. Organizations can also utilize customizable analytics and a built-in UTM builder with their Google Analytics account.
At last, Rebrandly allows you to distribute 500 branded links for free and supports up to five custom domain names.
3. TinyURL
With the ultimate goal of "obliterating long URLs from your email marketing, social media, or client communications," TinyURL asserts that it can provide you with comprehensive link management tools.
This one is one of the few link management tools that offer limitless link tracking with all paid subscriptions. Additionally, TinyURL has a straightforward setup process. It also performs well in terms of automation; several tasks, like copying the reduced URL, are carried out automatically.
The most considerable drawback of TinyURL may be its lack of link analytics in the free plan, but we are optimistic that this will soon change.
4. Short.io
With the help of Short.io, you can shorten, brand, and share customized short URLs.
The free plan enables you to manage a maximum of five domains, a thousand branded links, and upto fifty thousand link clicks using a single user account. Brands can access various features, including adding UTM parameters to links, upgrading destination URLs, tagging links, setting up 404 and 301 redirects, using the API to make short links, etc.
Although, a purchase of the tool is required for advanced targeting features for custom URLs or to create deep links.
Get Down to Shrinking
As their synonyms imply, custom domains and personalized URLs may have something to do with vanity. But as long as they influence a user's decision to click, they must be considered. Don't pass up this chance to establish credibility with your audience and make the correct impression.
- To boost the brand's presence on social media platforms
- Creating linkages for workflows
- To create omnichannel marketing initiatives by tracking and improving
1. Pixelfy
Use Pixelfy URL shortener to build short, brandable URLs which are easy to track and to develop a relationship with your consumers. You can organize and distribute these links in a matter of seconds and monitor your hyperlinks' use to click, share, and interact.
According to recent data, an average of 35% of people click more on short branded links. Why? It results from increased customer trust through branding, increasing brand exposure, loyalty, consumer engagement, etc.
Brands can increase traffic by utilizing specific, personalized links with clear CTAs. Furthermore, with Pixelfy, they can easily track URLs with maximum clicks and conversions. It will help improve marketing efforts by retargeting pixels and leveraging those clicks.
2. Rebrandly
Rebrandly is an appropriate link management tool to build short custom domain names that are easy to track and share. It offers four alternative options to modify URL domains and emoji add-ons, which provide a fresh alternative.
Like Bitly, the tool provides individualized link statistics and compiled analytics to emphasize the communications sending increased traffic to your business. Organizations can also utilize customizable analytics and a built-in UTM builder with their Google Analytics account.
At last, Rebrandly allows you to distribute 500 branded links for free and supports up to five custom domain names.
3. TinyURL
With the ultimate goal of "obliterating long URLs from your email marketing, social media, or client communications," TinyURL asserts that it can provide you with comprehensive link management tools.
This one is one of the few link management tools that offer limitless link tracking with all paid subscriptions. Additionally, TinyURL has a straightforward setup process. It also performs well in terms of automation; several tasks, like copying the reduced URL, are carried out automatically.
The most considerable drawback of TinyURL may be its lack of link analytics in the free plan, but we are optimistic that this will soon change.
4. Short.io
With the help of Short.io, you can shorten, brand, and share customized short URLs.
The free plan enables you to manage a maximum of five domains, a thousand branded links, and upto fifty thousand link clicks using a single user account. Brands can access various features, including adding UTM parameters to links, upgrading destination URLs, tagging links, setting up 404 and 301 redirects, using the API to make short links, etc.
Although, a purchase of the tool is required for advanced targeting features for custom URLs or to create deep links.
Get Down to Shrinking
As their synonyms imply, custom domains and personalized URLs may have something to do with vanity. But as long as they influence a user's decision to click, they must be considered. Don't pass up this chance to establish credibility with your audience and make the correct impression.
