Why You Don't Need A Facebook Vanity URL

Posted by Matt Singley on June 12, 2009 under Social Networking, facebook | 12 Comments to Read

UPDATE: Of course I grabbed my URL (http://www.facebook.com/mattsingley) in the interest of keeping my name every place I can get it, but I still will use the following information to direct people to the page.

A little later today the great URL grab of 2009 will be upon us…Facebook is releasing “vanity” URLs and they’re going to go quickly. What this means is that instead of having to go to http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=682259362 to find me you will be able to type http://www.facebook.com/mattsingley and get to the same place. Nifty? Perhaps, but not really necessary.

I like to keep everything in one place, and feel very strongly that this is a best practice for brand management. With that said, my solution for complicated (or even not so complicated) URLs like Facebook has been to create pages within my own domain that forward to the site in question. If we have ever met at a trade show or convention and we have traded cards, you will notice that mine do list a link to my Facebook page: http://mattsingley.com/fb

You can do the same, and it’s relatively simple. I think the easiest way is to add a bit of HTML code to a page that you create, here are the steps.

How To Create A Custom Page That Redirects

Create a directory under the main page with the name you want. I say create a directory (or folder) under your site, not just a page, because it keeps the URL shorter and easier to remember. E.g., mattsingley.com/fb is easier than mattsingley.com/fb.php. So, for the example, under the main page of mattsingley.com I created a folder simply called “fb”
Create an index page within the directory. A directoy itself isn’t a page, so you’ll need to create a landing page there. A very important step is that you create a page with the same naming convention as the rest of our site. If you main page is in a file called “home.html” then you need to create exactly the same page within the directory. I use “index.php” on my site, so that is what I need to create inside the “fb” directory
Put redirect code in the page. I use a very simple snippet of HTML code (there are many ways to do this, but this old tried and true method words great). You can use the same code, just copy and paste the info below but put your URL in where it says “http://yourURL.com” Here is the code.
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd”>

<html xmlns=”http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml”>

<head>

<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html; charset=utf-8″ />

<meta http-equiv=”refresh” content=”1;url=http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=682259362″>

<title>Facebook Redirect</title>

</head>

<body>

</body>

</html
Upload to your server. That’s it…just use an FTP program to upload to your server and you’re live.

Of course if none of that made any sense at all, or you don’t own a domain, then consult a professional to get it going for you. I’ve used this method for a long time; not just for Facebook but also for a lot of other sites. Of course I do recommend that you try to get your name reserved on Facebook just so you have it, but with this method you are guaranteed results even if you are unlucky enough to be named “Joe Smith” or “Susan Brown”.

Bonus Points

If you are feeling really confident and want to earn some bonus points for this work, try these:

Purchase a domain solely to redirect to Facebook. I could (but am not going to) purchase “MattOnFacebook.com” and then redirect that on the registrar to go straight to my Facebook page. If you rely mostly on Facebook for interaction, this is a good idea
Track your click throughs. In the redirect code above, use a URL shortner that tracks clicks (like Bit.ly or Cli.gs), shorten your Facebook URL there first, then put the shortened version in the redirect. Then when people go to your landing page, they are redirected to the shortner (ding…it will count it…) and then to Facebook. All in all it shouldn’t take to long, so most people won’t even notice

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Tags: best practices, bit.ly, brand, cli.gs, domain, facebook, management, redirect, URL, vanity

Tyler said,

Great stuff Matt. If only wordpress.com could support something like this…

I tend to view Facebook completely separate from my “personal brand” such as blogging or Twitter. I use facebook to stay in touch with friends that I don’t connect with on twitter or blogs. I’m fairly sure that I’m missing out on facebook being a resource for my personal brand, but just a decision I’ve made anyway.
Adam said,

Cool idea, I’ve got fbadam.com redirecting to my facebook, since adampieniazek.com/fb still has the same issue (tough to spell). Also got tweetadam.com, linkadam.com and adamp.com (to redirect to adampieniazek.com).

At this point, I’m highly considering just legally changing my name to Adam P.
brent(inWorship) said,

Nice! I know what I’m going to do this weekend!
Wendy Van Parys said,

Thanks for pointing out that there are alternatives to the Facebook stampede, Matt – especially useful if you have a business page with fewer than 1000 followers, which won’t be permitted to grab a Facebook short URL this time around.

Many folks in the coding community do advise against using an html meta tag refresh redirect because search engines get annoyed with it. Here’s Steven Hargrove on 301 redirects: http://bit.ly/wLpL

I opted to use a php 301 redirect to set up a short link from my domain to my Facebook business page, found that I also needed to add a line of code to the .htaccess file in the root directory (your ISP can advise if this is needed).
D@S said,

ojala no levante nunca mas… jojojoj
ez said,

Back in 2002, when I took over running a university web site, I removed hundreds of pages like this. Browsers poorly handled the back button in these cases, angering users. Instead, I used Apache redirects to provide the browsers the HTTP 302 code to redirect them which were handled more smoothly. Of course, the person who took over from me spent a year purging all those with something else.
Jason said,

As usual, another useful tip. I hadn’t thought about this and usually count on my “fans” and friends to just type in “Mobo Media” in the search bar. This cuts down the guess work for new friends and drives traffic through my site. Thanks for the tip!
Brandi said,

I didn’t get my first (or second) choice URL, I love the point of view and ideas here! Thanks!
diamondTearz said,

Brilliant stuff!! What if I got my facebook vanity URL- are there any other benefits to this approach? I guess tracking-like you said. Are there others? I’m planning to fit this into my spare time somehow this week!
diamondTearz » Facebook Vanity URLs: The morning after said,

[...] Why You don’t need a facebook vanity URL- Some alternative approaches to getting the benefits of the facebook vanity URL- even if you didin’t get the one you want. [...]
Rick said,

Matt, cool idea, although I did pick up my name on FB with MY LAST NAME ONLY. Sometimes it’s good to have an obscure last name. That said, I’m going to give this a try.
rachel from the blog said,

Matt! It’s ingenious! I was frustrated because of the ridiculous timing of the release of the vanity URL’s (seriously…FRIDAY NIGHT!?…I’m supposed to be sitting at my computer watching Facebook on FRIDAY NIGHT?). I missed my first, second and third choice URL’s but now it doesn’t matter. Thank you for the tips…you’re a genius (but I think you knew that).