Why You Don't Need A Facebook Vanity URL

Matt Singley — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:30:05 +0000

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.

Facebook Redirect
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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Resolving Comment URL Errors in WordPress2.7

Matt Singley — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:41:30 +0000

Although WordPress 2.7 was released some time ago, a lot of people are just now getting around to upgrading their blogs with the latest version of the popular platform. Now that people are doing this, I am started to get asked questions about why things don’t work or look the same. One that has come up multiple times recently has to do with links in the comment section fo a post. After a 2.7 upgrade, many users are noticing that when a person leaves a comment, their URL link in that persons name goes to their URL but with the addition of some garbled mess that looks like “%20%20do-not-follow”, landing you on a “401 page not found” link. The solution to fix this is pretty simple.

Every person that asked me about this, upon further investigation, was using the Google Analyticator plugin, which tracks site traffic with Google Analytics. Older version of the plugin didn’t work so well with 2.7, but fortunately there is an update. If you are experiencing this problem, go to the Google Analyticator page, download the newest version of the plugin (2.3 as of this writing) and upload it to your wp-content/plugins directory. Problem solved!

Matt Singley | Social Media Optimization » URL

Why You Don't Need A Facebook Vanity URL

How To Create A Custom Page That Redirects

Bonus Points

Resolving Comment URL Errors in WordPress2.7