While trying to make a point to a friend, I went looking for the Student Price Card (SPC) website. I was shocked to find that the URL is www.spccard.ca. That’s right, it’s student-price-card-card-dot-ca.
Somebody didn’t think that one through.
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When you see a .doc, you know exactly what kind of file it is, and you probably know what company is behind it. Why shouldn’t this form of brand recognition transcend into the online realm? Why should we be constrained to the .html’s and .php’s of today’s web world?
This third installment of How to brand your website’s URL continues to show you how you can and should be customizing even the slightest details of your website’s URL by using your own cutomized file extensions.
Read the rest of this entry >
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For the site designer/developer/publisher, here are 99 common Mime Types to be used to aid you in implementing custom file extensions.
Click here to learn about how to use Mime Types to make custom file extensions.
application/activemessage
application/andrew-inset
application/applefile
application/atomicmail
application/dca-rft
application/dec-dx
application/font-tdpfr pfr
application/java-vm class
application/mac-binhex40 hqx
application/mac-compactpro cpt
application/macwriteii
application/msword doc
application/news-message-id
application/news-transmission
application/octet-stream bin dms lha lzh exe
application/oda oda
application/pdf pdf
application/postscript ai eps ps
application/powerpoint ppt
application/remote-printing
application/rtf rtf
application/slate
application/wita
application/wordperfect5.1
application/x-bcpio bcpio
application/x-cdlink vcd
application/x-compress
application/x-cpio cpio
application/x-csh csh
application/x-director dcr dir dxr
application/x-dvi dvi
application/x-gtar gtar
application/x-gzip
application/x-hdf hdf
application/x-javascript js
application/x-koan skp skd skt skm
application/x-latex latex
application/x-mif mif
application/x-netcdf nc cdf
application/x-sh sh
application/x-shar shar
application/x-stuffit sit
application/x-sv4cpio sv4cpio
application/x-sv4crc sv4crc
application/x-tar tar
application/x-tcl tcl
application/x-tex tex
application/x-texinfo texinfo texi
application/x-troff t tr roff
application/x-troff-man man
application/x-troff-me me
application/x-troff-ms ms
application/x-ustar ustar
application/x-wais-source src
application/zip zip
audio/basic au snd
audio/midi mid midi kar
audio/mpeg mpga mp2
audio/x-aiff aif aiff aifc
audio/x-pn-realaudio ram ra rm
audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin rpm
audio/x-realaudio ra
audio/x-wav wav
chemical/x-pdb pdb xyz
image/gif gif
image/ief ief
image/jpeg jpeg jpg jpe
image/png png
image/tiff tiff tif
image/x-cmu-raster ras
image/x-portable-anymap pnm
image/x-portable-bitmap pbm
image/x-portable-graymap pgm
image/x-portable-pixmap ppm
image/x-rgb rgb
image/x-xbitmap xbm
image/x-xpixmap xpm
image/x-xwindowdump xwd
message/external-body
message/news
message/partial
message/rfc822
multipart/alternative
multipart/appledouble
multipart/digest
multipart/mixed
multipart/parallel
text/html html htm
text/plain txt
text/richtext rtx
text/tab-separated-values tsv
text/x-setext etx
text/x-sgml sgml sgm
video/mpeg mpeg mpg mpe
video/quicktime qt mov
video/x-msvideo avi
video/x-sgi-movie movie
x-conference/x-cooltalk ice
x-world/x-vrml wrl vrml
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One aspect of branding your URL, or anything for that matter, is to make it as easy to remember as possible (recall Part 1’s branding discussion). A long and complicated sentence will never fly as a company’s tagline because nobody would ever remember it. If nobody remembers it, the value is lost. Likewise, a long and complicated URL makes it difficult for your visitors to remember it, and inevitably, it makes it difficult for them to access the content they’re looking for quickly. Not only that, but it looks ugly in a browser’s address bar.
For site publishers/owners looking to take an extra step in branding their website, here’s the second installment of how to brand your website’s URL, this time using friendly URL structures.
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These days, everything is branded. You brand your company, you brand your products, you brand your swag, and you even brand yourself. The purpose of branding? Quite simply, to make it yours, and to make others remember that it’s yours.
Certainly, your website is also no stranger to branding. But when you think of branding your website, you’d likely first think of tailoring the site’s design, the site’s logo, or even the site’s copy to whatever you’ve decided your brand should be. What you’d least likely think of is branding your URL.
But think about it. Half the time, if your visitors aren’t arriving to your site from linked text on another site or from a bookmark, then they’re typing in your URL to get there. The act of reading your URL off your business card, or off the napkin they wrote your URL on, and then typing it into their browser is just about as direct an interaction with your brand your customers can get. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned from branding, it’s that you should brand all your touch points.
Thinking about branding your URLs yet? You should be!
Here’s Part 1 of how to brand your website’s URL: to www or not to www?
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Verne Ho is a web designer and creative director for a Toronto-based creative marketing agency.
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