There is some commercial research suggesting that many people
will nowadays type in www.company-name.com first before
goint to any search engines. So a memorable URL is important.
To determine whether this is happening on your site, analyse
your logs. What proportion of the HTTP_REFERER fields come
from web page links, search engines or nowhere? It is the last
group that are typed in directly by the readers.
But that doesn't assume all readers are equal. E.g. would you
insist on the rich parent of a potential student from China who
is going to pay overseas student fees having to remember a
long URL? (Or read English, for that matter.)
--
Dr. David R. Newman, Queen's University Belfast, School of
Management and Economics, Belfast BT7 1NN, Northern Ireland (UK)
Tel. (direct) +44 (0)28 9027 3643 (office) +44 (0)28 9033 5011
FAX: +44 (0)28 9033 5156 mailto:[log in to unmask]
http://www.qub.ac.uk/mgt/staff/dave/
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