Re: [MCN-L] Custom urls vs "brand" urls for microsites

2018-03-13 Thread Keir Winesmith 

Agreed. Also (and this is just a general point) I try not to make microsites 
where at all possible :)


-k


Keir Winesmith
Head of Web and Digital Platforms

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Tickets available at
SFMOMA.org
415.357.2871
kwinesm...@sfmoma.org
151 Third Street | San Francisco, CA 94103
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-Original Message-
From: mcn-l  On Behalf Of Nik Honeysett
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2018 11:54 AM
To: mcn-l@mcn.edu
Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Custom urls vs "brand" urls for microsites

Just agreeing with Douglas, and, Jewel, you’re thinking is correct. Your brand 
is your museum not your exhibition (even if it is "special"), you just need to 
make sure your home page reflects your marketing activity.

-nik


Nik Honeysett | Chief Executive Officer | BPOC | www.bpoc.org


M (805) 402-3326  P (619) 331-1974  E nhoneys...@bpoc.org 

1549 El Prado, Suite 8, San Diego, CA 92101

A non-profit technology collaboration connecting audiences to art, culture & 
science.







> On Mar 13, 2018, at 11:39 AM, Douglas Hegley  wrote:
>
> Jewel - IMHO it is best practice to keep "microsites" under your
> standard URL umbrella. If your administration feels that you *must*
> have a special URL (by the way, I know of no research that would
> support the efficacy of special URLs), then purchase that and just re-direct 
> to your own site.
> Referral traffic to your special ex web presence is going to come from
> google, social media sites, ad click-thrus, direct email clicks, etc.
> Almost no one will be typing a full URL into a browser.
> My two cents' worth,
> Douglas
>
> Douglas Hegley
> Chief Digital Officer
> Minneapolis Institute of Art
> 2400 Third Avenue South
> Minneapolis, MN 55404
> (612) 870-3072 | @dhegley  |
> dheg...@artsmia.org | www.artsmia.org
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 1:33 PM, Jewel Clark  wrote:
>
>> Hello All!
>> I’m having a bit of a discussion with upper management concerning a
>> big upcoming show and the build-out of a microsite for it and I need
>> some recommendations/ expertise from this knowledgeable group.
>>
>> What has been your experience building microsites in terms of urls?
>> Is there a best practice? For instance, should we stick with
>> “ourmuseum.org/ specialexhibition” for example, which would be our
>> museum url with the special exhibition as a subset of our brand, or
>> is it preferable to get a custom url such as
>> “specialexhibitionatourmuseum.org?” There is a desire in upper
>> management to have a special url because they think that will make
>> the exhibition seem more special but for practical purposes I’m
>> thinking we shouldn’t leave our brand url and we should keep it as
>> simple and easy to remember as possible and that most people aren’t
>> going to care what the url is, only that they can remember it. What does 
>> your museum do? Your advice as always is very much appreciated.
>>
>> Jewel Clark
>>
>> --
>> Jewel Clark
>> Digital Technologies and Websites manager
>>
>> Heard Museum
>> 2301 N. Central Ave.
>> Phoenix, AZ 85004
>> 602.346.8353
>> jcl...@heard.org
>> heard.org
>> ___
>> You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum
>> Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu)
>>
>> To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l@mcn.edu
>>
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>> http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
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>> http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/
>>
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Re: [MCN-L] Custom urls vs "brand" urls for microsites

2018-03-13 Thread Nik Honeysett 
Just agreeing with Douglas, and, Jewel, you’re thinking is correct. Your brand 
is your museum not your exhibition (even if it is "special"), you just need to 
make sure your home page reflects your marketing activity.

-nik


Nik Honeysett | Chief Executive Officer | BPOC | www.bpoc.org


M (805) 402-3326  P (619) 331-1974  E nhoneys...@bpoc.org 

1549 El Prado, Suite 8, San Diego, CA 92101

A non-profit technology collaboration connecting audiences to art, culture & 
science.







> On Mar 13, 2018, at 11:39 AM, Douglas Hegley  wrote:
> 
> Jewel - IMHO it is best practice to keep "microsites" under your standard
> URL umbrella. If your administration feels that you *must* have a special
> URL (by the way, I know of no research that would support the efficacy of
> special URLs), then purchase that and just re-direct to your own site.
> Referral traffic to your special ex web presence is going to come from
> google, social media sites, ad click-thrus, direct email clicks, etc.
> Almost no one will be typing a full URL into a browser.
> My two cents' worth,
> Douglas
> 
> Douglas Hegley
> Chief Digital Officer
> Minneapolis Institute of Art
> 2400 Third Avenue South
> Minneapolis, MN 55404
> (612) 870-3072 | @dhegley  |
> dheg...@artsmia.org | www.artsmia.org
> 
> 
> On Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 1:33 PM, Jewel Clark  wrote:
> 
>> Hello All!
>> I’m having a bit of a discussion with upper management concerning a big
>> upcoming show and the build-out of a microsite for it and I need some
>> recommendations/ expertise from this knowledgeable group.
>> 
>> What has been your experience building microsites in terms of urls? Is
>> there a best practice? For instance, should we stick with “ourmuseum.org/
>> specialexhibition” for example, which would be our museum url with the
>> special exhibition as a subset of our brand, or is it preferable to get a
>> custom url such as “specialexhibitionatourmuseum.org?” There is a desire
>> in upper management to have a special url because they think that will make
>> the exhibition seem more special but for practical purposes I’m thinking we
>> shouldn’t leave our brand url and we should keep it as simple and easy to
>> remember as possible and that most people aren’t going to care what the url
>> is, only that they can remember it. What does your museum do? Your advice
>> as always is very much appreciated.
>> 
>> Jewel Clark
>> 
>> --
>> Jewel Clark
>> Digital Technologies and Websites manager
>> 
>> Heard Museum
>> 2301 N. Central Ave.
>> Phoenix, AZ 85004
>> 602.346.8353
>> jcl...@heard.org
>> heard.org
>> ___
>> You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer
>> Network (http://www.mcn.edu)
>> 
>> To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l@mcn.edu
>> 
>> To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit:
>> http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
>> 
>> The MCN-L archives can be found at:
>> http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/
>> 
> ___
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> Network (http://www.mcn.edu)
> 
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> 
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Re: [MCN-L] Custom urls vs "brand" urls for microsites

2018-03-13 Thread Sina Bahram 
I totally agree with Douglas, but would also point out that if you must go with 
a microsite approach with its own URL, then you can consider a subdomain 
instead of a path appending approach, like this:

SpecialExhibit.museum.org

That has several technical advantages including, but not limited to, different 
DNS settings being applied, no redirects on the web server's end, the strong 
association with your original parent domain, front-loading the exhibit name in 
the URL for branding purposes, different caching rules being easy to write, etc.

Lots of the above advantages are not unique to the subdomain approach, though. 
For example, if you use something like Cloudflare, then you can use their page 
rules to achieve the same thing, though having a subdomain, IMHO, helps 
organize things a bit easier.

Whatever you do, I'd strongly discourage you from making a whole new domain, 
unless if the situation seriously warrants it.

Hope that helps, and good luck on the new exhibit microsite!

Take care,
Sina

President, Prime Access Consulting, Inc.
Twitter: @SinaBahram
Company Website: https://www.pac.bz
Personal Website: https://www.sinabahram.com
Blog: https://blog.SinaBahram.com

-Original Message-
From: mcn-l  On Behalf Of Douglas Hegley
Sent: Tuesday, March 13, 2018 2:40 PM
To: Museum Computer Network Listserv 
Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Custom urls vs "brand" urls for microsites

Jewel - IMHO it is best practice to keep "microsites" under your standard URL 
umbrella. If your administration feels that you *must* have a special URL (by 
the way, I know of no research that would support the efficacy of special 
URLs), then purchase that and just re-direct to your own site.
Referral traffic to your special ex web presence is going to come from google, 
social media sites, ad click-thrus, direct email clicks, etc.
Almost no one will be typing a full URL into a browser.
My two cents' worth,
Douglas

Douglas Hegley
Chief Digital Officer
Minneapolis Institute of Art
2400 Third Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55404
(612) 870-3072 | @dhegley  | dheg...@artsmia.org | 
www.artsmia.org


On Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 1:33 PM, Jewel Clark  wrote:

> Hello All!
> I’m having a bit of a discussion with upper management concerning a 
> big upcoming show and the build-out of a microsite for it and I need 
> some recommendations/ expertise from this knowledgeable group.
>
> What has been your experience building microsites in terms of urls? Is 
> there a best practice? For instance, should we stick with 
> “ourmuseum.org/ specialexhibition” for example, which would be our 
> museum url with the special exhibition as a subset of our brand, or is 
> it preferable to get a custom url such as 
> “specialexhibitionatourmuseum.org?” There is a desire in upper 
> management to have a special url because they think that will make the 
> exhibition seem more special but for practical purposes I’m thinking 
> we shouldn’t leave our brand url and we should keep it as simple and 
> easy to remember as possible and that most people aren’t going to care 
> what the url is, only that they can remember it. What does your museum do? 
> Your advice as always is very much appreciated.
>
> Jewel Clark
>
> --
> Jewel Clark
> Digital Technologies and Websites manager
>
> Heard Museum
> 2301 N. Central Ave.
> Phoenix, AZ 85004
> 602.346.8353
> jcl...@heard.org
> heard.org
> ___
> You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum 
> Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu)
>
> To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l@mcn.edu
>
> To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit:
> http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
>
> The MCN-L archives can be found at:
> http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/
>
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Re: [MCN-L] Custom urls vs "brand" urls for microsites

2018-03-13 Thread Douglas Hegley 
Jewel - IMHO it is best practice to keep "microsites" under your standard
URL umbrella. If your administration feels that you *must* have a special
URL (by the way, I know of no research that would support the efficacy of
special URLs), then purchase that and just re-direct to your own site.
Referral traffic to your special ex web presence is going to come from
google, social media sites, ad click-thrus, direct email clicks, etc.
Almost no one will be typing a full URL into a browser.
My two cents' worth,
Douglas

Douglas Hegley
Chief Digital Officer
Minneapolis Institute of Art
2400 Third Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55404
(612) 870-3072 | @dhegley  |
dheg...@artsmia.org | www.artsmia.org


On Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 1:33 PM, Jewel Clark  wrote:

> Hello All!
> I’m having a bit of a discussion with upper management concerning a big
> upcoming show and the build-out of a microsite for it and I need some
> recommendations/ expertise from this knowledgeable group.
>
> What has been your experience building microsites in terms of urls? Is
> there a best practice? For instance, should we stick with “ourmuseum.org/
> specialexhibition” for example, which would be our museum url with the
> special exhibition as a subset of our brand, or is it preferable to get a
> custom url such as “specialexhibitionatourmuseum.org?” There is a desire
> in upper management to have a special url because they think that will make
> the exhibition seem more special but for practical purposes I’m thinking we
> shouldn’t leave our brand url and we should keep it as simple and easy to
> remember as possible and that most people aren’t going to care what the url
> is, only that they can remember it. What does your museum do? Your advice
> as always is very much appreciated.
>
> Jewel Clark
>
> --
> Jewel Clark
> Digital Technologies and Websites manager
>
> Heard Museum
> 2301 N. Central Ave.
> Phoenix, AZ 85004
> 602.346.8353
> jcl...@heard.org
> heard.org
> ___
> You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer
> Network (http://www.mcn.edu)
>
> To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l@mcn.edu
>
> To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit:
> http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
>
> The MCN-L archives can be found at:
> http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/
>
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Re: [MCN-L] Custom urls vs "brand" urls for microsites

2018-03-13 Thread Brent Brookler 
What do you think about you using a custom URL to promote and share, but
that resolves to 'ourmuseum.org/specialexhibit'? You get the benefit of it
being 'special' but then you make it part of the core web site and enjoy
the SEO and other benefits of being part of the core web site.

Hope that helps!

 - Brent

Chief Presentation Officer
Download FlowVella for iPhone/iPad *here* 
Made with ❤️ in Seattle!

+1.206.650.5170
br...@flowvella.com
https://flowvella.com

On Tue, Mar 13, 2018 at 11:33 AM, Jewel Clark  wrote:

> Hello All!
> I’m having a bit of a discussion with upper management concerning a big
> upcoming show and the build-out of a microsite for it and I need some
> recommendations/ expertise from this knowledgeable group.
>
> What has been your experience building microsites in terms of urls? Is
> there a best practice? For instance, should we stick with “ourmuseum.org/
> specialexhibition” for example, which would be our museum url with the
> special exhibition as a subset of our brand, or is it preferable to get a
> custom url such as “specialexhibitionatourmuseum.org?” There is a desire
> in upper management to have a special url because they think that will make
> the exhibition seem more special but for practical purposes I’m thinking we
> shouldn’t leave our brand url and we should keep it as simple and easy to
> remember as possible and that most people aren’t going to care what the url
> is, only that they can remember it. What does your museum do? Your advice
> as always is very much appreciated.
>
> Jewel Clark
>
> --
> Jewel Clark
> Digital Technologies and Websites manager
>
> Heard Museum
> 2301 N. Central Ave.
> Phoenix, AZ 85004
> 602.346.8353
> jcl...@heard.org
> heard.org
> ___
> You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer
> Network (http://www.mcn.edu)
>
> To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l@mcn.edu
>
> To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit:
> http://mcn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l
>
> The MCN-L archives can be found at:
> http://www.mail-archive.com/mcn-l@mcn.edu/
>
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[MCN-L] Custom urls vs "brand" urls for microsites

2018-03-13 Thread Jewel Clark 
Hello All!
I’m having a bit of a discussion with upper management concerning a big 
upcoming show and the build-out of a microsite for it and I need some 
recommendations/ expertise from this knowledgeable group.

What has been your experience building microsites in terms of urls? Is there a 
best practice? For instance, should we stick with 
“ourmuseum.org/specialexhibition” for example, which would be our museum url 
with the special exhibition as a subset of our brand, or is it preferable to 
get a custom url such as “specialexhibitionatourmuseum.org?” There is a desire 
in upper management to have a special url because they think that will make the 
exhibition seem more special but for practical purposes I’m thinking we 
shouldn’t leave our brand url and we should keep it as simple and easy to 
remember as possible and that most people aren’t going to care what the url is, 
only that they can remember it. What does your museum do? Your advice as always 
is very much appreciated.

Jewel Clark

--
Jewel Clark
Digital Technologies and Websites manager

Heard Museum
2301 N. Central Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85004
602.346.8353
jcl...@heard.org
heard.org
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