Sooo….I don’t know about many of you, but for some reason, even if I know the domain I would like to visit, I still type it into the Google search bar in my browser. Why? I think it’s out of fear – fear of spelling it wrong and being sent to some page I can’t escape from, fear of not actually knowing the real URL (My cousin once told me a story about how he was looking for the Dick’s Sporting Goods website, and therefore typed in that first word, followed by a (dot) com…), perhaps even fear of Google getting mad at me for not using them EVERY SINGLE TIME I BROWSE THE WEB…who really knows!

Either way, I think this is an important behavioral characteristic to note. This tells me that instead of paying attention to long/weird/strange/numbered URLs, what I really pay attention to is the brand (this is a favorite blog of mine that features very poor URLs, so here are a few examples of companies who should make use of search call-to-action, IMO). My guess is, I’m not the only one.

I know this isn’t a new concept by any means, this 2 year old post talks about Pontiac’s search call-to-action campaign and its success, but what I don’t understand is why more companies aren’t using more of this?!

Not only does it have the potential to be a partnership in the making, but even if your campaign is to just “search: ______”, there’s no doubt in my mind that you will get just as much traffic as if you marketed your URL by itself.

There is the problem of searchers not actually clicking on your link, but also others who may capitalize on your marketing campaign, I’ll admit that – but that’s just unavoidable as your competitors will always be trying to grab your searchers from you (that’s another blog post for another day).

mark_IT: behavior is just as important as attitudes, figure out how to pay attention to both.