Some meanings of words change over time. Take ‘scan’ for example. That used to mean reading something systematically giving attention to every word in order. Thus when people talk about scanning a newspaper in the 19th Century, they mean someone read it all starting at the first word and going through to the last. Yes, really, that’s what people used to do. We still imply that version of the word when referring to ‘scanners’.
But there was deviation into another meaning. The same task was used by sailors to scan the horizon – systematically looking around it for shipping or land. This gradually shifted to the question being asked – is there anything interesting to see? And that’s the meaning we generally attribute to the verb nowadays. A quick glance or skim over something to see if there is anything that grabs our attention.
Well why is this relevant to the usual subject covered by this blog? Because we sometimes mistake when people are scanning or scanning. And it is important in getting people to the information or service quickly.
People quickly scan (in the second sense) and recognise something familiar in search results lists. So seeing something in a search results list that says it is on Directgov, for example, should signal to the reader that they can trust it as authoritative, that it will be easy to read (because written for them) and that it will point people to other relevant content to their need.
Building brand is important to enable people to quickly skim over something and determine what they choose. It is also important in memorability. That’s why the guidance insists on avoiding sub-domains and using directory structure. In plain words, avoiding URLs of the form YAA.website.gov.uk and instead using website.gov.uk/YAA. The human brain does something different in the two cases.
In the former, one registers the YAA (standing for Yet Another Acronym) and then tends to forget the rest. If that is what we want people to do, then using instructions such as ‘Search for Change4Life’ is a more effective means. We’re increasingly using that to focus people on major campaigns.
However, if we want people to find it easily on the Web, then saying you’ll find it on Directgov, or wherever, is more effective – and the form direct.gov.uk/YAA does exactly this. It both uses and builds the brand. And if it is really current, it will be on the home page.
Sub-domains may be the technical means to delivering services and packaging content into useful and manageable chunks as part of internal processes, but for marketing the directory structure is much more helpful to get people to what they’re looking for.
Posted in: URLs and the .gov.uk brand
Tags: brand, guidance, sub-domains, URL, YAA, yet another acronym
So should we be http://www.gov.uk/hse ?
…and should you be http://www.gov.uk/coi ?
a lot of the public see the ‘gov’ part of the domain as being the primary reference and the ‘website’ part as being a subdomain.
I of course realise that coi.gov.uk is a correct full domain, but in terms of marketing that you talk about would http://www.gov.uk be better?
jim barter says:
January 21, 2010 at 12:12 pmSearch engines like Google also think subdomains are completely different websites to the main domain; so using sub domains can harm your Google Ranking and potentially double your SEO efforts.
Lloyd says:
January 21, 2010 at 2:52 pmInteresting piece, both on the origin of scan and the sub-domain issue.
Do you have any research you can share that backs up “In the former, one registers the YAA (standing for Yet Another Acronym) and then tends to forget the rest.”?
Personally I find the sub-domain useful. For example if I want the No 10 petitions site I type petitions and my browser quickly and clearly brings up the correct site.
I recently bought Car Tax on DirectGov and if I type in direct.gov/cartax it cleverly and helpfully takes me to the right page. However I don’t type that. I type cartax and it gives me cartax.co.uk (thank Deloittes) and it also gives me: http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/OwningAVehicle/HowToTaxYourVehicle/DG_10036328?CID=furl&PLA=wru&CRE=cartax which to be frank is not very helpful.
I’m not disputing your view but would be interested to see the research behind it.
Shane McCracken says:
January 21, 2010 at 7:00 pmTotally agree. This is definitely best practice.
Helen Munzer says:
January 21, 2010 at 11:08 pmOf course, this dubious use of cod-science and pseudo-linguistic theory to decide that subdomains are worse than directory structures is all jolly interesting on a Friday morning but is it not conceivable that the first thing you encounter (i.e. the subdomain) bit is the most relevant since this is the thing you’re looking for e.g. pensions.direct.gov.uk ? And isn’t all this pretty anachronistic anyway when people are finding sites less by manually typing in domains and directory structures and instead being directed by marketing campaigns that hero search (”Start thinking soldier”, “I am Orange” etc. etc.).
John says:
January 22, 2010 at 10:55 amJust to clarify my earlier point. I am likely to type YAA into my browser to get to the YAA section of a site but I am not likely to type direct.gov/yaa to get there. It takes too much time and effort (honestly) and I won’t remember which site is hosting it.
Using Firefox or Chrome I’ll type YAA and Google will take me to whereever is top of the search. That might be direct.gov/yaa but it might not be. It’s a risk.
Shane McCracken says:
January 22, 2010 at 11:32 amI’ve never been an exponent of subdomains, indeed I’ve always tried to prevent their being deployed in the web management roles I’ve had in the past. However I do think they can be justified in a few instances, provided that they are implemented as part of an overall domain strategy.
It will not help users find the information or services they need if site owners generate a number of sites, all with different names, each one relating to a different initiative or service. The more names an organisation invents for its websites, the less its sites will be trusted; web visitors may well become less and less confident that the information they are getting is genuinely from a bona fide source.
Creating multiple domains weakens the overall proposition of the organisation’s brand. Much better, therefore, to stick to a single domain and have all online content published (and accessible) there.
In this context a sub domain can be helpful. For example a local authority wishing to put the recruitment service online in entirety (job notices, job descriptions, the applications process, etc), could well benefit from a sub-domain since all the content is marshalled into a defined area.
But what happens more often that not is that subdomain is created by a technical wizard in the IT department who doesn’t see the bigger picture. In such an instance the subdomain created will have a meaningless name – at least if it was ‘jobs’ it would mean something to the average web visitor. Far more memorable than a project code number or name.
With corporate implementation of a domain strategy, managed on a day to day basis by the web manager, sub domains need not be a problem, and indeed can very often prove to be a beneficial addition to the organisation’s online presence.
That said I agree with the points made in this posting, except that website.gov.uk/YAA would be much better if a meaningful name replaced the ‘YAA’. It would be far more memorable to web visitors.
John Fox says:
January 22, 2010 at 5:40 pmCall me stupid but you did just condemn the use sub domains in your blog ?
Answer : Yes!
By the way, your blog is written in the sub domain of http://coi.gov.uk…….., the “http://coi/” bit being the sub domain of the main domain “gov.uk”. ( http://coi.gov.uk/blogs/digigov/2010/01/avoiding-sub-domains-in-web-addresses/ ).
How can you condemn the use of sub domains when your blog is written in a sub domain condemning the use of sub domains ?
Look forward to this answer….
Maja Jones says:
January 25, 2010 at 1:29 amHi
Seems an odd place to ask, but you guys seem to know what you’re talking about! So if I am going to set up a region specific domain for my site am I best off using the local extension (eg http://www.energiseforlife.com.au) or a subdomain eg http://www.australia.energiseforlife.com?) The root is just http://www.energiseforlife.com.
I hope this makes sense – I can’t decide! It seems like such a big call!
Ross
Ross says:
January 25, 2010 at 11:31 amIn addition to the hypocrisy of this COI edict, the latest campaign (which broke last week) to dissuade us all from drinking to excess is promoted as being findable from searching “Why let drink decide?” the top result of which directs people to … http://whyletdrinkdecide.direct.gov.uk/
John says:
January 25, 2010 at 12:00 pmThanks for many interesting reactions and thoughts.
Think that everyone got my YAA was ironic – we definitely believe in plain English with ordinary words, such as /jobs /consultations /Ministers etc. I once went round a major policy department in government, asking what the acronym of one of our non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) stood for. Only the team directly involved knew! Since it was relatively new and following a big launch, that was surprising, but also meant that people didn’t know what it did.
John is correct that whatever you publicise, Web search engines return the sub-domain, if that is how it the search spider distinguishes the site. Not sure this isn’t a win-win – that in publicity you give the directory structure to indicate that it is on such and such site (usually DirectGov, if public-facing), and when searching you get the word you search for listed first as in the subdomain structure. It would be interesting to build on the psychological theory of memorability and recognition I learnt in my Masters (and later used in my PhD) by testing this out directly.
Given the limitations of control in a complex space, that is why advertising http://www.energiseforlife.com/australia maintains the brand but if it is technically residing on a different infrastructure, returning http://www.australia.energiseforlife.com in the search results should work well for the user.
Thanks to all who pointed out that I was really talking about the use of fourth-level domains in government digital space since .gov.uk is the actual second-level domain (necessitated by the addition of the .uk relative to the USA). It wouldn’t be the first time that people have suggested that the whole of government uses either http://www.gov.uk or http://www.hmg.gov.uk (the latter looking a bit redundant to me), with all the Departments hanging off in a directory structure. Would it help things? Interested to know what people think.
David Pullinger says:
January 25, 2010 at 12:40 pmI don’t think the whole of UK government using http://www.gov.uk (or variant) would help especially. The strategy for deploying citizen-facing content via direct.gov.uk and business-facing content via businesslink.gov.uk is a pretty sound one in my view, though I believe there is considerable scope for enhancing both sites in terms of presentation (not to mention usability).
Personally I think its fine for government departments to maintain their own domains, provided that those sites adhere to the existing convergence strategy for public-facing information appearing on the two websites I’ve referred to.
One only has to look across the pond to see that a single domain doesn’t really work. One of the enormous challenges of running a local government website is getting the information architecture just right, and by a large most council web managers do a pretty sound job. But multiply that architecture across national government and one potentially has a recipe for disaster in terms of expecting the citizen to be able to find what they’re looking for.
John Fox says:
January 25, 2010 at 3:10 pmInteresting post. I’ve always wondered what the theory behind these rules was.
I think I’m very much on the same page as Shane — I’d like to see the research too.
In the case of a Directgov microsite, I’d also question which part actually *ought* to have the stronger brand — Directgov or the microsite? I suspect that it depends on the microsite.
Ultimately, though: aren’t most people going to find this stuff via search in any case? How do the numbers break down when you look at direct hits vs search engine referrals? For something like FireKills or WhyLetDrinkDecide?
Harry Metcalfe says:
January 26, 2010 at 4:37 pmHarry – thanks for comments. Yes, most people will find through search – but they will have been alerted to look for things like Change4Life, FireKills etc, through some other media, a poster or TV ad for example. If in digital media, they would just click on the link. So memorability is important and avoids the need to remember a full URL – either by using ’search for..’ or because it’s on a well-known site. The key aspect here is that the brain just has to remember the bit that’s different (hence the ordering effect).
On the other hand, recognisability is important from two perspectives: is this what I was looking for and is this website something I know from past experience is worth looking at? Both of them have some kind of presentational aspect to get the fastest and most useful reaction in decision-making process. More research definitely, but worth building on what we do know while we wait for it.
John – yes I agree! I’m personally keen on metadata-driven IAs that don’t tie the user to a fixed IA (although we always provide a way in at the top). BBC and Guardian Unlimited are two sites that use this – National Strategies was the first in UK government and I know more are converting to that.
David
David Pullinger says:
January 27, 2010 at 9:45 pmWhilst I agree with you that sub-domains are not best practice for your primary web property, be that blog, website of forum. They are well used when your main website has more than different type of web property within it. One of my sites is mainly viewed as blog but is also used as a forum. The domain is well known so adding (for example) forum.mysite.com gives my forum some of the authority associated with my domain.
Melissa Suffield says:
April 5, 2010 at 1:16 pmOk what about the blogger and wordpress?? people using their domains but I think that is helping them for rapid indexing and good prossibility of being searched by search engine.
Mark says:
September 12, 2010 at 9:59 pmHi David,
that´s an interesting view. For branding yes, but in my opinion to make a quicker, more effective scan a sub-domain is better
If one of our potential clients are looking for .co domains, then I would prefer to have co-domain as subdomain instead of as /co-domain. We´re also in a market with lots of competition, where Go Daddy is the only known brand.
Christopher "European Domain Centre" Hofman says:
September 29, 2010 at 9:50 amMany thanks for the interesting reading. We were about to launch a whole range of sub domains within our site. I think i’ll get our web designer to review the situation
IFA Bristol says:
October 26, 2010 at 9:24 pmJohn your point ‘Creating multiple domains weakens the overall proposition of the organisation’s brand.’ This is not always the case. How many Virgin websites are there? Virgin Media, Virgin Holidays, Virgin Money etc, etc. Does this weaken the brand?
And if the activity type of the organisation is reflected by a keyword in the domain name you should expect to receive higher placement in the search engine listings.
As for trying to find material what would you prefer – to get lost in a copse or a forest?
In public sector circles, after the cull of website domains, I can understand why there is a resistance to ‘creating another website’. Even when we know that there may be little extra work involved in doing this compared with putting the same content in a subdomain (or elsewhere on a website).
Subdomains are excellent for breaking down monolithic websites into manageable ‘microsites’ – but separate websites are preferable where an activity needs more prominent placement to an external audience.
As the public sector looks to peddle its wares for greater financial return, separate domains will need to come back into fashion if you are to succeed.
Malcolm Davison says:
December 16, 2010 at 11:26 ammost people forget that subdomains are really treated as its own domain. so it doesnt make sense that people install blogs on a subdomain for seo purpose. – unless of course you are trying to promote something else and not really your main domain.
webdesigner says:
May 3, 2011 at 1:26 am