It’s best to have a page redirection set up on our own domain, but a last ditch method is to use a third-party redirection service.
Yesterday I mentioned the desirability of providing prospects with an easy path to a specific web page as an alternative to any direct link. But when we do have to quote a web page URL, the same advice as ever applies – keep it simple. I still see print adverts asking people to type in a page address which extends over two lines, or hear radio adverts that have to spell them out. It’s so amateur and a recipe for disaster.
The best way to create easy links is to have a page redirection set up on our own domain for that specific offer (e.g. bluewidgetcompany.co.uk/feb25offer) which is easy for prospects to remember and type in, and invisibly sends them to the actual page. Setting up the facility to do that through our website backend should be fairly straightforward. Alternatively we could create a permanent page where we can list and update any external offers (e.g. bluewidgetcompany.co.uk/offers) and send everyone to that. This is a nicer way of doing things than it might seem as first glance.
The last ditch method is to use a third-party redirection service such as TinyURL. Their URLs will normally be a better thing to quote than a real one which is very long, but of course be sure to customise the third-party URL to something easy to remember and type in – don’t just use the sequence of random letters and numbers offered by default. There’s a review of these in 12 Best URL Shorteners to Shrink Your Links in 2025 on the Buffer blog.