domain name formats for business units

Firstly, the most important aspect of this is that you are not limited to one option.

1. www.companyname.com/business-unit/ is a subdirectory
   
2. business-unit.companyname.com is a subdomain
   
   
3. www.business-unit.com is a separate domain which may not create the brand or company 'link' you seem to be searching for.
   
4. www.business-unit.companyname.com is long and has the www prefix which is really a hangover from the old days - not neccessary, but used to communicate the medium (the web)
   

I would recommend doing both 1 & 2 like so:

Use 2(the subdomain) as a default, linking the business unit to the company visually, but also use 1 as a forwarding URL to 2. Both are very easy to do and should be well within the capabilities of any webmaster/technical dept. If they can't, start worrying about how much control they really have and whether they are good enough!

Friendly URLs are also very important for:

• SEO
• imparting understanding to visitors
• allowing adhoc urls
• Links/blogging etc

Bests

On 11:47:07 22 March 2007 Loz wrote:

 

Say a company's business unit is effectively a separate business (but sharing branding and certain resources), what do you think is the best domain name for it out of this list:

1. www.companyname.com/business-unit
2. business-unit.companyname.com
3. www.business-unit.com
4. www.business-unit.companyname.com

Any alternatives?

The domain name needs to do a good job of presenting the business unit as a sperate, independent entity but part of a group. SEO implications are also important.

Cheers,

L