To www or not to www...

[Bigdawg]

that is the question that I ask of thee...

seriously though, how many of you are dropping the www on the graphics you do? We are about 50-50 but am leaning towards not including it anymore unless I need to fill space. In the beginning (damn I sound old!) the www was important because many sites wouldn't load and the early browsers had to have it. Not so anymore.

Thoughts?

 

[Mike Paul]

I always leave it off unless the customer really wants it on there.

 

[SqueeGee]

I sometimes keep it if it helps balance the layout. www.CompanyName.com sometimes just looks better than CompanyName.com

 

[Joe Diaz]

I lean towards leave it off. You don't need to type it in most of the time, plus if there is a .com, .net, etc., it is a given that a "www." would be included.

 

[jfiscus]

It depends on where the website is hosted as far as needing the www or not, it's a protocol. Some sites have other prefixes like mail.website.com along with www.website.com etc & tells the server/browser where to go. Most hosting companies have it set up by default now to create both entries in their records, but I'll bet you a few still don't. As long as it works either way then whichever looks best in each instance is which one I use.

 

[TheSnowman]

I've always been a fan of http://www.CompanyName.com/

Just kidding...we usually do whatever the customer wants...if they advertise it everywhere else as something, that's how we do it. Personal preference though...probably without the WWW. Not having a website myself though, I can't shed a lot of light on the subject.

 

[weaselboogie]

Leave it on. It's a clue to non-computer savy customers that it's a website, not an email address. AND YES, I've had more than one person say that they tried to email me by typing in my website. ... no @ symbol, just my website.

 

[tanneji]

Leave it on. It's a clue to non-computer savy customers that it's a website, not an email address. AND YES, I've had more than one person say that they tried to email me by typing in my website. ... no @ symbol, just my website.

haha same here!

 

[jiarby]

I prefer to leave it off.

like joe says... with the .com it is obviously a website.

When I do have to put it in there I try to make the www and the .com a little bit smaller
and kern the w's closer... I want to emphasize the website and minimize the www/.com part. I like to cap major words also to make it easier to read if it makes sense to do that.

Kinda like the area code in a phone #. Does it REALLY have to be as big as the rest of the #?

 

[Poconopete]

"Leave it on. It's a clue to non-computer savy customers" Exactly

 

["Deposit Please"]

I usually keep it off unless customer requests it, but i make sure they can be found on all search engines by just typing in Companyname.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

like joe says... with the .com it is obviously a website.

I wouldn't assume the knowledge of the target audience if it's just a general audience and not specific. If you are placating to computer nerds, then leave it off, but if the target audience includes people that don't have much computing experience(don't just judge that by the age of the audience either, you would be suprised about what my 96 yr. old grandma can do with a computer versus others her age) or could possibly not have much computing experience. I see that a lot with people that even do embroidery design work on the computer, their general computing skills are just funny(and sad).

I've come across a couple that haven't had the www. in front of them. Always surprised me given that it doesn't happen often. Just like on whether to have .com or not on logos, I do it all because(as I'm sure y'all will notice) I have a .biz and not the more familiar .com. That's changing as it's getting harder and harder to get .com's now.

Ultimately, it's up to the customer if it's a customer's logo and that's their choice, but if it's mine, I keep it on there. It's also getting to the point that it's easier for people to remember websites more the phone numbers.

 

[Bigdawg]

.com is a whole different story. Too many .orgs, .nets, .infos

but type in a site name without the www and you'll get to it anyway. And I also go smaller with the www and the .com unless it's not a .com. I emphasize the .info, .net etc because they aren't as common.

 

[Joe Diaz]

My thought about advertising web addresses to lowest common denominator is this: It is very rare this day and age that a person doesn't know that "sitename.com" is a web address, even if it doesn't have the "www". My guess is the extremely small percentage of people that can't figure out that typing in "sitename.com" into your browser will connect you with a website probably have a difficult time with the internet in general, in which case the web address as a whole isn't really directed towards them. My guess is those folks will find other ways to contact you, ways that they are more comfortable with. It's similar to how the even smaller percentage of people without phones, don't really pay attention to phone numbers on advertisements. I have a feeling that business lost because those potential clients can't understand those concepts, probably won't leave your business in ruins.

I agree with others about using the www, if it helps the balance of the layout, and I also belong to the crowd that is willing to do it how the customer prefers it to be done. But if it were up to me, I probably wouldn't.

 

[signcrafters london]

I've been leaving it off for 10 years, unless the customer just demands it.

 

[Firefox]

What's www?

 

[showcase 66]

I like to leave it off for the most part. Sometimes it looks better with it and sometimes it doesnt. The client is the one who usually freaks out if it isnt there. Have to explain to them it is ok and show them. Had one guy demand I put the http:// in the address as well. Couldn't talk him out of it.

I have a bigger problem with the client freaking out when there website is long and to make it easier to read you type it like this YourLongFrickenWebsite.com. I always here, "you can't spell it like that, it wont work. I didn't put capitals in the website name."

Had one guy with a business name of The Grass Assassin. When I showed him his business card with his email address with. xxx@TheGrassAssassin.com he flipped. After explaining it to him why, he then wanted me to just Capitalize the "A's".

Back to the OP's part. If I add the www. I usually make it smaller less stylized.

 

[Marlene]

it's like the word "call" by a phone number or "1" in front of a phone number. it's implied but some still want it there. the .com is really needed as there are too many other things it could be.

 

[Jesse_gvi]

Depends on the layout, but if there's a bunch of text I like it on there because people automatically recognize it as a website. Zig-zaggy www is easier to pick up than .com if the viewer isn't paying too close atttention.

I also like the look of LOWHIGHHIGHLOW

 

[wetgravy]

It depends on where the website is hosted as far as needing the www or not, it's a protocol. Some sites have other prefixes like mail.website.com along with www.website.com etc & tells the server/browser where to go. Most hosting companies have it set up by default now to create both entries in their records, but I'll bet you a few still don't. As long as it works either way then whichever looks best in each instance is which one I use.

what he said.

I prefer to leave it off. Unless a client asks for the www. or their host doesn't do an automatic forward to www.whatever.com from whatever.com ... I can work with a whatever.com more proficiently than a www.whatever.com ... unless of course they want everything centered and roughly the same size if it's a short url and they have short e-mail and their phone # like

(999) 999-9999
sales@url.com
www.url.com

sadly most of my clients have stuff like homeloansandallsortsofstuff.com