You may have heard about Google cracking down on advertisers who are not using their “real” URLs in their display URL. A few years ago, Google was a bit lenient when it came to dealing with people who were using redirects or other addresses in their display URL section. But that would open Google to a lot of liabilities, which is why Google is tightening the rules and adding new guidelines for advertisers.

When it comes to choosing a URL for your business or landing page, you want to make sure it’s something that is brandable, catchy, and short (with emphasis on short). A domain name that is too long and contains too many words is just tough to remember and hard to push through Google Adwords and other advertising websites. I have found that many marketers just get too greedy when it comes to choosing their domain name. They not only go for longer URLs (with keywords), they don’t even register their own domain. Running a business using blogspot is not too ideal these days.

There are tools that can help you find a good domain name and register it fast. Domainsbot and Domize are two domain name search services that let you mix and match your keywords with brandable terms to come up with URLs that can help your business grow instead of hindering it.

You can be the ultimate expert in landing page optimization and analytics. But if you don’t have a decent URL in hand, you are seriously hurting your business or campaigns. Don’t get me wrong. There are ways to get around whatever guideline Google has put forth. Google is notorious for keeping loopholes open one way or another. It’s also true that having the relevant keyword in your URL could help you with your 1st page bids. But don’t get too greedy. Length definitely does matter when it comes to URLs.