Ian Landsman.com

When we founded UserScape in 2005 we knew HelpSpot would be our first product, but we figured we'd be adding more over the coming year or two. Well 4 years later HelpSpot is doing so well that there simply hasn't been time for a second product. However, we didn't know that would be the case then and had configured the website in the then popular style of company/products/product_name. So the URL for HelpSpot was www.userscape.com/products/helpspot/

This is silly when you only have one product! However, the desire for a change runs deeper than that. The web has changed. People expect a product name to be it's domain. In addition, people communicate in many other mediums now, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. 

The old URL scheme just doesn't work that well on todays web. So we decided to move HelpSpot out on it's own.

Luckily I had purchased http://www.helpspot.com long ago. Actually before we released the product a domain squatter had it for sale. I figured we'd better buy it, but we were in startup mode and conserving cash everywhere we could. So I had my wife buy it for me as a birthday present :-). Really, that's a true story, I got a $300 domain for my 29th birthday.

Anyway, helpspot.com is much easier to say, describe, recommend, put on a business card, post in an ad, etc etc. I really think it's going to improve our traffic.

We also took the opportunity to launch it in a new design done by the wonderful 31Three and Mike Precious. They did a great job and I think we've captured a really nice feel on the site.

The only downside to the move is that we have a lot of links pointing to www.userscape.com. I kept that domain for the business itself so some of our SEO juice is going to be lost, but I believe the long term upside is worth it.