topic Re: Imports not recognizing URL/domain name in CMS Development

Imports not recognizing URL/domain name

SIA-BW — Tue, 28 Aug 2018 21:51:16 GMT

HubSpot detects duplication using domain names or email addresses. However, it seems that HubSpot take domain names ending in dot something (e.g. .com, .edu). What if I am dealing with XYZ company and it has several locations (e.g. NYC, LA, Chicago) and each of these have separate websites related to the parent company such as www.xyzcompany.com/NYC/, www.xyzcompany.com/LA/, www.xyzcompany.com/Chicago. During import, these latter city websites are giving me an "invalid" error not to mention that these locations did not import at all. Is there a certain format that the domain names hasve to conform in order to import and so that import can recognize the duplicates? That is, if there are two XYZ companies, combine the entries during import. If it is different locations of XYZ companies, keep the entries separate during import.

Re: Imports not recognizing URL/domain name

MFrankJohnson — Fri, 18 Oct 2019 20:38:05 GMT

Q: How to import branches of the same company into HubSpot when the company domain name is the same?

Short A: You must decide how you're going to differentiate each branch within HubSpot and prepare your .csv BEFORE import.

Longer A:

Hey @SIA-BW, what you're calling "separate websites" are really paths at the end of the same root domain. As you've learned, HubSpot (like many CRMs) only accepts the protocol, subdomain and root domain (not paths) when importing companies.

(see image)

Also, since HubSpot dedups companies on root domain, you'll need to somehow differentiate each branch so HubSpot imports it as a separate entitity. We recommend using subdomains.

The several locations from your example (e.g. NYC, LA, Chicago) would need to be 'prepared' in Excel ...

(see image)

[Note: Since these are fake URLs, we've stripped the 'www' away.]

Preparing these manually is fine if you only have a few domains. However, if you have lots there are plenty of sites from which you can cut/paste Excel formulas for this precise use case. We like Ablebits.

Last but not least, importing this way will NOT automatically build parent-company child-company relationships in HubSpot. You'll still need to manage that in HubSpot.

However, preparing your URLs for import this way and naming your branches as follows will leave you with companies that are easily searchable and uniform when sorting in views.

- XYZ Company Chicago

- XYZ Company LA

- XYZ Company NYC

There are other benefits, but that should get you started on the right path.

Re: Imports not recognizing URL/domain name

SIA-TC — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 14:51:21 GMT

@MFrankJohnson, thank you for the thorough and illuminating feedback.

It would be great to get your input on the following two examples:

1. We receive monthly data dumps from 1000 customers/franchise owners, who operate independently. These 1000 customers coordinate and send us a single, monthly spreadsheet with critical performance metrics. We've asked these customers to include a field with their website url, since its required for a hubspot upload.

We received back a list that included the following for the first 6 entries.

Now, you can see that this fictional company has 6 unique franchises in santa monica. Each URL would take you to each location's website, with unique hours of operation, address information, etc.

Are you proposing that we reorganize our data, such that the URL always terminates with the top level domain? We would have to reconfigure each URL (easily in excel), creating a nonsensical, but compliant line of text for successful import?

Please note: We have no interest in parent-child relationships

2. Doesn't hubspot use the root domain to pull in basic, publicly available information on the customer (i.e. logo, industry, etc.)? If so, would our creation of generic hubspot URL prevent this from happening correctly? Using the above example, we would still want HubSpot to know that we're interested in mcbarndolds.

Once again, thank you!

Re: Imports not recognizing URL/domain name

MFrankJohnson — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 16:45:04 GMT

You're welcome @SIA-BW. Please mark as solved.

Re: Imports not recognizing URL/domain name

SIA-TC — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 15:00:20 GMT

Cheers, I edited the comment above, clarifying the question. Eager for your feedback.

Re: Imports not recognizing URL/domain name

MFrankJohnson — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 16:23:13 GMT

>>Are you proposing that we reorganize our data, such that the URL always terminates with the ~~top level~~ [root] domain? We would have to reconfigure each URL (easily in excel), creating a nonsensical, but compliant line of text for successful import?

Yes. Precisely with the cited correction. (see Root Domain image above)

>> Doesn't hubspot use the root domain to pull in basic, publicly available information on the customer (i.e. logo, industry, etc.)?

Yes.

>>If so, would our creation of generic hubspot URL prevent this from happening correctly?

Yes. Because there is no publicly available information for the nonsensical subdomain. You'll want to manage any population of company information for each nonsensical subdomain using a workflow to transfer the data from its parent.

(see below)

>>Please note: We have no interest in parent-child ...

If you don't associate the branches (i.e., children -- i.e., nonsensical subdomains) with a main branch (i.e., parent -- i.e., root domain) in HubSpot the only ways you'd ever know those companies had any relationship whatsoever would have to be via the company names (subject to typo's) or via the nonsensical subdomain (not particularly people-friendly).

(see image)

As you can clearly see, parent-child relationships have benefits (even if you don't use all of them right now). Going back to do this later is a manual, time-consuming pain in the assets. haha Unless of course you're a developer and can weild wild HubSpot API kung fu. 🙂

Great questions.

Restatement of our goal -- to import branches of the same company into HubSpot [as separate entities] when the company domain name is the same [and the branches do not use a subdomain structure to self-identify].

Re: Imports not recognizing URL/domain name

SIA-TC — Wed, 29 Aug 2018 16:29:20 GMT

Got it. Thank you very much for the feedback!

I can nudge the original poster to Accept the Solution, but am unable to do so myself.