A recent article on TechCrunch announced that Facebook will soon allow users to create a custom vanity URL, much like other social networking sites, including YouTube, MySpace and Twitter. The announcement is expected to be made by Facebook later this week.

This method has proven to be successful for other social networking sites because it makes it easier for users to brand themselves using a more memorable URL. Take bands on MySpace, for instance. Several bands use their MySpace page as their complete online identity rather than building a stand-alone website. This will allow people, businesses and groups to do the same sort of thing with their Facebook profile page.

Although it is not mentioned in the TechCrunch article, I would suspect another reason for the switch would be to create more keyword-targeted URLs that will be more successful at ranking in search engines. While it’s common to see Facebook listings in SERPs, I would imagine the increase in keyword-rich URLs will give their rankings a boost, resulting in additional website traffic.

Check back on Search Perspective for updates to Facebook’s switch to vanity URLs!