What are QR Codes and Why Use Them?

QR Codes can be an effective way to provide a website link address that users can quickly capture with a modern smartphone camera. With the DA QR Codes created here, we can analyze metrics by tracking the number of user click-throughs and also set UTM tracking codes for Google Analytics.

A QR Code is:

• a QR code (quick response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) invented in 1994 by the Japanese automotive company Denso Wave. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that can contain information – such as a website address. (Wikipedia)

• a QR Code can contain a custom web page link that will take visitors to a specific DA or VFA web page

• QR Codes created here can be tracked to measure the number of times that a visitor scans the code and visits the destination website. This can provide a comparative indication of how successful a particular campaign or poster or sticker is.

• these QR Codes also include Google Analytics UTM tracking codes, so that usage patterns are reported in our website analytics

• they always contain a Short URL (a shortened URL that reduces a longer link) that can also be used separately or in combination with the QR image

QR Code image file types:

• PNG (Portable Network Graphic) is a raster-graphics file format that supports lossless data compression. PNG was developed as an improved, non-patented replacement for Graphics Interchange Format (GIF)

• SVG (Scalable Vector Graphic) is a a popular tool for displaying two-dimensional graphics, charts, and illustrations on websites. Plus, as a vector file, it can be scaled up or down without losing any of its resolution.

• PDF (Portable Document Format) is a is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems.