The digital assets of your business can make or break your overall success. Now that customers are so versed in all things digital, you need to make sure that you are presenting yourself in the best possible light and fully utilizing all your online platforms to reach and engage more people. Your website is one of those main digital assets that will define how you interact with customers and if you can reach the very top of your industry. Although most business owners will focus almost exclusively on the design and content of their website, many fail to acknowledge the relevance of their domain name.
This seemingly minor decision affects your overall presence and it can either contribute to your growth and your customers’ trust, or it can derail your online strategy. Choosing a good, reliable, and trustworthy domain name is no easy feat. That’s why we’ve listed a few main reasons you should consider when selecting yours, and perhaps you’ll be more mindful of your options and opportunities when you’re setting up your digital presence!
Ownership Gives You Flexibility
Choosing the right domain name also means giving yourself greater control of all of your digital assets. How? By purchasing a domain name from a trusted registrar, especially a solid, reliable domain name hosted on a secure server, you add flexibility to your business. You can scale your brand and move it to a different server if you need more bandwidth, and you can always get a new domain name if you’d like to expand your business, as well.
This kind of freedom in building your brand identity through online means is priceless. Generic addresses don’t evoke the same emotional response and trust, nor do they come with the same scalability as secure, trusted domain names.
The right name elevates your credibility
How likely would you be to trust a cookware brand that has a domain name containing several of the most important products they sell, sounding all jumbled up and messy? It looks and sounds spammy, and search engines don’t tolerate such blatant efforts to boost your ranking by cramming keywords into a single aspect of your digital presence.
A domain name, on the other hand, that genuinely reflects your brand identity and perhaps uses one keyword or phrase can elevate your brand’s image in the eyes of search engines, as well as your audience.
Personalization with domain names
Small, local businesses are having a hard time fighting for their slice of digital attention and engagement. With major, global players, it’s extremely difficult to find ways to push a smaller, or a new business to the forefront. A domain name grants you an opportunity to personalize your presence and to make your brand more relatable, thus enhancing engagement online and offline.
Personalizing your domain name can come in many forms, by using a .me extension with your own name, or by combining your name with the core aspect of your business. Personalization gives your brand that human look and feel, making you more trustworthy, but also helping people engage with your brand on a more personal level, rather than seeing you as just another product or service on the digital shelf.
Your domain boosts your offline presence
Before people get up and leave their home to shop or to peruse, they’ll likely do some digging. They’ll visit social media, but they’ll also turn to good, “old-fashioned” googling to find out more about their options. After all, who wants to waste their precious time going to stores that are closed, don’t have sales, or don’t carry the items you like?
In a very important way, your domain name elevates your online presence, but it also contributes to how your customers perceive and interact with your physical store, if you have one. If your domain name and your brand keeps popping up in search results when they’re looking for your kind of products, they’ll be much more likely to actually check your store out in person, too.
Enhancing brand awareness and visibility
No matter in which business arena you’re trying to make a name for yourself, the competition is likely fierce to begin with. That alone is enough to get the attention of your customers and steal them away. Your website, starting with your domain name, gives your brand more visibility in the online realm, but it also helps you raise brand awareness among your audience.
A short, memorable domain name, especially one that can easily be associated with your brand, makes it easy for people to come back to your site and recognize your business when they discover it elsewhere, be it in the street, or online.
A lengthy, complicated name that they can barely pronounce, or a spammy one with too many keywords won’t really inspire people to come back to your site. Also, as they are exploring the web, spotting your short and sweet domain name will be much easier, so both awareness and visibility can be elevated.
As the basis of your digital presence, your domain shouldn’t be taken lightly. Take your time when discussing your strategy with your marketers and developers, so that you can find and purchase a domain name that will be worthy of your brand. It will allow you to build upon that initial trust of your audience and move your business further in any competitive industry. A strong domain name is a major advantage, so make sure you’ve selected yours properly from day one.
