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For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been talking about how important it is to make the whole process of buying domain names and getting your own online presence sorted out quickly and cheaply and how we’re doing this at Telnames.
We’ve referenced several times that it’s really important to own your own domain name, especially if you’re a small business or professional, but why? What’s wrong with using free services, free hosting, free listings or sub-domains? Here are seven solid reasons:
1. Control
The number one reason to register your domain name is so you have control over it. This is closely tied with all of the points below in terms of the benefits that come from this. If you don’t control the space you use to present yourself to others online, you can’t truly trust it to represent your business the way you want it to.
2. Identity
Because a domain name has financial worth and a traceable transaction associated to it, a domain name can be a verifiable online identity. Thus, as we’ll see later on, this is seen to be useful when it comes to search engines indexing and presenting information back to people.
3. Branding
Inevitably, people will search for your name and/or your company name in search engines. You may be listed in third party directories, using free sub-domains for blogging and participate in social networks, but if you haven’t registered your name or company as a domain name, then you won’t be sure as to what people might find. Google+ Places are fine if people are searching through Google for you, but Facebook has an agreement with Bing, so what will Facebook users find out about you? If you have a common business or personal name, it’s imperative that you register it as a domain and begin using it to first defend and then build your brand.
4. Ownership
A domain name is a piece of property. Whoever registers it owns it. If you read Blogger’s terms of service for example, you’ll discover that you don’t really own your blog; nor your Twitter handle, social media page on Facebook or listing in services like Yelp. These can be taken away from you at any time. A domain name gives you uniqueness and ownership and belongs to you for as long as you want. Owning your own domain name is like living in your own apartment and not in a rented one where your landlord sets the rules about what you can do. You address is your own and not a shared one. This is crucially important when it comes to the next point.
5. Authority
Getting found in search engines is crucial in today’s internet-based economy, as for the majority of people it’s their entry point to the web when it comes to purchasing decisions (rather than chit-chatting on social networks). Getting found in search engines relies on that search engine giving authority to the place where you want to be found.
Search engines give importance to second-level (i.e. the ‘yourdomain’ bit in ‘yourdomain.tel’) domain names over 99% of other services (possibly apart from the popular social network at that time) because of all of the above points, but also because the expectation that people have when searching is to see the website of the company they are looking for first.
Search engines recognize the importance of a domain name because the person or company has invested money in the ownership of that rather than sub-domains (yourblog.blogspot.com for example) or a part of another domain name (facebook.com/yourbusiness or yell.com/yourlisting) belonging to other people. With a free webhost the home page of that website gets the limelight whereas your page can get found for only the content of your page. You own home page with a free domain website is in fact the home page of a sub domain whereas your webhost’s home page is the actual homepage for that domain name. Your own domain name thus helps you to get that free search engine traffic that is vital for your internet success.
6. Portability
A domain name allows you to cross the internet with ease, not being tied to any third party service provider. What does that mean? No matter what social network is popular today or which failed in the past, you won’t be damaged in terms of your relationship with your customers or wasted marketing effort if you provide people with your own domain name so they know where they can find you in future. Equally, domain names are indexed as we said by most search engines and can be typed as direct addresses in all browser address bars. Try finding a Google+ Local page in Bing, Yahoo! or DuckDuckGo and you’ll see.
7. Flexibility
Is your blog mobile-ready? Can people on smart phones find your social profile easily when they’re on the move? How heavy is your online presence when it comes to people finding you on post-paid or pay as you go mobile contracts? Again, if you’re not in control or don’t own your own domain, you won’t be able to help them. With your own domain, you can help people get the information they need in a format that’s right for them.
So there you have it. None of the above is difficult to achieve, expensive to implement or requiring a doctorate in advanced computing to set up with our Telnames service.
Given the price point is less than a round in a London pub, consider it at the very least a wise move to mitigate your risks of not being found how you want to be in this continuously changing online environment.
Source: Telnames.com (with included pictures and further links)
We’ve referenced several times that it’s really important to own your own domain name, especially if you’re a small business or professional, but why? What’s wrong with using free services, free hosting, free listings or sub-domains? Here are seven solid reasons:
1. Control
The number one reason to register your domain name is so you have control over it. This is closely tied with all of the points below in terms of the benefits that come from this. If you don’t control the space you use to present yourself to others online, you can’t truly trust it to represent your business the way you want it to.
2. Identity
Because a domain name has financial worth and a traceable transaction associated to it, a domain name can be a verifiable online identity. Thus, as we’ll see later on, this is seen to be useful when it comes to search engines indexing and presenting information back to people.
3. Branding
Inevitably, people will search for your name and/or your company name in search engines. You may be listed in third party directories, using free sub-domains for blogging and participate in social networks, but if you haven’t registered your name or company as a domain name, then you won’t be sure as to what people might find. Google+ Places are fine if people are searching through Google for you, but Facebook has an agreement with Bing, so what will Facebook users find out about you? If you have a common business or personal name, it’s imperative that you register it as a domain and begin using it to first defend and then build your brand.
4. Ownership
A domain name is a piece of property. Whoever registers it owns it. If you read Blogger’s terms of service for example, you’ll discover that you don’t really own your blog; nor your Twitter handle, social media page on Facebook or listing in services like Yelp. These can be taken away from you at any time. A domain name gives you uniqueness and ownership and belongs to you for as long as you want. Owning your own domain name is like living in your own apartment and not in a rented one where your landlord sets the rules about what you can do. You address is your own and not a shared one. This is crucially important when it comes to the next point.
5. Authority
Getting found in search engines is crucial in today’s internet-based economy, as for the majority of people it’s their entry point to the web when it comes to purchasing decisions (rather than chit-chatting on social networks). Getting found in search engines relies on that search engine giving authority to the place where you want to be found.
Search engines give importance to second-level (i.e. the ‘yourdomain’ bit in ‘yourdomain.tel’) domain names over 99% of other services (possibly apart from the popular social network at that time) because of all of the above points, but also because the expectation that people have when searching is to see the website of the company they are looking for first.
Search engines recognize the importance of a domain name because the person or company has invested money in the ownership of that rather than sub-domains (yourblog.blogspot.com for example) or a part of another domain name (facebook.com/yourbusiness or yell.com/yourlisting) belonging to other people. With a free webhost the home page of that website gets the limelight whereas your page can get found for only the content of your page. You own home page with a free domain website is in fact the home page of a sub domain whereas your webhost’s home page is the actual homepage for that domain name. Your own domain name thus helps you to get that free search engine traffic that is vital for your internet success.
6. Portability
A domain name allows you to cross the internet with ease, not being tied to any third party service provider. What does that mean? No matter what social network is popular today or which failed in the past, you won’t be damaged in terms of your relationship with your customers or wasted marketing effort if you provide people with your own domain name so they know where they can find you in future. Equally, domain names are indexed as we said by most search engines and can be typed as direct addresses in all browser address bars. Try finding a Google+ Local page in Bing, Yahoo! or DuckDuckGo and you’ll see.
7. Flexibility
Is your blog mobile-ready? Can people on smart phones find your social profile easily when they’re on the move? How heavy is your online presence when it comes to people finding you on post-paid or pay as you go mobile contracts? Again, if you’re not in control or don’t own your own domain, you won’t be able to help them. With your own domain, you can help people get the information they need in a format that’s right for them.
So there you have it. None of the above is difficult to achieve, expensive to implement or requiring a doctorate in advanced computing to set up with our Telnames service.
Given the price point is less than a round in a London pub, consider it at the very least a wise move to mitigate your risks of not being found how you want to be in this continuously changing online environment.
Source: Telnames.com (with included pictures and further links)
