5 Ways a Branded Domain Name Can Help You Grow Your Business

Your domain name is your identity on the Internet. It is how your customers recognize and find you online.

Domain names do a lot more than just being your web address. A good domain name can be a crucial factor that decides whether your online presence is impactful or will you be getting lost along with hundreds of other businesses.

A domain name is the address you use to direct people to your website where you conduct your business. It is a way to establish authority and tell people about your expertise and future-focused approach. Hence, picking the right domain name is vital.

Why are domain names important?

Picking a domain name is one of the first steps you’ll take when starting a business. Since this is the beginning of your big idea, this decision should involve a bit of deliberation.

Ideally, a domain name should:

•   Make your business look credible and help you stand out from millions of other businesses.
•   Help you optimize your website for search engines (SEO).
•   Offer added visibility and help draw customers’ attention.
•   Make you come across as up-to-date and digital savvy.

What are new domain extensions?

When the Internet came into being decades ago, domain extensions such as .COM (commercial), .NET (network), .ORG (organization) were most popular among users. However, as the digital space evolved, over 1200 new contextually and keyword-rich domain extensions can into being.

Today, you have extensions such as .ONLINE, .WEBSITE, .SITE, and .SPACE to choose from. If you’re looking for more niche, industry-specific extensions then there are options such as .TECH, .STORE, and .PRESS to pick from.

Why should you choose a new domain extension?

Domain names have been in use for decades now. As of today, there are over a billion domain names already registered. This means that the web address that you desire, one that suits your business, might have already been registered by someone else!

So, what’s the solution? There isn’t one but over 1200 of them! Yes, there are more than 1200 new domain extensions that you can choose from today.

For instance, there’s:

•   .TECH for technology
•   .STORE for retail and eCommerce
•   .PRESS for media, news, etc
•   .FUN for leisure, entertainment, etc
•   .ONLINE (all purpose)
•   .SITE (all purpose)

Registering your domain name on a relevant new domain extension can help you build a strong positioning and reflect how technologically progressive your business is. Having said that, an explicit domain extension does come with added advantages over open and generic domain extensions.

What are the branding benefits of a domain name?

1.  It portrays you as an innovator

Your website and its domain name can play a key role in portraying you as a forward-thinking business and put you in the limelight. A great domain name is your golden ticket to be a part of the digital revolution and prove that you are up to date with the recent advancements in the digital space.

Your domain name shows users your creative side and a contextual domain name will attract the right customers. For instance, a .STORE domain name would interest users that are willing to make a purchase.

2.  It helps you connect with the niche market

Think about the example of Coco-Cola, a brand that has multiple popular products—each a brand of its own. Apart from its main domain name, the company has a dedicated domain name for its other products such as www.minutemaid.com or www.dietcoke.com.

These definite domain names help users cut through the muddle and go directly to the pages or websites that they are interested in. Amazon is a wonderful example here. The eCommerce giant uses www.kindle.store as a redirect to the Kindle page on its website.

New domain extensions help give a bit of character and feeling to a simple web page. If you need to highlight, for instance, the News and PR section of your website then you could do it by getting a domain name on .PRESS. A contest can become a lot more fun when its domain name is on .FUN.

3. It can help you with your website’s SEO

One of the most important factors of SEO is high-quality and relevant backlinks. And the secret to great backlinks is the anchor text (the specific words/characters on which a hyperlink is set). When the words of the anchor text match the words in the URL, Google gives it a green signal.

For example, when the anchor text ‘Brand Name Festival Sale’ redirects to www.brandname.store/festival-sale, it tells the search engine that the content and the link are related to each other. This helps strengthen your SEO.

4.  It makes you memorable

For a brand to succeed, it is important that its people remember about its existence. A domain name that is short, simple, related to the brand, and easy-to-spell makes it memorable. Moreover, if your brand is easily communicable then the chances of it getting word-of-mouth advertising increase. And if they are short and simple domain names with no misspellings or numbers or hyphens then they are likely to not go wrong.

For example, www.twirl.store, www.sensai.tech, www.louder.online check all the boxes mentioned above and make for perfect, memorable domain names.

5.  It highlights your contests and makes marketing promotions interesting

Contests and promotions are one of the best ways for a brand to gain attention and reach out to more people. They are a great opportunity to improve lead generation efforts.

Imagine sharing your contests with the URL www.contestname.fun. Not only will this domain name stand out, but it will also help you garner interest which could result in your campaign being a huge success.

Conclusion

Your domain name is your business’s distinctive identity. If you have a web presence, you must consider investing in a good domain name. It’ll help you build credibility and enhance your awareness. A domain name helps build your brand identity. It reflects how tech-savvy your business is and how up to date are you are with all the recent developments in cyberspace.

Alisha Shibli is a Senior Content Marketing & Communication Specialist at Radix, the registry behind some of the most successful new domain extensions, including .STORE and .TECH. You can connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.