There are a number of reasons why having your own domain name is good business:
- It’s portable – One of the biggest reasons to have your own domain name is so that if you ever change web hosts, you simply have to redirect your domain name to your new account. If you don’t have your own domain name, transferring your website from one domain name to another can be a major headache. First, all your visitors have to remember to type in the new URL rather than the old (which they won’t!). Second, all your pages that are indexed in search engines must be redirected to your new pages. Third, you have to wait for search engines to realize that the new pages are the same as the old, and in the process, you might lose your search engine rank. All three problems can be avoided by registering your own domain name before you create your site.
- It builds credibility – People expect companies to have their own domain name and they are more likely to trust sites with their own domain names rather than say, http://www.geocities.com/mysite. Even bloggers should consider registering their own domain name rather than relying on http://myblog.blogspot.com or http://myblog.typepad.com.
- You get your own email address – By registering your own domain, you also get your own email address. Like site domains, having your own email address like name@yourdomainname.com sounds more professional than name@yahoo.com.
- It’s easy to remember – Good domains are easy to remember. If you’re lucky, you might even get people that guess your domain correctly by typing in www.yourcompanyname.com or www.yourproductname.com in their browser.
- It’s cheap – You can register a domain name for about $9/year with
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