Deciding on a domain name is as much important as selecting your company name, it’s the most important decision you will make for your business. It’s the key element of your website representation, your culture, how people connect with you, how employees explain what you do, and much more. As a critical part of your brand, your domain name must be powerful enough to break through the countless marketing messages targeting consumers every day — from search to social media results, to referring links, to type-in traffic, brandability, and as a virtual asset which increases in value over time.
Uber.com, Apple.com, Mint.com . . . these are all prime examples of great online brands. The fact that these names are characteristic, roll off the tongue, and are pronounceable has helped to establish them as the brand giants they are today. But, as you can see, they have in common: a high-valued domain .com.
You want people to see you mean business.
You get one chance to make a first impression and to make a good one and increase the likelihood of engagement, the right of the dot brought professionalism, longevity, and trust, both online and offline. Adding a strong top-level domain such as .com gives you the credibility to overcome the initial roadblocks that cause so many businesses to falter.
Unless you’re so big that your reputation precedes you, a marginal domain suggests you’re a marginal company.
Paul Graham
Using a .com is the most authoritative way of guaranteeing your site will be found on the web.
An online presence is crucial to the success of your business and an exact-match top-level domain name helps you get found by search engines, instead of someone else. It basically means that someone who is searching for your product decides to bypass the search engine by typing the keyword of the product they want directly into their browser by simply typing what they are looking for into their address line (flowers.com). Why is that good for you? You will reap the benefits of what’s called “direct navigation” without spending one dollar on marketing your site. People are already searching for your business and they will be happy to find you immediately. This is the best kind of traffic you can get as it is highly targeted and you won’t need promoting to make it a household name, it’s already there.
A .com domain is the default domain your customers will look for when trying to find your brand online.
Given its rich history, .com is the most memorable domain that is the most recognized by the general public. In fact, most people never think of trying either a .org or .net or any other domain extension and most browsers auto-fill the .com part as this is the default extension. A .com is easy to remember.
If you have to spell it over the phone, you’ve lost.
Jason Calacanis
People are accustomed to using .com to visit most of their favorite websites, so they could struggle to remember other TLDs. Be aware that most people will give up searching for your brand’s site really quickly — don’t let them do that.
A .com domain name will encourage reputable companies to link to your site.
A .com domain, when used correctly, incorporates:
- Brand signals — Any mention or occurrence of your business domain name on a website will contribute to your branding efforts.
- Relevancy signals — If your domain includes a keyword, it will be bolded in the search engine results. Then, when people refer to your domain, it will associate your site with that keyword.
By knowing your domain name beforehand, customers won’t get lost on other SEO and PPC results in the search engines, which can also increase your chances of appearing at the top of the search results.
We hope the above information will help you in making informed decisions about your brand. How much does it cost you not having a strong brand? Get in touch, we are always happy to chat.
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