The Power of a Good Domain

Are domains still going to be important in 5 years? Not surprisingly, we answer: Yes. Definitely.

If you think back to the late 1990s, jumping into the internet revolution and securing the perfect .COM name was a big deal. Now it’s just an accepted way of life online, but it seems that two distinct groups have emerged as a result. The first group of internet users already has one or more domains and are familiar with the reasons behind owning a domain name. The second group generally doesn’t even know enough about buying a domain name to know where to start. It’s interesting to see that there’s really no group in between comprised of people familiar with domain names that haven’t purchased one. That should be an indicator right there that if you understand domains, you understand why you should definitely own domains. Part of our goal at Dotster is to bridge that divide by educating everyone about the basics of domain registration.

First, Let’s Play Devil’s Advocate

There are various counter-arguments you can find online that would gladly tell you domains become less important with each passing day.  They cite things such as smarter web browsers unifying search bars with address bars, search engines  paying less attention to domain names, and new TLDs either diluting domain names or simply being worthless, depending on who you ask.  There is some merit to these viewpoints.  Web browsers do continue to improve their navigation methods.  For instance, if I want to visit Amazon.com, I simply type “amazon” into my address bar and the browser figures out that I mean www.amazon.com.  This is where the “domain names are worthless” argument begins to fall apart.  If Amazon didn’t own the amazon.com domain name, I wouldn’t be able to direct navigate there with such ease.

The Domain is Still King

Domains are and will continue to be extremely important in establishing an online presence.  Here are just a few of the reasons why:

• A strong domain name is memorable, and assuming it aligns with your business or personal name, serves to strengthen and reinforce your company’s brand and marketing.  Looking back, internet giants such as Google or  Facebook started with nothing more than a domain name as their brand, and they are now some of the strongest, most recognized brands in the world.  From a marketing perspective, having a good domain name is crucial

• A strong domain creates authority and conveys credibility to internet users.  If you run an online store, credibility will provide your customers with a greater sense of security.  If you’re a big brand or a small brand looking to be the next big brand, having a strong domain is a sign of authority in the marketplace.

• Your domain is your central location on the internet.  With the growth of social media sites and an increased need to have your business or brand present on multiple websites, it’s very important to have your domain to point back to as home base.  You can also use your domain and subdomains to link to your brand across the web.  For instance, if you don’t have your ideal Twitter username (www.twitter.com/yourname),  you can create a subdomain to direct people to such as twitter.yourdomain.com and have that redirect to your Twitter profile.

• Direct Navigation isn’t going away.  In fact, as browsers continue to improve embedded search functions, they also improve direct navigation via the address bar.

• Your domain can improve your search results.  While your domain name isn’t always crucial to search engine optimization, owning a recognizable domain that web users will see when performing searches will help move your website up the search rankings.

All of this combines to make owning a domain essential now and in the future.  Between the branding, marketing, authority, and Search benefits a domain provides, you can’t go wrong when you buy a good domain name.  What makes for a good domain name, you ask?  Look for our next post.