Most of my blog posts relate to domain names and business. But there’s another great reason to go out and register a new domain: registering your own personal domain so you’re able to manage your own online personal image proactively. In fact, there are several great reasons to purchase names like YourLastName.com or YourFirstAndLastName.com and in this blog post I’m going to give you five of them!
Google Likes It
Although there is no way to predict how Google will organize their search results, most SEO professionals believe that keyword relevancy within a URL plays a role. Keywords within a domain name can act as a ranking factor. Google looks at the domain when calculating a website’s relevance to a particular search. So, when your name is the keyword, and you’ve used your name as the domain name, you’ve got a better chance of people finding you when searching for your name in search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing.
Protect Your Reputation
Once you register a personal domain you are immediately taking control of your online identity. Simply set up a forward to your Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn profile (or any other page online), and in one easy move you’ve protected your reputation and ensured that people will be much more likely to see exactly what you want them to. Directing people to a social media profile that you already manage is a one extremely simple way to avoid the hassle of setting up a personal website. Once forwarding has been setup, there’s no more work involved.
Make A Great Impression
Impress friends and family by showing off your personal domain. Give them the domain and they’ll be able to instantly view information about you. Fill your website with family photos, achievements you’ve received, or anything else you may want to show off to the world. Imagine how cool your personal domain would look on a letterhead, business card or email signature. Family members might want you to set them up with custom email addresses as well!
Show You’re Tech-Savvy
Prospective employers will instantly know you’re a tech-savvy individual when you have your very own personal domain name. You could have it re-direct to your LinkedIn profile or create a downloadable link to your resume directly on the homepage. Show off your computer skills with no more ugly LinkedIn URLs!
Display Your Skills
Setting up your own personal domain name is a neat idea for anyone who works in a creative industry. This might involve taking the time to build your own website, but it’s a fantastic way to show off your work! Photographers, artists and graphic designers could easily set up an online gallery of their designs and portraits. Copywriters, PR execs and journalists could showcase a selection of their writing. Even landscapers, builders or carpenters could share photos of their finished work.
The Next Step
Once you’ve registered your personal domain name you can begin to setup some cool customization’s, such as a matching email address so you’re emailing people from your very own personal domain. Make the ultimate first impression by communicating with some from an email address such as [email protected]! With how cheap domain registrations are (and the fact you can setup email with almost any shared hosting account) there is no reason not to go out and register your very own personal domain name today.
