People are searching for local businesses and small businesses — just like yours — online. If they cannot find you there, then it’s a missed opportunity on your end, almost like having a “Closed” sign in front of your store. Fix that with a .online domain name.
For most small businesses, especially those going through a crisis, getting online is easier said than done. Building a strong digital presence goes beyond just having a business website. Before you start working on your site planning or marketing strategy, make sure you’ve got the foundational details correct.
Get the perfect domain name for your business
Before you start building your website, you’re going to need a good domain name.
This will be your online identity, so it’s vital that you make it shine. While choosing a domain name for your business, keep the following factors in mind:
- Keep it short and simple.
- Make it memorable.
- Choose descriptive and relevant words.
- Keep the name as straightforward as possible.
While most businesses acknowledge those factors, they often face the tough question:
How will I find a domain name that is relevant and meets all the aforementioned criteria?
So, not only are you looking for a domain name that’s available but also useful to your business. This might sound challenging, but the solution is simple — especially if you are looking at alternative domain extensions to .com, such as .online, to be your business’s web identity.
For example, if your small business produces and sells organic honey then, a relevant domain name such as buyhoney.com is unavailable.
However, buyhoney.online, a relevant and meaningful domain name is available for you to register right away.
The .online domain is a versatile extension made up of the search-intuitive keyword “online.”
From “find a groomer online” to “buy cake online,” most of our search queries include this keyword as a suffix. This is especially relevant to products and services offered by small businesses.
Once you have that perfect domain name registered, then it’s all about using that as a marketing and branding tool to build your strong digital presence.
Related: You’ve registered a domain name. Now what?
5 strategic steps to build a strong digital presence with a .online domain name
A website and a domain name can bring your business into the limelight and introduce you as a forward thinker. It’s a gateway to showcase your creativity. Choosing a unique domain name pays by attracting dedicated customers.
Here are five ways a .online domain name can help you build a strong digital presence:
- Helps you interact with a niche market.
- Supports your SEO efforts.
- Helps your social branding.
- Makes your contests and promotions interesting.
- Plays a crucial role in voice search.
Let’s get started.
1. Helps you interact with a niche market
Consider the example of Coca-Cola, a brand that boasts of many different and popular products. Apart from the primary domain name, coca-colacompany.com, the brand has a dedicated website for each of its products such as dietcoke.com or minutemaid.com.
These product-specific domain names help customers cut through the fluff and get to the product page that they’re truly interested in.
Domain extensions, such as .online, help you add more character to your product’s online presence. If building a separate website isn’t feasible, you could register the domain name and redirect it to the product page on your primary website.
Consider the example of the organic honey business that we discussed above. You could have a domain name such as careforbees.online and redirect it to the corporate social responsibility page on your website.
Or you could have a domain name such as honeybites.online that redirects to the honey-made treats page on your website.
This strategy not only helps you build your overall brand but it gives each and every product of yours a unique identity on the internet.
2. Supports your SEO efforts
One of the key ingredients of a website’s SEO strategy is backlinks.
High quality and relevant backlinks not only make Google trust your content but it also tells users that you’re an expert in your industry.
Websites use multiple different strategies to earn these good-quality backlinks such as guest posting, publishing eBooks and whitepapers, conducting marketing and consumer studies and detailing its results, and more.
However, what most of these websites don’t pay much heed to is the anchor text — the specific words or phrases on which a hyperlink is set.
The anchor text is one of the most powerful tactics to make your backlinks look authentic to the search engines and the way to do it is to ensure that the anchor text is an exact match to the words in the hyperlink’s URL.
For example, when the anchor text “care for bees online” gets a backlink to careforbees.online, it helps authenticate the relevance of the page to the content.
This tactic gives the search engine a clear indication that content and the link that it’s pointing to are relevant, in turn, strengthening your SEO efforts.
3. Helps your social branding
Having a social media strategy to spread awareness of your brand and its products is at the top of most marketing strategies.
For example, share a piece of intriguing information about the product honey bites and encourage users to go on the website and learn more about it.
However, what they miss out on is the small yet significant branding opportunity that short links offer.
Here’s an example of a tweet from our organic honey brand:
Here’s an example of the same tweet, only better branded:
Research found that branded links make for a great CTA in your social media messages and can increase CTR by up to 39%.
The branded link in your social posts is the bridge between your message and your landing page.
This makes sense because the link creates continuity between the message and the actual content.
4. Makes your contests and promotions interesting
Most companies use contests and promotions because they’re a good and fun way to have your customer engage with your product. People may show interest in your product or service if they’re going to get something in return.
Contests and promotions have their own set of strengths and can benefit your business in multiple ways such as:
- It allows you to raise awareness about your products and services
- It’s a great tool for building your fan base
- It’s a rich source of data for lead generation and research
- It empowers customers to do your marketing for you
- It’s relatively low cost depending on the prize and the setup
Most businesses engage in contests and promotions, however, domain extensions such as .online can help you make your contest stand out.
For example, in your social post promoting the contest, instead of sharing a long, clunky, or cryptic URL, you could share something along the lines of winhoney.online.
Improving small details such as this can help you better showcase your marketing activities, garner interest, and promote word of mouth.
5. Plays a crucial role in voice search
Is your business ready for what it takes to survive in a voice search world?
Search engines are constantly evolving making their user experience as simple as possible.
Every phone and computer is now equipped with a voice assistant (such as Siri and Google Assistant). The presence of voice-first devices such as Amazon Echo and Google Home is now highly common.
A .online domain name can be a huge aid for your business to perform well in voice search results.
A domain name that is simple, clear and incorporates the right keywords can enhance the chances of your website being picked up by the voice search assistant.
Text-based searches are very different from voice searches. When people type their search query, they only type the main keywords leaving the rest on the search engine. However, when they use voice search, they phrase their query as if they were asking another person.
Imagine that you’re using a voice search to find places where you can buy honey. A typical voice search would go:
“Alexa, find places to buy honey online.”
Here, a domain name such as buyhoney.online has a stronger chance to beat the other competing websites because it has all the important keywords that were used to conduct the search.
Related: 7 steps to get your business ready for voice search
Start building your strong digital presence with a .online domain name
Your domain name is your unique identity on the internet. Any business or organization that has a web presence should invest in a good domain name and a professional email address to give their business the edge and a professional look. Using a .online domain name can help get you the name you want with added benefits.
Moreover, a domain name helps build credibility and increase brand awareness. It also assists is SEO optimization and better chances of showing up in a voice search query. All in all, a brand name helps build your brand identity.
It is a reflection of how innovative and forward-thinking your business is and how up to date you are with all the recent developments in cyberspace.
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