{"id":7640,"date":"2014-07-17T15:25:51","date_gmt":"2014-07-17T22:25:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/?p=7640"},"modified":"2014-07-17T15:25:51","modified_gmt":"2014-07-17T22:25:51","slug":"why-every-business-website-should-have-a-domain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/why-every-business-website-should-have-a-domain\/","title":{"rendered":"Why every business website should have a domain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Being the entrepreneur that you are, you\u2019ve decided to build a website and publish it online. Congrats! Pat yourself on the back, you\u2019ve done great.<\/p>\n<p>The next step is to <a title=\"Buy a Domain Name with Yola\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/buy-a-domain?cid=501050\" target=\"_blank\">choose a custom domain name<\/a> to add to your business website. Domain names are vital to the health of any small business for a number of reasons. In this article, we\u2019ll outline why every business website should have a domain.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Custom domains give your business credibility.<\/strong><br \/>\nBy separating your website from a subdomain (<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">mybusiness.yolasite.com<\/span>) and owning your own domain (<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">mybusiness.com<\/span>), you are outwardly portraying that you are a real organization. This alone gives your business more credibility and helps to establish your <a title=\"Why Brand Identity and Logos Help Your Business\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/why-brand-identity-and-logos-help-your-business\/\" target=\"_blank\">website\u2019s brand name<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-7641\" src=\"https:\/\/blogcontent.yola.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Fotolia_67555808_XS.jpg.opt346x346o00s346x346.jpg\" alt=\"Finding a domain name\" width=\"224\" height=\"224\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>Domains are affordable<\/strong>.<br \/>\nIn addition to giving your website credibility, domains are extremely affordable \u2013 costing anywhere from $11-$15 per year for a .COM. You also can buy multiple domains if you feel it is necessary. This might be good for your business if you are localized and would like to capitalize on local searches.<\/p>\n<p>For example, if your business is in Canada, you could point two domains to your website: 1) <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">mybusiness.com<\/span> and 2) <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">mybusiness.ca<\/span>. Larger brands do this for the areas where they are localized. You\u2019ll see that Yola.com and Yola.ca both direct to the Yola homepage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Domains help you get found.<\/strong><br \/>\nIn addition to using a country-specific domain extension (ccTLD), domains help you get found faster. Your keywords will be directly under your custom domain as opposed to being associated to a subdomain. Google, Bing and other search engines rank websites with a custom domain slightly higher than ones without. Although there is no clear measurement as to how much the increase is, it is evident that custom domains do help your search ranking.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Domains help establish your brand.<\/strong><br \/>\nYour business website is closely tied to your brand. In addition to having a credible brand, <a title=\"Keeping your brand at the top of your customers\u2019 minds: Part one\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/keeping-your-brand-at-the-top-of-your-customers-minds-part-one\/\" target=\"_blank\">you\u2019ll want to have a memorable one<\/a>. Custom domains are easier for customers to remember. They also look better on business cards and other materials, giving your business a more professional look.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Domains are easy.<\/strong><br \/>\nOwning a domain is easy to do. You purchase a one-time, small fee and that\u2019s it. The domain is yours for an entire year. Be sure to have your domain set for auto-renewal so that it doesn\u2019t expire. Expired domains get posted for auction and another user can purchase the rights to your domain.<\/p>\n<p>Adding your domain to your website is also easy. Simply <a title=\"What to do when the domain name you want is not available\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/what-to-do-when-the-domain-name-you-want-is-not-available\/\" target=\"_blank\">find the domain of your choice<\/a>, purchase it and publish your website directly to the domain.<\/p>\n<p>What are your thoughts on domains? Please share your questions about domains in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After building a business website, publishing it to a custom domain is you next best step \u2013 in this article, we detail all of the reasons why. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":455,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","neve_meta_reading_time":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false},"categories":[130],"tags":[782,844,843,842,845,846],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7640"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/455"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7640"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7643,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7640\/revisions\/7643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yola.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}