Why Domain Names Play an Important Role in Personal Branding

When it comes to personal branding, name recognition is EVERYTHING and a good brand message communicates more in fewer words. We all know by now that content is king and social media is the best vehicle to drive traffic to your website, blog, or online store. This is why “discoverability” is so important as the digital space gets more cluttered. To increase brand awareness and being discovered by like-minded people and potential customers take your social media names and domain name into serious consideration. Read on to find out why domain names play an important role in personal branding.

The Links You Use Play a Significant Role in Building Your Brand

Think about it, we all use links when directing people to content online. Linking to content can help with your SEO. Your domain name is your identity on the web and getting it right can make a HUGE difference.

The links we share are often a missed opportunity to increase brand awareness. Long, ugly links with tons of characters and visible tracking parameters don’t add any value to your brand. Let’s face it, nobody likes looking at them, so why would they want to click on them?

Short Links Are Often a Missed Opportunity For Branding

We all love to use short links, especially in social media posts, because they allow more room for content. However, these short links are often a missed opportunity to drive brand recognition and awareness. Ever see those ugly short links with unpronounceable URL slugs like “https://bit.ly/2GOu8vq”? Doing this with your short links is a total missed opportunity for building link trust and increasing your click-through rate.

Here’s Why All Links Need to Be Branded

Using the proper URL especially in short links could lead to more clicks or anchor text within a blog post or piece of content in a few ways:

-> If it is memorable, people are more likely to recall the link at a later time and type in the short link.
-> If it is value-driven or compelling, people may see the URL slug and be convinced it’s what they are looking for from within the link (yes, the URL slug itself is selling the click).
-> If it is masking a confusing, lengthy, or scary-looking URL

You should consider a switch if your domain name:

a. Is unnecessarily long
b. Has additional words that could be dropped to make your brand crisper
c. Has a hyphen (-) or a number in it
d. Is complicated to pronounce and remember

How Do You Get a Branded Short Link?

Few people know that bit.ly (and almost all other domain shortening services) allow you to brand your short link. A custom .ONLINE domain name is a great way to highlight your online presence and reinforce your own brand in the minds of your audience. With .ONLINE, instead of getting short links in the form bit.ly/aBc123 you will get short links in the form YourName.online/aBc123 by default for all bitly links. It’s easy and only takes a few minutes to set up. The best part is that you won’t have to change your current domain setup or your existing website. You will be able all of bit.ly’s features as you normally would.

What Keywords Should You Use in Your Short Link?

When creating a short link, think about the user. The keywords you choose for your short link are important. You can change the slug but it is also important that you get the right domain name. A domain name on .ONLINE will give you just that added branding benefit. Look at this link here, chelsea.online/personalbranding. It’s keyword-rich, meaningful, contextual and relevant to my brand.

So remember, your domain name is a huge part of your brand identity online and getting it right can make a huge difference. By using .ONLINE to customize a domain extension you can tell the world about what you have to offer and use it as a meaningful link shortener in your social posts. Check out www.get.online to find your web address. Don’t forget–it’s the details that change the game.

Use coupon code CHELSEA to get 90% off on 1 Year domains on www.get.online

*This post was written by me through an activation with HireInfluence on behalf of .Online. Although I received compensation for participating in the campaign, all thoughts and opinions are my own.