Buying a Website Address for a Future Business

Why It’s Important to Own Your Own Website Address

First thing’s first: Should you buy your own website address?

ABSOLUTELY.

When your marketing agency owns your website address, you are at their mercy. If you want to change your website or hire a new marketing partner, you could lose control of the domain name. Then all of your hard work on SEO will be down the tubes. So yes, buying a website address is essential.

What If You Haven’t Opened Yet?

Are you thinking of opening a new business in the next few years? Have you spent hours and hours dreaming up the perfect name for this business? Even if the whole thing is still just a twinkle in your eye, you should be buying a website address NOW!

Step-by-Step Guide to Buying a Website Address

Step 1: Say you have the great idea to start a little bakery called Our Daily Bread. Your first task is to google “Our Daily Bread Bakery” and see what comes up. Are there already 15 Our Daily Bread bakeries listed? Then back to the drawing board. But if it looks like you are an original, go to Step 2.

Step 2: Go to GoDaddy and use the search function to see if the domain is available. If it isn’t, you could consider another variation. (Hint, in this case you’d probably want to use www.ourdailybreadbakery.com rather than just www.ourdailybread.com because the latter could easily be a religious organization.)

Step 3: If no one owns the domain already, SEIZE THE DAY! Even if you don’t open for another few years, you’ll be so happy that you don’t have to face the disappointment of renaming and rebranding as you get farther down the road towards opening day.

Step 4: Buy all versions of the website address: .net, .com, etc. Also think of abbreviations that might apply to your business and buy those as well (e.g., www.odbb.com).

Step 5: Save money by signing up for a longer-term agreement with GoDaddy.

Any other questions about buying a website address or putting a marketing plan in action for your future business? Contact Niki at [email protected] for a free consultation.