How To Register Your Personal Name As A Domain Name

Are you a personal brand who'southward just getting started? Are you wondering what would brand a keen domain proper name for your personal brand website? This is a question we become asked a lot by our clients and by the members of our membership, Make Your Marking Online. And then allow's wait at some of the options available to you.

What different kinds of domain names could yous choose?

When it comes to domain names for personal brands, broadly speaking, you can get one of three ways:

Use your ain name. So y'all could have YourName.com, YourName.co.uk, or YourName.net – whatever yous decide to go for. A few highly-successful online entrepreneurs out at that place, like Marie Forleo or Chris Ducker, practise this.
Utilize your business organisation proper name. A couple of examples that come up to listen here are Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income and Chris Marr with the Content Marketing Academy or CMA.
Use a keyword. Your domain name includes a keyword that your platonic customers or clients may search for on Google. An example of this is Mark Shaefer, whose domain name is businessgrow.com.

We're going to look at the pros and cons of each option in more details.

Why would you employ your own proper noun every bit your domain name?

one. It makes it easier for people to find you online

When you meet someone at a briefing or an effect, don't you tend to recollect their name, rather than their business proper name?

When people mention y'all, recommend you, or refer yous to others, they are more likely to use your name. Because information technology's generally more memorable and easier to remember.

Whenever we Google Pat Flynn, for example, we never search for his actual business and website name – Smart Passive Income. It's quicker and easier to only search for Pat Flynn because his name is what we remember offset!

2. It makes it easier for you to change business concern direction

If you outset off in business organization by offering a service, but then decide to switch to something else, you can brand that transition quite easily if you use your proper noun as your domain proper noun.

Generally speaking, you tin take your proper name in whichever business direction y'all want! It's certainly more adjustable than a concern name or a keyword-rich domain name.

So if y'all want the flexibility to change direction or course-right in business, choice your own name. That gives you the space to examination a few things out without feeling as well restrained.

A good example of this is Janet Murray. Who started out talking almost PR, but as her business has grown, she now talks about growing your audience and wider marketing tactics.

What are the downsides of having your proper noun as your domain name?

ane. Information technology makes your website harder to sell

If you lot're a personal brand using your own name as your domain, you might struggle to discover a buyer for your website. That'southwardif y'all ever decide to sell it.

Unless you lot find somebody else with the exact same proper name and offers the same services, it may be trickier to sell your website on.

2. It makes it hard to work out what you do

Another reason why you lot may decide against choosing your own name every bit your website domain name is that your proper noun doesn't immediately tell people what you lot do and how yous help.

If we had used MartinHuntbach.com or LyndsayCambridge.com for our website, for example, it'd be a lot harder for our clients to work out what information technology is we do!

3. Your proper noun may exist hard to spell

If people struggle to say or spell your name (like in our case withMartin Huntbach!) you may be reluctant to use your own name as your domain proper name.

And that's part of the reason why nosotros decided to apply Jammy Digital and non MartinHuntbach.com! Of course, if y'all have a nice comfortable name that everybody can easily spell, then it'due south a different story altogether!

4. It makes it harder for you to alter your business structure

While Martin first started our business on his own a few years ago, Lyndsay has now joined and co-owns the business.

Had we gone for MartinHuntbach.com, it may take been harder to communicate to our audition how Lyndsay had joined the business organization.

If you lot're e'er thinking of changing the structure of your business organization, you may find the transition harder if you've used your name as your domain name.

Why would you choose your business name as your domain proper noun?

Using your business proper name as your domain proper name is a common choice for personal brand websites. And here are some benefits of doing this.

one. It makes it easier for you to sell your website

Because your business isn't linked to a specific proper noun or person (i.e. yous!), you might notice selling your website easier, if yous e'er decide to.

A great case of this is Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com. A few years agone, Martin Lewis successfully sold his website. And while we're but speculating here, it's reasonable to believe that he may have struggled to find a heir-apparent, had he chosen his website MartinLewis.com.

Of course, this point is simply relevant if you're planning to sell your website. But even if you're not setting upwards with the intention of selling, yous never actually know, do you?

two. Information technology makes what yous do articulate

By using a concern name as your domain name, y'all can be 100% clear and specific about what it is y'all exercise.

Using the MoneySavingExpert.com example one time once more, just past looking at the website proper name, you know exactly what yous're going to get! But before Martin Lewis became associated with the make, you lot wouldn't have known what Martin Lewis did. Had he called his website MartinLewis.com, his story may be entirely different!

Why would someone NOT use their business organization name equally their domain name?

i. It makes it harder to modify business direction

While using your own name as your website domain allows yous to modify business direction fairly hands, your concern name can tie into a niche or an industry.

And plainly, that can be frustrating if yous want to tweak or change business management months or years downwards the line.

When we first started out, we offered both SEO and web design. And when nosotros gradually stopped offering some of the services that we originally provided, the word digital in our business proper noun meant our services yet fell under the umbrella of digital marketing. So that worked out well for us. But of grade, had we decided to become estate agents, we might have had a slight problem with our domain proper noun!

2. It makes it harder to build a personal connectedness with you

Occasionally, if you're a personal brand using a business concern name equally your domain name, your customers and clients may not experience that strong personal connection with you lot.

But this is something y'all tin easily fix.

An example of this is Pete Matthew, who runs Meaningful Money. A lot of people know Pete Matthew because of the incredible effort he puts into his podcast and his content marketing. Yes, he'southward using his concern name as his domain name. But he notwithstanding builds rapport with his audience past being at the forefront of his brand. If you follow his work, you lot'll know his proper name.

And then if you are going to utilize your concern name equally your domain name, information technology's important you lot become yourself, your proper name, and your face out at that place!

iii. Information technology makes it harder for people to find y'all

As we mentioned before, people tend to call up names and faces more than they recall concern names. This ways someone is more likely to wait for your name in Google, rather than your business organisation name.

And sometimes, when we search for someone'due south name, their social media channels may come in the search results before their website. Because of this, sometimes finding your actual website may accept a fleck longer – not a huge issue, but go on in heed that this may feel frustrating to some.

What virtually including a keyword in your domain name?

It certainly used to be easier to rank on search engines for a particular keyword if yous had that exact keyword in your domain proper noun.

But that'due south not really the case anymore.

Yeah, having a keyword in the domain name nevertheless has some weight, merely not as much as it used to.

1. Including a keyword in your domain name makes what you do clear and could help your rank college

Had we picked WebDesignBlackpool.com every bit our domain proper noun, there would exist no doubt about what it is nosotros practice, right?

And for many small local businesses, that's still common practice. Assuming your local competitors don't know much about SEO, if you included a relevant keyword in your domain proper name, you could still potentially rank higher than your competitors.

Withal, Google has changed so much over the years that only stuffing your domain proper name with keywords isn't really going to cut information technology anymore.

What are the disadvantages of using a keyword in your domain proper name?

ane. It tin make your website look spammy and old-fashioned

Equally a user, if yous're looking for someone online, you lot'll either await their name or their business concern name to pop up. Having something else that sounds a flake generic (like AccountantsManchester.com), in this mean solar day and age, can come beyond as spammy and old-fashioned.

ii. A keyword ties you in

Using a keyword within your business organisation name ties you in even more than than a business organization proper name does. If your website is WebDesignBlackpool.com, and you determine to motion to Manchester or start selling flowers, that's not really going to work!

Overall, we wouldn't recommend this practice to personal brand website owners.

Our favourite domain name option for personal brands

If you lot're a personal brand, our recommendation is to use either your name or your business name. And of out these two choices, nosotros encourage our clients to use their own name. After all, y'all're building a business based onyour knowledge and your expertise!

Yes, you may accept a complicated name (bet you tin can't shell Martin Huntbach). Simply plenty of successful people online accept not-then-obvious names. And they yet make information technology work, particularly when they accept the full weight of their business organization backside them. Become all in, and people will link the business name with your proper name.

And of course, if your aim is to sell your business organization a few years down the line, get with your business organisation proper noun!

Always buy the domain for your ain proper noun!

1 last slice of advice nosotros'd like to share is to always buy the domain for your own name. Renewal will cost you around $ten a year. And yous can have a landing page with forwarding rules and then that when someone types your proper name in Google, they'll exist redirected to your primary website. Martin does this here.

It's a really easy, price-effective mode to futureproof your business.

What's Side by side For Y'all?

Once you've decided on your domain proper name, that's when the existent fun starts…creating your website! So download our tried and tested homepage blueprint for personal brands – a comprehensive Gratis guide to creating your homepage.

The Make Your Mark Online Membership

If yous're a personal brand concern owner, and you lot're just starting out with your website, why not come and check out our signature membership, Make Your Mark Online? The doors are currently open, and information technology's been amazing to run across so many of our members go great results with their websites since joining in Oct terminal yr.

Our aim is to aid you build and grow a successful personal brand website. We take videos that embrace a range of topics – from how to choose a reliable host all the way to writing your website copy. We meet every Wednesday morning time for our Q&A and take an amazingly supportive and active customs in Slack. Come and cheque it out!