Domain names allow computer internet protocol (IP) addresses to be located without having to memorize confusing strings of numbers. However, besides being a convenient alternative to IP addresses, domain names offer many other important benefits to your business venture. Because of this, the domain name market can be extremely competitive, resulting in thousands of dollars spent per name, if not more.
Company Credibility
A domain name can build credibility for your company, giving a professional and authoritative web presence. A well known and direct domain such as yourbusiness.com or yourproduct.com can help build trust with your customers. Websites that are free and provide confusing addresses such as www.webhostingcompany.com/yourbusiness/myproduct, can make customers wary of trusting your company. Customers may assume if you aren't willing to invest in a professional website that you may not have the means to offer a valuable product. Familiar domain extensions can also be important for credibility. For example websites with the extension of .info may make customers less comfortable than the familiarity of a .com name.
Search Engine Profitability
The right domain name can also yield increased sales from search engines and other online sources. When a customer goes online to search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN or bing and types in a certain keyword such as "cars," the likelihood of your website showing up as number one result will increase by having an exact match domain name such as cars.com. However, there are also other factors in search engine ranking such as back links from other websites, domain age and more.
Company Branding
Having a domain name that is the same as your company's name or product will help create a strong and recognizable brand for your company. This works in several ways, by helping costumers remember your business and return for future business, to help customers refer friends and family to your company and to build familiarity and trust.
Domain Email Addresses
When you own a domain name, your hosting company will offer email addresses with the associated domain name. This will help build more trust with your customers and display authority. So if your website was cars.com and a customer emailed you, you could reply to the email with customerservice@cars.com. Using free email services for your company such as @yahoo.com, @gmail.com or @hotmail.com offers no evidence of legitimacy to your customers and can lose their trust instantly.