Having a catchy, memorable domain is more crucial than ever. This can be the difference for small business owners between a potential client clicking on your website or passing it over. Understanding this significance, WordPress.com has unveiled a new feature: domain forwarding.
Just think about the times you’ve mistyped a website name only to be directed to the right place. WordPress.com has been capitalizing on this technique themselves. For example, the URL ownyouridentity.online. While catchy in itself, this domain reroutes visitors directly to WordPress.com/domains.
The relevance for small business owners lies in the potential applications. This feature is optimal for:
- E-commerce Campaigns: Launching a new product or service? By securing an engaging domain, small businesses can point it directly to their product page, ensuring that marketing efforts don’t go unnoticed.
- Rebranding: Sometimes, a business’s initial domain choice doesn’t resonate as much as one would hope. Instead of undergoing a massive overhaul, businesses can use a more memorable domain to mask the original, long-established one.
- Social Media Simplification: With the myriad of social media platforms and the varying usernames on each, it can be challenging to direct your audience to the right profile. WordPress.com’s domain forwarding lets businesses redirect a unique domain directly to their Facebook, LinkedIn, or any other social platform profile.
But how does a business set up domain forwarding on WordPress.com? It’s a fairly straightforward process, outlined in three steps by Paulo Trentin, Code Wrangler at Automattic:
- Navigate to the domain management dashboard via WordPress.com/domains/manage.
- Click on the desired domain, leading to its settings page.
- Access the “Domain Forwarding” section, input the URL for redirection, and save.
Furthermore, for those seeking alternatives to Google Domains—especially in light of its recent sale to Squarespace—WordPress.com seems to be positioning itself as the top contender. They’re offering seamless transfers to their platform, with an added perk of covering all fees. This gesture extends the domain registration by an additional year.
But that’s not all. Switching to WordPress.com appears to come with its own set of advantages. Small businesses can anticipate a faster domain compared to other popular platforms like GoDaddy, DigitalOcean, or Google. Additionally, they’re also throwing in free privacy protection and an SSL certificate, contingent on hosting with WordPress.com.
In essence, as businesses strive to make their mark in the digital landscape, tools that streamline and enhance their online presence are invaluable. WordPress.com’s domain forwarding feature, combined with their domain offerings, could be the toolkit that many small business owners have been eagerly waiting for. Whether you’re embarking on a rebranding journey or simply wish to direct traffic more efficiently, it might be worth exploring what WordPress.com has in store.
Image: WordPress
This article, "WordPress.com Introduces Domain Forwarding" was first published on Small Business Trends