For your own website you need a domain, either you buy a domain name or you use a free offered subdomain for example from WordPress.com or Blogger.com. With a subdomain, your website will then have the name of your company .wordpress.com.
So is it better to invest in a "real" domain name?
What is a domain?
To be Shop to present yourself in the best light online or to start a blog, it is best to get your own website.
Every website has a domain, better known as URL (Uniform Resource Locator). Under this domain you can be reached, it is like an address on the Internet and therefore very important.
Behind this is the address of the server on which the contents of the web page are stored, this is located in a number queue.
You can access a web page by typing either the IP address or the domain name in the address bar of your browser. For example, for Google "173.194.70.94" you can also enter "www.google.de", as most people do.
So the IP address is enough to call up a website, but the many numbers are not so easy to remember. For this reason, you need a domain consisting of words and therefore easier to remember.
The three parts of a domain
A domain is divided into three parts. At the far right of the domain name is the Top Level Domain (TLD). It determines in which country or city the internet presence is located, for example .de for Germany, .at for Austria or .berlin for Berlin.
With the ending you can also indicate directly whether the domain is commercially oriented (.com) or serves information purposes (.info). With the new Top Level Domains, which also include .berlin for example, you can also classify the subject areas of the website.
Top Level Domains can be assigned as often as desired. The part before the dot in the domain name is called Second Level Domain. Second Level Domains are what is colloquially known as domains.
As long as it is not yet given to someone else, you can choose it yourself. Depending on what kind of website it is, you can choose your own company name or any other name that fits the website well.
Every second level domain in combination with a top level domain is only found once in the internet, so it is unique.
The third level domain name, also called subdomain, is used to access certain applications. For example, in large companies each department has its own domain.
What to do if the desired name is already taken?
Before the domain name is set for the website, it must be registered. If the desired name is already taken, you can try to find alternatives, for example instead of "meinwunschname.com" simply "meinwunschname.berlin". In the best case the visitor or customer can already see from the domain name what the website contains. For the computer, the top level domain is more important at first, because the internet address is read from back to front. When choosing the name, one should consider the applicable legal regulations. For example, you are not allowed to register a brand name if you do not have a reference to the name yourself.
One should take care that not everything that is allowed is also useful. For example, you are allowed to use umlauts in the domain, but it does not make sense because German umlauts cannot be entered on the keyboard in every country. You have to register your own domain in a Domain Name Registrar. The registration of the domain is limited in time, so you can not buy it permanently or you have to renew it annually.
Usually the term is one year, after expiry it is automatically extended. But there are also some that have a longer duration. Then you can save a few euros. For larger websites (not .de) up to 10 years are possible. Subsequent changes of the registration data or change of ownership are possible online.
Why is an own domain name better?
Having your own domain for your website shows trustworthiness and professionalism, especially in the business world this is of great importance.
The domain name is also in the e-mail address. The mail address should match your own domain, as this seems more serious than a name from an external mail provider. An own domain thus offers a serious web presence, professional communication by e-mail, a quick recognition and more customer confidence.
A website that is located on a subdomain is often financed by pop-up ads and banner ads. The provider automatically places these on the page.
Company websites look unprofessional when third-party advertising is placed on them. If you have your own domain, you can decide for yourself whether advertisements should be displayed or not and which advertisements should be displayed.
Another disadvantage of a subdomain comes through the search engines. Free websites are usually not even listed in search engines in the first place, because they are no longer subpages of the major provider websites. Therefore they can only be found by the exact address or links.
With a subdomain of WordPress you have the ending WordPress.com, this does not look professional to the visitor. The visitor sees with a top-level domain that you invest money and want to give your website a professional look. Another advantage of having your own domain with your own content is that it cannot be deleted so easily. With free websites it can happen that it suddenly just disappears from the net. This can happen if you allegedly violate the terms of use of the provider or the provider no longer exists. Another big disadvantage of a subdomain is that all content on the website belongs to the provider of the subdomain and not to yourself, as with your own domain.
Conclusion: Your own domain is better
If you are faced with the question of using your own domain name or sub-domain, you should definitely choose your own domain name so that you have a better Internet presence. Having your own domain not only offers many advantages, the website looks much more professional and gets more visitors through the search engines. With an own domain you can decide about your own website and you don't have to be afraid that it suddenly disappears.
All content belongs to you and you can also choose the advertising yourself. You can get your own domain quickly. To invest the few euros per year will be worthwhile in any case.
