Science

Here's Why You Should Own the URL of Your Name

If you think owning the URL of your name is only for celebrities, guess again. 

by Sharon Brandwein
Unsplash

You might think that owning the URL of your name is just something that your favorite author does. URLs are for business owners, self-help gurus and entrepreneurs, and wantrepeneurs. Anyone not selling or promoting anything just doesn’t need one.

While this may have held true years ago, the times are changing — and quickly. URLs can be used to up your professional game, camouflage past indiscretions or they can simply be a sound investment.

Owning the URL of Your Name Adds Instant Polish to Your Professional Game

Consider this less than 20 years ago we were still sending out resumes as email attachments. Some perhaps even bringing a hard copy with them into interviews. But here we are in 2019 and with so many other digital options it almost feels like resumes are heading towards obsoletion.

If you land on the radar of any potential employer you must know by now that checking your digital footprint is their first stop.

Having your own URL can streamline the process. Potential employers will look at your social media profiles (and everything that entails which we’ll cover later), your LinkedIn profiles, and every else about you that’s readily available on the World Wide Web. Having the URL of your name can put all of this in one hub, making you look like a boss.

It’s quick, easy, no fuss no muss.

You Can Clean Up Your Email Address

Digging a little deeper, having your own website gives you the opportunity to have a significantly more professional email address.

If there’s any chance that you’re still rolling with bonjovirulez@hotmail.com. You may want to rethink how that’s perceived in a professional atmosphere.

You will look significantly more mature and professional with an email address that reads Regina@reginaphanlage.com. Having your own corner of the internet with your career at the forefront of it sends a message to anyone looking that you’ve got it together.

Having the URL of Your Name Gives You Some Control Over What Others Can Find About You

So we’ve already established that potential employers (or anyone else with an interest in you wink, wink) will probably cyberstalk you to some degree.

So you may want to think about what you want others to see and know about you. What’s the image you want to send out to the world?

The great thing about owning the URL of your name is that you get to exert a little bit more control over what people can see.

If Regina Phalange buys the URL with her name, her website is guaranteed to show up as the first result on a Google (or any other search engine) search. This, in turn, pushed any other embarrassing results further down the page, possibly even to page two of the results. Wouldn’t want anyone seeing that now, would we?

Purchase the URL of Your Name as an Investment

Finally, if your name is pretty common, you can think of purchasing the URL of your name as an investment. There are folks out there that purchase domain names with the sole intention of flipping them so to speak.

There may be thousands possibly even millions of people in the world with your name. Grabbing the URL with your name early on ensures that you get it and the person with your name that lives in Denver, Colorado doesn’t. At some point down the line, you can even sell it for a tidy profit.

There are quite a few reasons for you yo own the URL of your name, but when all is said and done it’s pretty cool too. Namecheap.com offers domain names for as low as $0.98/year. Not only do they offer domain names, but they also offer web hosting packages as well, should you be so inclined.