Registering your name

[Gregory]

What do you think about registering your name as a domain name? I can understand that someone wants to use his own name for his personal website or blog. But, what about business websites?

[AlexMarkets]

I guess it depends on whether or not you think people would be searching for your name on Google. You could always set up a single page with links to your main websites and pages on social media. Some freelancers do this.

[MattBarthorp]

What do you think about registering your name as a domain name? I can understand that someone wants to use his own name for his personal website or blog. But, what about business websites?

If your business/brand name is registered and known by your name, then you should definitely register such a domain and build your business website around it. But beware. unless you have a pre-existing reputation, using such a domain might look unprofessional.

[dylandreamer]

Registering your name as a domain is one of those things that sometimes sounds better in theory than it is in practice. Of course, for high profile individuals in any field as well as anyone whose name is associated with their work, registering a domain with your name is the smart thing to do.

[WebbishFaren]

You can register your name as a domain without building a full-fledged website. I've seen them used essentially as portals with links to the individual's social media pages. You can put together a site like this in less than an hour.

[Addison]

If you are starting out in your chosen field and intend to "build a name for yourself", you could register the name and have your domain parked until you feel a YourName.com website is of benefit. Can domain names be parked indefinitely?

[MattBarthorp]

If you are starting out in your chosen field and intend to "build a name for yourself", you could register the name and have your domain parked until you feel a YourName.com website is of benefit. Can domain names be parked indefinitely?

Well suggested Addison. As far as the period until a domain can be parked is concerned, there is no limit to it. You may park it as long as you wish for provided your web hosting provider allows you to do so.

[webwanderer]

I've heard other webmasters say their logs show traffic every month from searches using their name. They don't have it in their domain name, but it's elsewhere on the site thus triggering the search result.

For the majority of us who are not celebrities by any means, perhaps people are searched for by their name more than we realize. Having a "your name" domain and redirecting to your main site might add some traffic.

[MattBarthorp]

I've heard other webmasters say their logs show traffic every month from searches using their name. They don't have it in their domain name, but it's elsewhere on the site thus triggering the search result.

For the majority of us who are not celebrities by any means, perhaps people are searched for by their name more than we realize. Having a "your name" domain and redirecting to your main site might add some traffic.

I don't think if this would attract benefit for your website. We can see that many individuals across the globe share a similar name. So if someone runs a search query using a real name and lands onto an unintended website, they'd usually close the site and head forward. This can be a concern as the bounce rate would start to build up hence probably decreasing your sites rankings in SERP's. So unless you are too sure about the uniqueness of your name, the thought of using such a technique might prove fatal in the long run.

[newebster]

I think, unless your name was Steve Jobs or Sergei Brin, it would take so much time, work and effort to build your domain and website reputation on the net. I would just stick with keyword rich domains.

[Allegro]

I have ever tried to register my legal name but it's taken already, despite its unpopularity LOL. Anyway, I agree that it is easier to build reputation of a keyword rich domain than a personal-name domain.

[DPS Computing]

Yeah, for the reasons mentioned I wouldn't think that it is beneficial to do this for most people. As has been said, keyword rich domains are more likely to lead to success (assuming they are relevant of course ).

[Joshie]

You might want to go for domain name containing your name only when you want to have a personal blog or a portfolio. Otherwise, I don't see why. Running a business named with your name is not that a good idea.

[sbglobal]

For the majority of us who are not celebrities by any means, perhaps people are searched for by their name more than we realize. Having a "your name" domain and redirecting to your main site might add some traffic.