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24
Website & Email Domains: How It Can Benefit You
If you don't know anything about website and email domains, getting one set up can seem like a daunting task. However, the benefit of having one far outweighs the drawbacks, both in terms of the actual cost of the domain (usually) and the effort required to get it purchased and configured. I promise that it's not as difficult as it seems, and hopefully, this article will steer you in the right direction to get you started.
Before we get into the basics of how to buy and configure a domain, let's take a closer look at some of the benefits of owning and using one. First, ask yourself what's easiest to share with potential customers, and what's going to be easier for them to remember when they want to sit down and start searching for properties. Is it bobsmith.brokeragedomain.com or bobsmithrealestate.com? Not only is bobsmithrealestate.com going to be easier for most customers to remember, but since you can choose just about whatever you want for your domain (as long as nobody else chose it first), you can match it up to your brand to make it that much more memorable. Bob Smith, from our example, could double down on something like "Realtor Bob," have his website at realtorbob.com, and have his email as bob@ realtorbob.com. There might be some stipulations around using "realtor," but you get the idea.
The domain is the perfect way for you to solidify your brand while making yourself that much easier to reach.
That takes us to the next big benefit of having your own domain—hosted email. There's no debating the convenience of using Gmail or Yahoo for your email needs. However, as a matter of further cementing your brand and conveying the professionalism of your business, using an email account through your domain goes a long way. When communicating with someone about a transaction that is potentially worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, wouldn't you feel more comfortable sending emails to bob@bobsmithrealestate.com instead of bobtherealtor@gmail.com?
Depending on the email host you go with, your hosted email account may include a myriad of other features and functionality as well. Office 365, for example, can come with the online version of the Microsoft Office suite. Google can provide hosted email as part of their Google Workspace product that includes numerous collaboration and calendar functionality along with the email account.
There's something to be said for the potential SEO benefit as well. Having a dedicated domain name pointed to your website ensures that all of your website's content is credited to it. This improves the strength of your domain and your brand and can even improve your website's search engine ranking. By itself, just having a domain name attached to your site isn't going to be enough to get you to the top of the search results, but it's a step in the right direction.
Many of the benefits of having a domain aren't just about having one, though. What domain you choose is also very important. Remember that this is about having something easy to remember, easy to type, and something that demonstrates your brand. It's not about trying to predict what customers in your market will search for and buying a domain to match. For example, if you have Bob Smith Realty on your website, logo, and signage, a good domain would be bobsmithrealty.com. If Bob Smith primarily works in the Roslyn, New York market, he might be tempted to buy domains like roslynpropertiesforsale.com and roslynnewyorkrealestate.com. Not only are those too general to be associated with him, but domains aren't search engines. A customer would need to remember that domain and type it in exactly to get to Bob's website. Just searching Google for "Roslyn properties for sale" likely won't have a greater chance of returning Bob's website simply because he has those domains attached to it. Also, since something so general is actually harder for a customer to remember, domains like this will often have the opposite effect from what you were hoping for when you bought it.
When it comes to getting your own domain and attaching it to your website, we make it easy to do through the DeltaNETTM. You'll find a "Purchase / Manage Domains" button on the domain settings page. If you just click that button and follow the instructions to search for and ultimately purchase a domain, the system will do all of the configurations for you. Once you've completed the steps, your new domain will already be set up with an HTTPS security certificate attached and be going to your website.
As far as adding hosted email to that domain or purchasing a domain through a third-party registrar and attaching it to your website, every registrar and email host has an interface that's a little different. This prevents me from being able to give you clear, step by step, instructions. However, I'll lay out the basics.
Both Delta Media Group's® support (assuming you're a Delta client) and the support available through the third-party domain registrar or email host of your choosing will be able to help you with the specifics. The basics of buying a domain come down to going to the registrar of your choice (GoDaddy is currently the most popular, but NameCheap and Network Solutions are others), searching for the domain you want, then following their instructions to purchase it. You can then add it to our system by clicking the "Setup a Domain I Own" button on the domain settings page in the DeltaNET and following the instructions. It will have you add a verification record to your domain, thereby proving to our system that you do own the domain in question, and then have you change your domain's name servers so that we can direct it to your website.
I realize that all sounds very intimidating, but when it really comes down to it, our system will tell you what to do with the domain, and you can then contact your registrar with those instructions. They'll either walk you through the changes or make them for you.
Adding hosted email is a very similar process. You start by choosing the hosted email provider that you want to go with. There are a lot of different hosts out there that offer email accounts at different pricing and with different features, so go with whatever fits you best. A few suggestions would be Google Workspace, Office 365, or Rackspace.
Once you've set up your account at the email host of your choosing, by following their instructions, they will provide you with some DNS records. Assuming your domain is already all set up in our system as per the general directions above, you'll just need to go back to that domain settings page in the DeltaNET, click on the Manage DNS button for the domain you're adding email to, then enter the records that your email host provided. Not everyone is comfortable manipulating DNS records, so that is exactly why our support team is available to help you with any trouble or if you're just worried about breaking something.
The best part of the whole process is that it generally just works once it's done. As long as your billing information stays up to date so that the domain and email hosting accounts can auto-renew, you'll likely never have to touch it again. At that point, your business will have all of the benefits of its own domain: practical benefits like search ranking and marketing, as well as some intangible benefits through the increased professionalism of having your own domain and domain-hosted email. Because there's just something about getting an email at myaccount@ myowndomain.com that makes a business feel more official.
