Kickstart Domain Visibility with the Right Domain Name Kimberly Michener, Sr. Director, Brand and Marketing Communications, Identity Digital “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?” You can ask a similar question about your website. “If you choose a beautiful theme and fill it with all types of content and no one ever finds it, does it impact your business or organization?” Several factors work together to determine the impact a website has. Identifying and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) can help search engine optimization (SEO) specialists find the balance that leads to the right people finding the site and interacting with it. Looking at a single metric, like web traffic, can provide some insight, but it takes more to understand how effective the website is overall. Tracking SEO domain visibility can help. What Is SEO Domain Visibility? SEO domain visibility represents how effective your website content is at building organic traffic. Basically, the score acknowledges that for people to find a website organically, it has to rank for the keywords they type into a search field. Then, the content descriptions, snippets, or other previews that appear in the search results must be compelling enough to get people to click.  There are different methods for calculating a visibility score. Searchmetrics, for example, uses the search volume of the keywords a site ranks for, the ranking position the site achieves, how often the site’s URLs are in organic search results, and CTR (click through rate). Similarly, Moz factors in all rankings of a site’s keywords and applies an estimated CTR with weightings based on keyword rankings. The Impact of the Domain Itself While you won’t see a number representing domain name effectiveness factored into a domain visibility calculation, it does affect the result. Long URLs that look more like lines of source code than a brand name can discourage people from clicking. Furthermore, if a competitor is the next result on the list, its domain name reflects what its business does, and the URL for the search result is clear and concise, that’s probably the one the web user will click. Short, to-the-point domain names with the top-level domain (TLD) .com are hard to come by, as most have been registered by businesses or speculators. Fortunately, descriptive TLDs, such as .catering, .hospital, and .live (and hundreds more), can help create domain names that help you build an authentic digital identity by using both sides of the dot to express exactly what your business does. They’re easier for web users to read, understand, and remember, which can increase domain visibility, website traffic and engagement with your site. For instance, Amna Suleiman, digital marketing specialist at OneStream, wanted two clear, meaningful and effective words for the company’s domain. Research showed that ‘onestream’ and ‘live’ were high-volume search keywords for live streaming, so the company chose onestream.live, which gave them the desired SEO results. SEO Consultant, Fili Weis, adds, “seo.consulting is the best domain name available for our niche. Our website’s purpose is clear to potential visitors who see us in Google search results and across the web. More importantly, our name helps search engines understand the purpose of our website. Using a new top-level domain is a superb strategy to build our brand, increase relevant site traffic, and ultimately drive conversions.” In addition to choosing the right domain name, there are other steps you can take to improve visibility: ●      Strengthen content quality: Ensure your site features a variety of content types, such as videos, infographics, and downloadable assets, as well as text. All content should be optimized for search, but it should also be insightful, informative, and valuable to your audience. The nuts and bolts of SEO can put your content on a search results page, but its quality will get people to click. ●      New keywords: Look at keywords related to your core focus to see if your audience is searching for different terms, and make sure you rank for them as well. ●      Optimize content for the answer box: People often type questions instead of just keywords, so Google responded a few years ago with the “answer box” or featured snippets to respond to questions right on the search results page. Answers and snippets give you the advantage of putting your content at the top of the search engine results page. To be chosen for this feature, research the “People also ask” section to see if you can provide a better answer than what’s available or include a bullet list in your content that answers questions. If you consistently produce quality content, you may find Google chooses your content in some cases without any extra strategy on your part. ●      Run a site audit and address findings: Errors such as duplicate content, site loading time, and the status of your site map can impact search rankings. Correcting the technical side of SEO can contribute to better search rankings and, therefore, better visibility. Monitor SEO Domain Visibility It’s important to remember that if you achieve a good domain visibility score today, it may not be good tomorrow. Your competition may step up their game, or an algorithm change may create search engine ranking reordering. By monitoring this metric, you can stay informed of changes and adapt to maintain visibility in front of your audience. However, stay focused on the basics: a domain name that reflects your brand and your business, content optimized for search engines, and a focus on the keywords your audience uses in searches. It will keep you well-positioned to make your website visible online. Kim joined Identity Digital in 2021. She heads up brand and marketing communications and was instrumental in spearheading the successful Identity Digital rebrand and consumer campaign launch. Kim brings two decades of marketing experience from both agencies and enterprises in tech and various other industries. Before Identity Digital, she managed the advertising program at Epson America.

Fashion Brands Choose Domains with Meaningful Words on Both Sides of The Dot for Online Branding Innovative and Cutting-Edge Clothing and Apparel Businesses Craft Memorable Domains for Their Online Stores.   BELLEVUE, WA – September 27, 2022 –Identity Digital™, a leader in connecting the online world with domain names and related technologies, announced after an exciting Fashion Week that emerging, small as well as well-known businesses such as Vogue and Michael Kors are choosing descriptive domains to elevate their digital brands. Descriptive domains allow users to benefit from meaningful words on both sides of the dot and can anchor a strong search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, helping shoppers find businesses online more easily. Smart branding is key to competitiveness in the fashion industry. A brand communicates a business’s unique characteristics—the visible style and the feelings and emotions associated with it. In the digital era, building a cohesive brand online is essential to continue to express a business’s brand identity and remain on the cutting edge. Numerous fashion-related companies are taking advantage of descriptive domains that use both sides of the dot to showcase their brands. For instance, premier and innovative fashion magazine Vogue directed readers to its online Fashion Week edition with the domain vogue.world. This domain name clearly expresses what Vogue embodies, fashion all over the world, and installs this concept of the brand in each reader. Other famous fashion enterprises choosing shorter, more memorable domain names that reflect their brand identities include michaelkors.global and ralphlauren.global. Fashion businesses are also using Identity Digital top-level domains (TLDs) to quickly communicate exactly what their businesses do, such as president.shoes, the Johnston & Murphy site about the tradition of providing footwear to U.S. presidents, and staud.clothing, a leader in wardrobe staples. Descriptive TLDs are popular as well with emerging brands, such as brielle.clothing, featured in Who What Wear 2021, Ali MacGraw’s company butter.shoes, and freedomheated.clothing, which offers heated clothing for motorcyclists. Limitato.shop and limitato.clothing chose their names for businesses that offer wearable fine art, babycakes.clothing is a black-owned crochet boutique with products created by cancer survivors, and bearwear.clothing, is a loungewear and comfort brand founded by MTV’s The Challenge and Ex on the Beach UK alum Rogan O’Connor. The Wrap Life, which offers authentic African headwraps, chose TheWrap.Life as its domain. Nnenna Stella, founder, says, “I just thought it was the perfect introduction. It’s the name of our company, and .life supports our mission – we’re doing things differently.” “We’ve seen a steady uptick in fashion-related businesses purchasing our domain names in the past four years, with 2021 showing a significant increase,” said Akram Atallah, CEO of Identity Digital. “Choosing the optimal domain is the basis of a successful digital branding and SEO strategy, and we are excited to see small as well as larger well-known fashion and apparel brands embracing descriptive domain names to make it happen.” Those interested in learning more about Identity Digital domain names should contact their preferred domain registrar to check availability and pricing. About Identity Digital Identity Digital Inc. simplifies and connects the online world with domain names and related technologies to empower people to build, market, and own their authentic digital identities. With the world’s largest portfolio of nearly 300 TLDs such as .live, .technology, and .restaurant, Identity Digital operates around 25 million domains on its innovative registry services platform. In addition, they enable customers to discover, register, support and use high-quality domain names with its registrar, Name.com. Headquartered in Bellevue, WA, Identity Digital is a global company with approximately 250 employees.

The MoneeMint family proudly welcomes Sharon Shahzad as Chief Marketing Officer. As part of MoneeMint’s commitment to building and delivering the world’s best ethical and transparent banking solution, we have appointed a world-class Chief Marketing Officer to join us on the journey on delivering a refreshing banking experience for our customers. About Sharon: Sharon is a highly accomplished and recognised Senior Marketing professional, with over 17 years of experience in marketing, earning a BA Honours in Graphic Communications. She has successfully built marketing functions from the ground up and helped to scale-up businesses globally.   Sharon has an affiliation and genuine passion for Start-Ups, whose personal experience will prove invaluable to MoneeMint’ s plans both in the short, medium, and long term.   Her knowledge of the market and what creates and breeds loyalty to a brand is second to none and she will be a huge asset to our Senior Leadership Team. Sharon is highly respected in her field and alongside winning a number of awards, has most recently been invited to join a panel of global marketing leaders to mentor and guide a wider community of 1.5Million marketers. Sharon has also been featured in a few business leadership and entrepreneur publications as the ‘Most Influential CMO to follow in 2022’, she has a career full of accolades including working with Liverpool Football Club, she also recently partnered with Universal Pictures on a promotional campaign for the Minions: The Rise of Gru. Sharon is an entrepreneur by nature and is currently involved in a few tech projects including running her own e-Commerce business selling Ethnic fashionwear.   MoneeMint’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Hassan Waqar, says: I am genuinely delighted to warmly welcome Sharon as our group Chief Marketing Officer. Her vast experience in this critical role as an accomplished and proven senior marketeer will add an additional dimension to our launch plans as the newest and freshest Neobank in the UK.   We are a team of experts with extensive experience within our chosen fields, we come together and form a formidable team. We are a bunch of innovators, technologists, entrepreneurs, and futurists all geared to one common goal: To build the greatest bank on the planet. At MoneeMint, we are uncompromising about attracting the best talent and I’m so genuinely proud that Sharon has felt inspired to join our class-leading Senior Leadership Team.  I have no doubt that she will have a huge impact on MoneeMint’s purpose, values and sustainable growth ambitions, to have a lasting impact on the customers and communities we are privileged to serve.     MoneeMint has very ambitious plans to take over the ethical banking market through the innovative products and services we are looking to offer initially in the UK and then wider across Europe and the GCC.    Sharon says: I’m delighted to join MoneeMint at this exciting time. MoneeMint is building the world’s best ethical bank, offering its customers a transparent, fully integrated, ethical, and refreshing banking experience, by putting its customers first and enabling them with effective financial management tools, ensuring everyone is on top of their finances. The value proposition appealed to me, as there is a need for a customer-centric ethical banking system, for too long traditional banks, have gotten away with not being open about where our investment and money are going, and banks are not aligned with customers’ ethical beliefs and principles. I look forward to building out the go-to-market marketing strategies and building the marketing function from the ground up and ultimately scaling MoneeMint globally. About MoneeMint: Fresh like the flavour of mint, an experience that reimagines how you think about banking.  A bank built for your smartphone architected around your lifestyle. Built on the foundations of socially responsible banking and innovative technology, we bring to you digital financial services that are intelligent, unique, and most important, refreshingly delightful. We are a team of experts with extensive experience within our chosen fields, we come together and form a formidable team. We are a bunch of innovators, technologists, entrepreneurs and futurists all geared to one common goal: To build the greatest bank on the planet.

Churches Are Leveraging .church Domain Names to Boost their Brand and Digital Engagement More Than EverMyths about starting an online business that BELLEVUE, WA – September 26, 2022 – Identity Digital™, a leader in connecting the online world with domain names and related technologies, announced that 1 in 3 churches named in this year’s Outreach Magazine’s Outreach 100 lists are using .church to clearly identify themselves as a church, match their branding, and easily engage with their members and guests online and offline. The number of churches in the Outreach 100 lists using .church has increased significantly in recent years. Digital engagement and spiritual connections with people far beyond church walls have been increasingly important, but the pandemic has made it a necessity and priority for church leaders. And the rapid adoption rate of .church domain names shows that churches are recognizing the value of using .church domain names to reach more people and engage online. “Any time we promote a CTA from the stage or on video, sharing the domain and short URL has always been simple and memorable. This gives us the best opportunity to get easy, actionable steps in front of our members and guests,” says Connor Wood, Eastview Christian Church’s Online Campus Pastor. Justin Stewart, creative director of Canvas Church, explains, “We wanted to keep things as easy to remember and simple as possible, so when canvas.church became available, we took it.” When asked how .church has improved Canvas’ ministry impact, Stewart shared: “The biggest impact is the shareability of canvas.church. It’s easy for staff and regular attendees to say, “check us out at canvas.church.” Oklahoma-based Life Church chose life.church “to share and talk about the church in a natural way,” Bobby Gruenewald, innovation pastor, says. Rachel Feuerborn, PR Manager, added: “[.church] allowed us to create a distinct name and brand separate from other Life Churches around the world.” The church also decided on youversion.church for its Bible App, which has more than 500 million installs globally. “[youversion.church] allows us to communicate (even with our URL) that we have offerings designed specifically for churches,” Feuerborn explained. Church websites have become a critical touchpoint for people searching for a church to visit. Church seekers often begin their search online and make over 823,000 monthly searches for “churches near me” as they seek to connect. And online giving is now the most common way for people to tithe and donate. “Our goal is to provide churches with the most authentic and relevant domain names to express their digital identities,” says Mina Neuberg, CMO, Identity Digital. “We want to empower churches to make every word count and express who they are from the very first impression – before and after the dot in their domain names.” Neuberg adds, “The concept of ‘worship’ has changed in the digital age. Church leaders know that their church’s digital front door is as important as the physical front door, if not more. .church can help them get instant recognition, strengthen their branding, and increase their website’s click-through rate to reach more people and engage more effectively. Congratulations to the churches on this year’s Outreach 100 lists that are making a difference in their communities and beyond!” Learn more about the benefits of.church domain names. About Identity Digital Identity Digital Inc. simplifies and connects the online world with domain names and related technologies to empower people to build, market, and own their authentic digital identities. With the world’s largest portfolio of nearly 300 TLDs such as .live, .technology, and .restaurant, Identity Digital operates around 25 million domains on its innovative registry services platform. In addition, they enable customers to discover, register, support and use high-quality domain names with its registrar, Name.com. Headquartered in Bellevue, WA, Identity Digital is a global company with approximately 250 employees.