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In 2012, I founded The Be Group to provide a service that would help people to build and develop their personal brands. The Be Group focuses on three main areas: personal branding, image consultancy and employability skills training. This means that I get to speak at many events and facilitate workshops about personal branding on a regular basis – I love it!
I always say there is at least one element of your personal brand that you can address from the comfort of your home, a coffee shop or the library on your university campus, and that’s your very own website.
You might be wondering why you should bother with a website if you already use something like LinkedIn, but put it this way: it’s your own space on the web to do what you want with it. That means you’ll always have a piece of real estate online to link to all of your other professional networks, share examples of your work, and host your CV.
Not only that, but it should appear in the search results when a potential employer looks for you on Google and other search engines. If you’re convinced that there could be some advantages of having your own website, the first step will be to register a domain. So how do you go about choosing it? Read on to discover my top tips…
Personalise, if you can
Potentially the best option for choosing a domain name for your website is to simply register your own name. This ensures that you can own the real estate on search engines when potential employers, recruiters, and other industry folk look for you online.
Despite this being a sensible option, it’s not always possible. What happens when someone has already registered that domain name? You can try other variations other than your first and last name; try using your middle name, or even using initials. If you have no success, a professional nickname or industry related term attached to your name could be equally effective.
Get location specific
Don’t just NYGoodHealth think about the main part of the domain name, you should also consider the top-level domain (TLD). This is the part of a URL that you’ll recognise as .com or .co.uk, but these aren’t the only options available.
My website for The Be Group is www.the-be-group.uk; this is the new, shorter, snappier domain for brands and individuals in the UK. You can also register domains for .wales, .cymru, and plenty of others too!
You might choose to register a couple domains with different TLDs to stop other people from registering your name at an alternative domain. If you register more than one domain, that doesn’t mean you need more than one website. All you have to do is have your website sit on your preferred domain i.e. uk and have other domains pointing to is. Not sure what I mean? Type in www.the-be-group.com and you will see it redirect to wwwthe-be-group.uk or www.asos.co.uk you will see it redirect to www.asos.com because they are a global marketplace.
Go short
If you’re going to be sharing links from your website on social media, you could think about registering a shorter URL. This is something that works really well with a .uk domain as it cuts down the number of characters you need to include in your posts. Not only that, but a short URL can be a good addition for your CV or cover letter; people might be more likely to remember it if it’s more succinct!
To read more of my blogs about personal branding and online branding for the graduate community please visit:https://www.gradjobs.co.uk/grads-corner/grads-corner-articles
Bianca Miller is a brand ambassador for the .uk domain names, and managing director and founder of The Be Group and Bianca Miller London. Passionate about helping others improve their personal brand, she frequently shares her expertise with students at events and forums around the country. For students wanting to boost their online brand with their own website, Bianca recommends visiting ecohosting; packages will be on offer to those who would like to create a .uk domain name.