Everything about your website matters. From the very last detail of graphic design to the grandest features of your landing page, all the features of your website are vital in ensuring its effectiveness and success. Now, one of the most important parts is your website URL. But it can be easily overlooked because of all the other features that you have to fix about your website. Well, today, we are going to be bringing the spotlight to your website link and telling you all about it. You will not only be knowing all about what is a website URL, and how to choose the best one for your website, but we will also be guiding you through customizing your own URL with Strikingly.
What is a Website URL?
A website works so that IP addresses communicate with servers every time a website is created and/or opened. Your website URL is the string of text that makes your website’s IP address much more simple to type and remember. Quick trivia (that probably few people know): URL means: Universal Resource Locator. As its name suggests, it helps you find and access different websites. It helps your site audience and customers find your website. Your website link may not be the same for all the pages on your website as each page has its own webpage URL.
To further explain the technical aspects of a website URL, let’s break down its part. So it typically has 3 parts (and in this specific order):
- Protocol. Or the “HTTPS://” part of your website link.
- Domain name. This is usually the name of your business or the name you assigned to your website.
- Top-level domain. This is the “.com”, “.net”, “.org”, and the likes.
Your website URL is: “protocol:// domain-name.top-level-domain” but if there is a particular page or section that you would like to explore, you would have to add a path (/) and the webpage you are trying to go to. So for instance, the Strikingly main page has the website link: https://www.strikingly.com/, but if I want to go to the page of Strikingly Blog, the webpage URL would be: https://www.strikingly.com/content/blog/.
Now, your website URL is a fundamental part of your website creation process because it is the address of your website. It is what your site audience and customers must remember and input in their browser to visit your website. In addition, your website link also plays a huge part in search engine optimization. It enhances user experience. It is also a factor that search engines consider when evaluating your website’s relevance to a particular search query. So don’t take creating or choosing your website URL lightly.
Choosing the Best Website URL
Image taken from Strikingly Product
Sometimes people stress about what their URL should be, but sometimes, they already have something in mind before they even create their actual website. Whether you are the former or the latter, we’re here to give you some useful tips on how to choose or come up with a website URL that is both unique and effective:
- Keep your URL easy to remember. This means finding the perfect spot where there is simplicity and balance. It can be tempting to think so far outside the box for your personalized website URL, but you should keep in mind that complicated names can be hard to grasp, let alone remember. So it is better to go with something simple but make sure that it perfectly encapsulates what your website represents.
- Know about the top-level domain (TLD) to use. This is not common knowledge, but the different TLD have their significant uses and representations. To name a few: “.com”, “.co” is often for commercial use, “.shop” is for e-commerce use, “.biz” is for small businesses, “.info” is for information, and “.org” is for non-profit. Knowing the right one to use would make your website URL so much better (and help you not be discouraged if “.com” is taken).
- Use keywords. This is a tip that specifically addresses your search optimization techniques. This is also much more applicable to a webpage URL because using keywords in them would help you rank higher in search engines. The more relevant your keywords are, the better you will be recognized by search engines. However, be careful not to overdo it, because too many keywords can be confusing and not helpful to search users at all.
- Avoid hyphens and numbers. You want your website URL to be purely letters as much as possible. Hyphens and numbers make your URL harder to remember and can easily lead to confusion for site users and visitors. Do yourself a favor: keep it to just words that are unique and relevant to your business and brand.
Changing Your Strikingly Website URL
Strikingly is an amazing website builder that helps you easily create your own website even if you have no prior experience in creating one. It has all the features you will need - from title banners to galleries of images and videos to your own online store. Strikingly has got you covered!
Once you sign up with Strikingly, you can choose from hundreds of templates to get you started. Once you do that, Strikingly automatically creates a website URL for you. To find this URL of yours, you just have to go to the “Settings” on the side menu of your site editor, and you will be directed to the “Domains” section, as you see in the picture below.
Image taken from Strikingly Product
The highlighted section here shows you your Strikingly URL. This website link would usually be composed of “Site-” then a bunch of different numbers. This would then be followed by the Strikingly domain: “-mystrikingly.com”. Now, by default, this would be the website link of your own landing page or the first page that your site audience will see once they go to your website URL. But, Strikingly allows you to easily change this and customize your own website URL. It could be practically anything you want it to be - your name, your business name, some sort of codename or tagline, anything. This is just another way of Strikingly to help you elevate your revenue potential and help your business to success.
Adding a Domain Name With Strikingly
Strikingly does not stop with a customized website URL. Strikingly also allows you to change your domain name itself. To clarify, “-mystrikingly.com” is part of your domain name and the other part Strikingly allows you to personalize. But if you ever want to also change the former, Strikingly can also help you achieve that.
The first thing you should know is that a domain is purchased. Now, you have two choices if you want to change your domain name: Buy from a third party and just connect it to your Strikingly website to get your customized website link, or you can directly purchase a domain from Strikingly and let Strikingly complete everything for you.
If you have already purchased your domain from a third party registrar, you can connect it by going to your Strikingly settings and inputting it into the custom domain section, as highlighted in the picture below. (Note that your Strikingly account should be on a Pro plan to do this.) But changing your website URL doesn’t end here.
Image taken from Strikingly Product
After you have entered your domain, you now have to sign in to your domain registrar’s account to access the DNS manager or settings of your domain. This is where you have to go to completely configure your domain records so that it properly connects to your Strikingly website. This configuration process varies depending on the registrar you purchase your domain from, so go visit their website link and read their guide or instructions. Take note that it usually takes up to 48 hours for this to take effect, so that’s how long you have to wait before your website URL is completely changed.
However, if you haven’t registered your domain from another registrar, you can also register a domain for your website URL directly with Strikingly. In the “Domain” settings of your site’s editor page, click the “Register New Domain”.
Image taken from Strikingly Product
You will then be able to input the website URL or domain name you want for your website. If it is available, our platform would tell you so and offer different new options for your top-level domain (.com, .net,.org., etc.). By default, you can register for one year, but you can change to your desired number of years before you register. After clicking on “Register”, fill out the personal information form, pay your fee, set your payment plan to auto-renew (or not), and confirm your ownership via email.
Image taken from Strikingly Product
Once you have already confirmed ownership of your domain name, you can now completely change that part of your website URL by going back to your site editor’s “Domain” menu settings and typing it on the “Custom Domain/Subdomain” portion. Et Voila! You have your very own customized website URL.
Wasn’t that fun and helpful? Strikingly have got your back in almost anything you would need and want for your very own website. If customizing your own website link is that easy with Strikingly, imagine the endless possibilities it can help you bring to life for your website and your business. So sign up now and have not just the best website but also the best website URL for you.
