As many small business owners know, branding is everything. It’s how you stand out, both online and offline. It’s how you create a memorable moment for your customers that will keep them coming back again and again. It’s how you stay top-of-mind when potential customers are on the search for services provided by businesses like yours.

In a crowded online landscape, any edge you can get to showcase your business is of paramount importance. What better way to do that than through a hyper-local domain name that celebrates the city you call home? Enter .boston, the domain ending created just for Bostonians and those who live, work and do business here.

The concept is simple: rather than choosing an old-school domain ending, Bostonians have the option to choose the domain that spells home. .boston is meaningful, memorable, and designed to serve as a public benefit for the people, organizations, and institutions that are affiliated with the City of Boston.

In case you’re wondering why you’ve never heard of city-branded domains before, it’s probably because Boston is one of only four cities in the entire country that had the foresight to launch and develop its own branded city domain. The only other U.S. cities whose residents and businesses have the benefit of a city-branded domain extension are New York, Miami, and Vegas. Globally, Paris, London, Tokyo, Sydney, and Berlin are also in this exclusive club.

Let’s explore some of the benefits that come with registering a city-branded domain name, and how they can help you to grow your Boston-based business, brand, or nonprofit.

Get the name you really want

Your domain name is often the very first thing your customers and prospects will see when they learn about your business or brand so making a strong first impression is vital. As a relatively new domain option, .boston still has a wide-open selection of short, memorable domain names available. Instead of settling for a tragically long or hyphenated domain name in a legacy domain extension, with .boston it’s still early enough to get the perfect meaningful, memorable, and locally relevant domain name without having to compromise.

Show your Boston pride

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Bostonians have been more cognizant than ever of the value and importance of shopping local. People know that when they buy a cake from a family-owned bakery or a piece of art from a local artisan, money will return to the community and improve the quality of life for all. You can show your Boston pride and let your neighbors know that you’re an active part of the local community by branding your business or organization on a .boston domain.

Stand out in Google searches

If someone is searching for a flower shop, hardware store, or any other local business in Boston, Google is likely to be their very first stop. As such, local business owners likely spend a lot of time and energy on search engine optimization (SEO) efforts to ensure that they show up at the top of the list of websites that appear in the search results. While competition is fierce, one of the best ways to stand out in a sea of searches for “local florist near me” or “hardware store 02199” is with a .boston domain name, which makes your business instantly recognizable as just that – local.

In case you’re worried whether a website built on a new domain like .boston might hurt your search presence or SEO, you can lay your fears to rest. Google has made it very clear that its search algorithm treats websites on new domains like .boston exactly the same way as it treats legacy domains endings like .com and .org.

Spend less on advertising

Having Boston as a keyword in your domain name can potentially help you save money on pay-per-click advertising. While pay-per-click ads charge you based on the number of clicks your ads get, the cost of those clicks varies depending on an important factor called your “quality score.” A major player in determining your quality score is the rate at which users click, or choose, your ad over competitors for specific search queries. The more often your ad is chosen for a search query (with a positive user experience), the higher your click-thru rate and the stronger your quality score.

When your website has a short and relevant domain name, it can help instill instant credibility and relevancy to your ads that help to boost your click-thru rate and subsequently strengthen your quality score. Plus, a great quality score can help your ads rank higher in the search results at a lower cost per click.

Be more memorable!

According to Google, a new domain extension, like .boston, may help your business, organization, or brand to “stand out by being unique, which can also help create a more lasting impression.”At the end of the day, you can think of your .boston domain as your partner in brand-building. It can help you capture the attention of your customers and prospects; and leave a strong impact that makes your website easy to remember, share and recommend to others.

Ready to take your business to the next level and showcase your local love? Get a .boston domain of your very own on sale now at GoDaddy. See sale terms on the GoDaddy.com website.