Google Domains Web Hosting Partners

googledomains

This morning I’ve been working on a site domain issue for a new client who we’re building a website for, along with social media and email newsletter campaigns. The issue I’m working on is rather obscure, and I had a quick thought to check out how other domain services handle it to compare with the service we are using (Namecheap) for this account.

I reviewed the regulars such as Hover, GoDaddy, eNom, Network Solutions etc then remembered that Google had recently opened up its own domain service to everyone after a while in beta. We had a beta account early on and I moved over one domain there to see how things worked. It’s a nice, clean, simple, and straightforward approach somewhat synonymous with Hover’s.

What surprised me this morning (I’m sure it’s been there for a while and I’ve just missed it since I don’t use Google Domains on a regular basis) are the promoted website building partners that Google is prompting here along with its own (terrible) Blogger service. Domain services such as Namecheap or GoDaddy offer an in-house style page builder that is an additional cost / upsale for domain purchasers. I wonder what the deal is between Google and these services?

All of these are relatively easy-to-use services and have their own unique monthly or yearly costs. We use Squarespace and Shopify occasionally for clients as a caveat. I wonder what the conversion rates for these are? Do people (not website devs or agencies like ours) sign up for these services through links such as this?

I wondered if other domain services had similar promoted partner offerings, and it looks like Hover has recently rolled out a similar thing…

 

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Obviously, Google isn’t going to promote Tumblr after it was acquired by Yahoo last year, but Squarespace and Shopify also show up in Hover. Format is an interesting addition as I’ve always thought of them as a more static / portfolio type host.

As an aside, I wonder if other smaller site builders such as Ghost or Barley (in reboot mode now) will find audiences through these types of promotions?

Regardless, I encourage everyone to have a blog for their own person and to have a site for their business / group / school / club / nonprofit / church / organization etc. You simply cannot base your online identity (personal or professional) on Facebook or Facebook Pages for many reasons. These types of promotions will hopefully lower the bar and help more people on the web realize that.

Now that you can easily create and design website on your phone, it feels as if the act of setting up a site has moved from something like “specialized knowledge” into common understanding. That’s a good thing and will make the web stronger (even if it gets a little uglier).

And when you get ready to take your site to the next level, get in touch and we’ll build you something unique and capable of what you need after you get your feet wet.

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