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At Hero Marketing Agency, we consult with physicians and business owners on a fairly regular basis who do not own their domains or sites.
“In our experience, ensuring our clients own their content, their domain, and hosting is the only way to prove you have your client’s best interest to heart. We’ve found ourselves stepping into situations where this was never offered to the client by their previous provider or purposely buried in contracts, and the financial consequences can be shocking” says Josh Cates, Founder.
Are you one of the many business owners or physicians who don’t own their site? If so, you’re putting yourself at risk. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the dangers of not owning your website and the reasons why you should consider building one you own and control. Owning your domain is a necessity in today’s digital age, and we hope this blog post will convince you of that.
If you’re a business owner or physician, you know how important it is to have an online presence. Not only does it give your customers a place to go to learn more about your company and its products or services, but it also can be a powerful marketing tool.
By not owning the IP (intellectual property) of your own brand/company you are exposing yourself to a danger that could impact your business at any point. What if the company you are renting from goes out of business? What if you get sideways with them or desire a change? All the work on the photos, content, website design, backlinks, and SEO can be gone in the blink of an eye!
So, if you’re still using a free website builder or a rented website and haven’t claimed your domain name, now is the time to take control of your online presence. Invest in a professionally designed website that will help you attract new customers and grow your business.
It’s no secret that many businesses choose to lease a domain rather than build their own. After all, it’s a low-cost alternative that can seem like the perfect solution. Leased websites appear to be a low-cost alternative to building and hosting your own domain. While this option can be appealing, it’s important to understand the risks associated with leased sites before deciding.
The first and most obvious danger is that you don’t actually own the website. This means that you can be kicked off at any time, without warning or explanation. If this happens, all of your hard work building up the site will be for nothing.
Another danger is that the website may not be built properly. This can lead to crashes, security vulnerabilities, and other problems. If you’re not familiar with web development, you may not be able to spot these problems until it’s too late.
Another common issue is that you may not be able to customize the site to meet your specific needs. This can be a problem if you want to add features or change the website’s design.
If the website is not optimized for search engines, it will be much harder for people to find you. This can lead to lost traffic and lost potential customers.
Leased websites often come with basic features only. If you want to add additional features, such as an online store, contact forms, appointment forms, or a blog, you may have to pay extra. This can quickly increase your costs.
If you lease or rent, you may not be able to use your own domain name. Instead, you’ll likely have to use a subdomain of the website leasing company. This can make it difficult to build brand awareness and could harm your search engine optimization efforts.
Another important consideration is that the site may not be mobile-friendly. With more and more people using smartphones and tablets to browse the internet, it’s crucial that your site is designed for these devices and is mobile optimized. If it’s not, you could be missing out on a lot of potential traffic and customers.
Leasing or renting often requires signing a long-term contract. This can be problematic if you’re not happy with the website or if your needs change. You may be stuck paying for a website that you’re not using or that isn’t providing a great user experience or meeting your needs.
If you’re not careful, you could end up leasing a site with a poor web page design that is poorly designed and coded. This can lead to several problems, including crashes, security vulnerabilities, and poor search engine optimization.
If the website leasing company goes out of business or decides to stop offering the service, you could lose your site entirely. This would mean starting from scratch and losing any domain authority you have built to this point, which could be costly and time-consuming.
A professional website design can give your business a more polished, professional appearance which in turn can attract more customers or patients. It can also help to increase your visibility online and improve your search engine ranking.
But perhaps the most important reason to own your website is that it gives you control over your online presence. Without owning your domain and site, you are at the mercy of whoever is hosting your website (usually a free website builder) and their terms and conditions. This can be a recipe for disaster, as you have no control over what happens to your site or how it appears to website visitors and in search engines.
If you don’t own your website, you’re also putting yourself at risk of losing all your hard work if the builder decides to close down or change its terms and conditions. So, if you’re serious about your business or practice, make sure you own your website! It’s the best way to protect your online presence and ensure long-term success.
What can you do to protect your website and your business? The best solution is to own your custom domain outright. That way, you’ll have complete control over your website’s design, content, and hosting. Plus, you won’t have to worry about someone else taking it down or going out of business and taking you with them.
Hire a reputable web designer or developer to create a website from scratch. At Hero Marketing Agency, we prefer building websites on the WordPress platform. We also can help protect, recover, and maintain valuable content, branding, and resources on your rented or leased site that you have worked hard to develop. Make sure you own your website and your domain URL outright. Don’t lease it from someone else.
The bottom line is that leasing is a risky proposition. If you don’t own your site, you could lose it – and all the hard work you’ve put into it – at any time. So, make sure you take the steps to protect your website by owning it outright. It’s the best way to safeguard your business online.
If you have any questions about website ownership or website design, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re always happy to help!
As veteran of the NYC & Dallas Advertising Agencies, Kurt has managed paid media for many of the top brands within the country including DIRECTV, Charles Schwab, Ralph Lauren, and the NBA.
His focus involves designing a fully integrated paid media strategy tailored to each business’s goals and objectives. After moving on from the larger Ad Agencies, Kurt shifted his focus on aiding small and mid-sized brands craft their integrated paid media strategy. Outside of his paid media interests, Kurt spends his time rooting for his beloved NY Mets as well as traveling with his wife Lauren and two daughters Chloe & Camille.
Our clients at Hero Marketing Agency consistently praise Kurt for his high-touch communication style, thoroughness, integrated media knowledge, and his strategic approach.
Throughout my 25-year career as a multifaceted and data-driven entrepreneur and senior marketing executive, I have amassed a wealth of business knowledge by starting up five companies, three of which were successfully acquired. In addition, I have consulted in over 70 industries, giving me a unique and multidimensional perspective on business growth and development.
In my current role as Founder and CEO of Hero Marketing Agency, I understand the importance of strong relationships—our agency exists to help companies achieve transformational long-term success. I have a deep passion for working directly with organizations to realize real marketing returns and provide the best and most strategic services available.
I carry a DoD Top Secret Clearance, effective 17 April 2020, received a nomination for the Colorado Springs Advertising ICON award, recipient of multiple ADDY awards, and was honored to be nominated for Businessman of the Year by the Greater Boerne Chamber of Commerce.
Joanna is a creative director, an art director, and a designer with 20+ years of experience delivering world-class creative content. Her career has taken her from London (UK) to New York City, then down to the heart of Texas with her family.
She is a creative leader with proven strategic thinking, problem-solving, effective communication, and management knowledge who forges meaningful connections with internal and client teams. In her role with Hero Marketing Agency, Joanna collaborates with brands, content makers, and storytellers to formulate and bring to life the creative vision through compelling human-centered, results-driven user experiences.
Joanna has worked with various startups to global giants, including J.P. Morgan Chase, Google, Unilever, and Norwegian Cruise Line.
Imagine it’s 2001, and you have a new, yet heavy, phone in your hand with the latest technology— get ready to be in awe — it has a single-color display! Instead of black text on a gray background, you get to look at black text on a blue background.
Yes, it sounds underwhelming, but that’s what level of tech we were excited about. It’s the same year wireless phone providers began to connect networks for text messaging. And it’s the same year Heather entered the marketing workforce.
She has had the benefit of experiencing first-hand the evolution and digitization of marketing tactics. From oil & gas to technology transfer, no industry has been left untouched from the vast increase in data now available at our business fingertips. As a data-driven marketer, Heather has not only an appreciation for, but also a solid understanding of tracking and analyzing data to devise strategies and evaluate performance.
At Hero Marketing Agency Heather collaborates with clients to help them achieve a sound strategy for marketing. First to define and distill their goals. Then to develop strategies for goal achievement, articulating objectives, tactics, and success metrics. Great strategists are dynamic storytellers who have the ability to make the incredibly complex feel simple.
A native Texan, Heather has recently moved back to Texas after 14 years in Northern Indiana. She graduated with a double major in marketing and advertising from Indiana University South Bend with scholarship awards. Her collegiate career began at the University of Texas at Austin, but life and her husband took their adventure north.
She is happy to be back in central Texas where they are close to family and do not need a snow blower in the garage. She enjoys emerging technologies and new consumer electronics. An avid runner, some of her best creative ideas have happened mid-run.
Bob has always been an entrepreneur. He will tell you he has lived the American dream, starting and running his own businesses, which have included oil and natural gas exploration, healthcare, publishing, consumer electronics, e-commerce, franchise operations and marketing agency.
Graduating from the University of North Texas with an accounting degree, Bob received his CPA while an Audit Supervisor for the State of Texas. In 1983 Bob started his first business, an independent oil and gas exploration company, which he operated until 2007.
As the Co-Founder of Hero Marketing Agency, Bob is an invaluable part of the brand, and his talents expand beyond his dynamic abilities with projections and figures. Bob sits on the board and counsels on all matters relating to the brand’s financial well-being, in addition to consulting and handling the business management side for clients of Hero Marketing Agency.
In 2018 Bob added the title Director of Digital Strategy to his name, where his background in auditing and time as a CPA migrate perfectly to crunching data and making clear sense of the ever-changing world of digital strategy for Hero Marketing Agency clients.
Splitting time between Colorado and the Texas Hill Country, Bob is married to his high-school sweetheart of 51 years and loves volunteering in his hometown, where he serves on Boerne’s Planning and Zoning Commission. He also loves exploring the outdoors, bow hunting, cycling, and hiking.
Bob has always been an entrepreneur. He will tell you he has lived the American dream, starting and running his own businesses, which have included oil and natural gas exploration, healthcare, publishing, consumer electronics, e-commerce, franchise operations and marketing agency.
Graduating from the University of North Texas with an accounting degree, Bob received his CPA while an Audit Supervisor for the State of Texas. In 1983 Bob started his first business, an independent oil and gas exploration company, which he operated until 2007.
As the Co-Founder of Hero Marketing Agency, Bob is an invaluable part of the brand, and his talents expand beyond his dynamic abilities with projections and figures. Bob sits on the board and counsels on all matters relating to the brand’s financial well-being, in addition to consulting and handling the business management side for clients of Hero Marketing Agency.
In 2018 Bob added the title Director of Digital Strategy to his name, where his background in auditing and time as a CPA migrate perfectly to crunching data and making clear sense of the ever-changing world of digital strategy for Hero Marketing Agency clients.
Splitting time between Colorado and the Texas Hill Country, Bob is married to his high-school sweetheart of 51 years and loves volunteering in his hometown, where he serves on Boerne’s Planning and Zoning Commission. He also loves exploring the outdoors, bow hunting, cycling, and hiking.