Your Website Address Is Costing You Clients (And the Fix Is $12 a Year)
Using a free Wix or Squarespace address signals 'hobby project' — here's why a custom domain is the easiest upgrade you can make.
Imagine you're looking for a caterer for your company event. You find two options online. One has a website at www.mariascatering.com. The other is at mariascatering.wixsite.com/home.
Both look decent. Both have menus and photos. But something about the second one makes you hesitate. It feels a little… unfinished. Like a shop with a handwritten sign taped to the window instead of a proper storefront.
That hesitation is real — and it's costing some businesses actual money.
What Even Is a Domain Name?
A domain name is simply your website's address on the internet. Something like yourbusiness.com. When someone types that into a browser, they land on your site.
A free subdomain — like yourbusiness.wix.com or yourbusiness.squarespace.com — is what you get when you build a website on a free plan with those platforms. Your name is there, but it's stapled onto their name. You're renting a corner of their sign.
A custom domain means you own the address outright. It's yours. yourbusiness.com. Full stop.
Why the Free Version Feels Off (Even If You Can't Explain It)
Clients might not be able to tell you exactly what bothered them — but they notice.
A free subdomain quietly signals a few things: that you didn't invest in your online presence, that the business might be new or casual, or that it's a side project rather than a proper company. None of that may be true — but perception is everything when someone is deciding whether to trust you with their money.
Think of it this way: you'd never hand out a business card printed on regular printer paper if you could help it. The free subdomain is the digital equivalent.
Your Email Address Is Part of This Too
Here's something most people don't think about: your email.
If your website is mariascatering.com, you can have an email like maria@mariascatering.com. That looks professional, memorable, and trustworthy.
If you're still on a free subdomain — or worse, using mariascatering2024@gmail.com — that's a different impression entirely. A custom domain unlocks professional email addresses that match your brand, and those small details compound over time into something called trust.
There's an SEO Angle Too
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation — basically, how easy it is for Google to find and recommend your website. Without going deep into the technical weeds, here's what matters: Google pays attention to how long a domain has existed and how it's structured.
A custom domain that you own and build on consistently gets more credibility in Google's eyes than a free subdomain. You're building on your land instead of someone else's. Over months and years, that difference adds up in terms of where you show up in search results when someone types in your kind of business.
A free subdomain means any authority you build is partly shared with the platform you're on. You're growing someone else's garden.
A Quick Story
A friend of mine runs a small interior design consultancy. For the first two years, she had a beautiful website — genuinely gorgeous — on a free Squarespace plan, with a .squarespace.com address. She was proud of it, and rightly so.
Then she invested about €12 to register her own domain and connected it to the same site. Nothing else changed. Same photos, same text, same everything.
Within a few months, she noticed her inquiry emails were getting quicker replies. One potential client mentioned specifically that her site "looked established." She also started showing up on Google for local searches she never had before.
Twelve euros. That was the entire investment.
What Does It Actually Cost?
A domain name typically runs between $10 and $15 per year. That's it. Less than a nice lunch.
You register it through a service like Namecheap, Google Domains, or GoDaddy. You pick your name, pay the annual fee, and it's yours. Most website platforms (even the free ones) let you connect a custom domain you've bought, often for a small monthly fee — though at that point, you'd be well-served talking to someone about building something properly from scratch.
The point is: there is almost no situation where the free subdomain is the better choice for a real business.
The Easiest Win You'll Make This Week
If you're running a legitimate business — a restaurant, a salon, a consultancy, a shop — and your website still ends in .wix.com or .squarespace.com or .wordpress.com, this is genuinely the easiest upgrade available to you.
It costs about as much as a couple of coffees. It takes an afternoon to sort out. And it immediately changes how potential clients perceive you before they've read a single word on your site.
Your website is your digital front door. Make sure it has your name on it — not someone else's.
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