Your Free Subdomain vs Custom Domain
Your Free Subdomain
When your website is first built, it's available at a free subdomain like:
your-business-name.tradesite.ai
This is a fully working website — you can share it with customers and use it as-is. However, there are two limitations compared to a custom domain:
- It's not on your brand. Customers see "tradesite.ai" in the URL instead of your business name.
- Google won't index it. Search engines are blocked from crawling the subdomain, so your site won't appear in Google search results.
Why You Should Connect a Custom Domain
Connecting your own domain (e.g., bestconcretedenver.com) is the most important thing you can do after your site goes live. Here's why:
- Your name in the URL — Looks more professional and builds trust with visitors
- Google indexing gets enabled — Your site becomes eligible to show up in local search results
- Automatic sitemap — We generate a sitemap to help Google find all your pages
- SEO foundation — All the local SEO work built into your site only pays off when Google can actually see it
How to Connect Your Domain
See the Connecting a Custom Domain article for step-by-step instructions.
Don't Have a Domain Yet?
You can register one from any domain registrar:
- Namecheap — affordable and straightforward
- Google Domains — simple interface
- GoDaddy — widely used
Domains typically cost $10–$15/year. Look for something short that includes your trade or city and is easy to type.