Outside aesthetic updates to your team site, there are a few things you can do to bolster your online image. Today we will cover how to personalize your site with a custom URL; we refer to it as a team-branded URL or domain.

Why do it:

Having a TeamUnify SwimOffice website is a simple and cost-effective way to increase your team's online image and professionalism. When you become a part of the TeamUnify family you get a team website to display and access all of your team's information and data.

Your team's website is hosted on the TeamUnify servers and is accessed with a URL like www.teamunify.com/alias. Your team's site is always available and indexed by Google and other search engines, making it easy to find when families search for your team online. However, as your team develops, parents and athletes alike love having an easy to remember URL when searching for and sharing your team's site.

A team-branded domain can be purchased and implemented easily and it only requires about 10-15 minutes of your time. Websites like GoDaddy.com or Domain.com allow you to purchase a custom URL for your team quickly and affordably.

How to do it:

Say you are the Bend Otters Swim Team, looking for a team-branded domain.

1. Go to the domain provider of your preference, say GoDaddy, and search for a URL or keywords like "Bend Otters". You will get back a bunch of options, but try to choose a ".com" domain. If the domain you want isn't available, or only available with an obscure extension like .info, try a different search, like bendottersswimteam.
2. Compare prices of your favorite URL. For example: "www.bendotters.com" in GoDaddy is $2.99 for the first year and $14.99 for the second year. On Domain.com the same URL is $9.99 per year (make sure to look for promotions). You may also want to purchase variants such as bendotters.org.
3. Once you have purchased your custom domain(s), simply email deployment@teamunify.com and let us know that you would like to use a team-branded domain, what the domain(s) are, and what domain host you purchased it or them from.
4. A TeamUnify agent will get in contact with you to set up pointing the name server records to our servers. We have two of them to point to: ns1.teamunify.net and ns2.teamunify.net. If you feel comfortable pointing the name servers, go ahead and change them (AFTER you have contacted your Deployment Representative), then let us know when you are done. Otherwise we will take care of changing them. This will need to be done for all the domains you purchased.
   1. GoDaddy - Pointing nameservers help
   2. Domain.com - Pointing nameservers help
5. All done! Within 24-48 hours, usually sooner, your team will be able to access your site through your new URL.

We are excited you have decided to dig a little bit deeper into your team's online brand and image. If you would like to check out a few other tips check out our Graphic Design blog for other helpful tips & tricks.

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