Online Trends to Be Aware of in 2024

In the fiercely competitive arena of 2024, a company's survival and success rely on adaptability. The catalyst for that success? Understanding and leaning into the latest digital trends. 

Because of these trends, customer expectations are constantly evolving, and it’s up to forward-thinking companies to find new ways to meet their needs within the digital marketplace. 

Businesses can remain competitive and keep customers hooked by leveraging trends to craft innovative, engaging digital identities that resonate with modern consumers. By investing in your digital identity and taking advantage of emerging tech tools, your company can fully embrace up-and-coming trends while cementing itself as an industry leader.

Top Digital Trends to Implement in 2024

Whether investing in your branding or finding ways to make your online platform more interactive, you can use digital trends to cultivate personalized experiences and build innovative processes that keep you on the cutting edge of the digital landscape. 

Explore these top 2024 trends to get started:

1. Beyond the .Com: Using Creative and Unique Domain Names

A unique domain extension is the first step to optimizing your company’s domain name. Innovative companies seek new ways to make their digital identities more impactful and relatable by choosing highly creative domain names that still accurately represent their brands. 

A creative domain name goes beyond searchability, capturing the attention and imagination of customers.¹  According to an independent study by Nacho Industries research in December of 2023, 96% of people surveyed were open to a descriptive TLD.²  In a sea of generic domain names, a unique name can: 

• Engage customers on a deeper level
• Show off the specific personality of your brand
• Increase memorability

Using a creative domain name also helps to cultivate a more personalized, relatable experience for customers from the moment they click on your link or type in your web address.

Today, there are over 161.3 million .COM domain name registrations.³ While .com is undeniably a widely recognized top-level domains (TLD), its oversaturation makes obtaining a strong and pristine .com domain both costly and challenging.⁴ 

The rising trend of creative domain names allows businesses to express their unique value to customers while claiming a long-lasting digital asset. 

After all, your domain name is synonymous with your company’s onlinepresence, and picking out a memorable, impactful domain name can position youas an innovative company and elevate your reputation. You can then use yourdomain name branding to guide your other digital assets, such as your socialmedia handles.  With the world’s largest portfolio of nearly 300 TLDs,Identity Digital has a plethora of unique domains to match what you are lookingfor like .SOCIAL, .PRO, .FYI or .WORLD

2. Industry-Specific Domain Names

You must build customization into your branding to show today’s customers that your business is at the forefront of providing personalized experiences. Your site’s domain name is the portal to your digital presence, directly reflecting your digital identity. 

Descriptive domain extensions, or TLDs, offer businesses a way to communicate details about their core offerings effortlessly. 

With descriptive domains growing in popularity, more companies are embracing domain names as a way to express their industry affiliation or share information about their products.⁵ By simply complementing your domain name with a descriptive extension, your business can optimize each character in your web address to make the greatest impact on customers. 

With hundreds of unique, descriptive TLDs available, businesses in almost any sector can embrace customization through domain names. For example, professionals in the rental business industry can select TLDs that reference their specific services or their industry as a whole. Here are just a few available examples:

In the real estate industry, out of 450 people surveyed,² these descriptive TLDs were most attractive: 

• .RENTALS
• .PROPERTIES
• .HOUSE

Meanwhile, professionals in tech can choose from various tech-focused domain extensions to clarify their line of work like:

• .TECHNOLOGY
• .SOFTWARE
• .CHAT

Or, in an election year, for example, we historically see a trend in domains that target an audiences with clear identities like:

• .VOTE
• .REPUBLICAN
• .DEMOCRAT

By exploring descriptive domain extensions that speak to your unique niche, your company can secure a domain name that captures the essence of your unique offerings. This type of domain name instantly educates customers about your business, contributing to a more recognizable brand while building a personalized digital identity that resonates more deeply with your target audience.

3. Finding Unique Revenue Streams

Digital platforms can get more out of domain names by integrating domain reselling services into their interfaces. Customers already using digital products are prime targets for domain name services, as they may already be interested in developing their digital identity with a custom domain name. 

Almost any digital platform can introduce a new revenue stream and complement its existing products or services by allowing customers to find, register, and manage domain names without leaving their site. 

Your business can leverage the high demand for quality domain names by acting as an intermediary between customers and domain registrars. In doing so, you’ll be able to better serve your current customer base by providing the convenience of securing targeted domain names on a platform that they already use and add an additional revenue stream. Domain reselling services can also attract new customers with an exciting, innovative value-add feature that they can use to establish themselves online.

4. Generative Artificial Intelligence

Although rudimentary forms of generative AI have existed for decades, advanced models skyrocketed to widespread popularity in 2023. This momentum is expected to extend into 2024 and beyond, with businesses embracing AI to automate more complex tasks and tap into massive open-source databases. 

Companies can even select custom AI tools to provide results for their specific customer bases.⁶ These tools allow businesses to build websites, platforms, and products that are uniquely fine-tuned to their customers' wants, needs, and interests—all while enjoying unparalleled productivity, efficiency, and accuracy. 

There are endless ways for businesses to utilize generative AI, from analyzing data to drafting newsletters to refining customer service processes. Businesses can even use AI as brainstorming tools to enhance and revitalize their branding. In fact, your business can do something as simple as leveraging AI tools to develop domain name ideas. 

Businesses that resell domains can also offer AI-powered search tools to help customers find their own highly relevant domain names. By integrating AI into their processes and products, businesses can streamline customer experiences and make it easier for their customers to craft their digital identities.

5. A Rise in Alternative Personalized User Experiences

The Internet is built on personalized experiences, from targeted advertisements to adaptive website interfaces. Whether creating experiences for a specific customer segment or a single customer, businesses are finding new ways to leverage their data to connect more authentically with customers. With data privacy concerns rising, companies must look for innovative ways to give customers bespoke experiences without relying on third-party data.⁷ 

For many businesses, this involves asking for customer permission and collecting their own data. Others are taking a new approach to personalization by designing adaptive, dynamic platforms that respond to customer input in real-time. This approach allows customers to enjoy a more engaging experience without sharing personal information. Instead, they can choose what inputs they share and then watch the platform evolve and present new content based on their preferences.

Domain reselling is just one way that businesses can deploy interactive, personalized experiences. Companies can feature domain name offerings catered to certain audiences, ensuring that each customer sees domain options relevant to their digital identities. For instance, platforms targeting content creators may heavily feature .BIO domain extensions to help influencers build link-in-bio sites. Alternatively, sites geared toward musicians may advertise music-related options like .LIVE or .BAND to help their customers showcase their music and connect with fans. 

These personalized offerings can strengthen your brand while engaging your core audience when combined with smart domain search tools like Domain Engine.

Navigating the Digital Landscape: Key Trends Defining 2024

By staying up-to-date on digital trends, you can ensure that your business is agile enough to keep up with consumer preferences and thrive in a constantly changing digital market. Proactively incorporating these trends into your business strategy primes your company not just to overcome changes in the digital landscape but also to leverage them to drive success in the long term. 

As you develop a trend-conscious roadmap for your business, you can experiment with different ways to prioritize personalization, facilitate engagement, and incorporate smart technology. As a first step, explore how becoming a domain reseller can help you cultivate impactful, customized customer experiences. 

By joining Identity Digital’s domain reselling program, you can make your platform more engaging while empowering your customers to embrace trends and build their own compelling digital identities. Reach out to the Identity Digital team today to unlock the possibilities of domain reselling. 

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Sources:

¹Name.com, 7 Reasons Why Descriptive Domains Can Boost Your Business, https://www.name.com/blog/7-reasons-why-descriptive-domains-can-boost-your-business

²Nacho Industries Research Report. Identity.Digital Strategic Partner Study, December 2023 

³Diggity Marketing. How Many Domain Names Are There? Domain Stats For 2024. https://diggitymarketing.com/web-hosting/how-many-domain-names 

⁴Gandi News. .COM Pros & Cons https://news.gandi.net/en/2020/07/the-pros-and-cons-of-com-should-i-register-a-com/ 

⁵Entrepreneur. New Data Shows Startups Prefer Keyword-Based Descriptive Domain Names. https://www.entrepreneur.com/science-technology/new-data-shows-startups-prefer-keyword-based-descriptive/395260

⁶IBM. Top 6 predictions for AI advancements and trends in 2024. https://www.ibm.com/blog/top-6-predictions-for-ai-advancements-and-trends-in-2024/ 

⁷Exploding Topics. 55+ Personalization Statistics (New 2024 Data). https://explodingtopics.com/blog/personalization-stats 

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