SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Oct. 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- GoDaddy Inc. (NYSE: GDDY), the world's largest technology provider dedicated to small businesses, released results showing in the last 18 months, customers pointing a domain name to social media sites increased by 37 percent. GoDaddy attributes the rise in the redirects to customers wanting to control their online identity.

"It became abundantly clear that people want to have more control of their online identity," said GoDaddy Senior Vice President and General Manager Mike McLaughlin. "Their social media presence reflects who they are, but they want an address that represents them as well.  Also, customers want the flexibility to move to a different platform or create their own website without giving everyone a new web address."

Rabbi Dan Medwin, Publishing Technology Manager for the Central Conference of American Rabbis, points his domain, www.DanMedwin.com, to his Facebook page. He has a similar philosophy of other customers that have forwarded their name to Facebook.

"The Web is now the de facto place where folks go to learn about a person or company," Medwin said. "I registered DanMedwin.com so, if someday I wanted a personal website, whether a blog or a resume, I'd have it available. It is essentially my personally curated 'brand' of myself for the world."

GoDaddy isn't the only company to notice the shift. Recently, VeriSign, the registry for .com domain names, stated they saw an increase of more than 10% for domains pointing to sites like Facebook and LinkedIn in Q2 versus Q1.

Based on the findings, GoDaddy created an easier way for customers to redirect a domain name to their social media profile. Someone registering a new domain name can visit Personal Domains on GoDaddy and select Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or Tumblr. The customer gives GoDaddy their social media URL they would like to point the domain name during the checkout process and GoDaddy takes care of the rest.

For those who already have a domain name, GoDaddy enables customers to quickly connect their domain name to one of 18 popular Web services, including Facebook, Etsy and YouTube.

To learn more about Personal Domains, visit www.GoDaddy.com/domains/personal-domains.

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About GoDaddy
GoDaddy's mission is to radically shift the global economy toward small businesses by empowering people to easily start, confidently grow and successfully run their own ventures. With more than 13 million customers worldwide and more than 60 million domain names under management, GoDaddy gives small business owners the tools to name their idea, build a beautiful online presence, attract customers and manage their business. To learn more about the company, visit www.GoDaddy.com. 

© 2015 GoDaddy Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Source: GoDaddy Inc.

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SOURCE GoDaddy Inc.