Today we talk with Lucía González, responsible of communication in Dinahosting. The company is this days celebrating two decades of work in the Galician net and it is an essential reference on the Internet. She answers our questions from its headquarters on As Salvadas, Compostela.
Question: You are the main registrar of .gal domains. What does it means for your and which arguments do you give (and listen) for people to choose it?
Answer: Being the main registrar of .gal is something we are very proud of, because we are behind 73% of the almost 6000 registered domains, which means the vast majority. When a new business, a council or an organism registers a .gal domain is bounding, even more if possible, with Galicia.
We recommend always all our clients to protect their brand and all the extensions related to their business. We have in mind the .com or .es, but if you sell in Galicia, you should also have a .gal besides other TLD which protect your brand name and that differentiate your from the competence. For example, if you have a cloth or shoes shop, a domain as .shop or .boutique is also a good idea. Or, in case your business is a grocery store, you can also register a .com, a .gal or a .market.
Possibilities are infinite. We leave you a link to our domain section https://gl.dinahosting.com/dominios so you can see all the available domains, we have now more than 400!
Q: We have been collaborating since the beginning, in fact we made a pair of tools together. What are they for?
R: Velaqui.gal and i.gal are two very useful tools not only for companies but also for professionals in general, and in which we work together. For those who do not know them, I will explain them briefly:
Velaqui.gal https://velaqui.gal/ is a files interchange service through the net. You can share your files, documents of photos with the emails you choose, with a maximum size of 3 GB. It works very simply, first you have to write your mail and them the addressees. On the advanced options you could write a message, encrypt the files and establish a deadline or a maximum of downloads. Once the file is processed, your will receive a notification on your mail with a link you will share if you wanted. Unlike other tools, , Velaqui.gal does not contain advertisement and the data is encrypted.
i.gal https://i.gal is an URL shortener made with your collaboration and with Agasol. This tool allows to encrypt any web address into a shorter one, what is very useful for social media posts or online events. Besides, you can personalize it with the more suitable words for the generates URL so to value your brand or business.
We hope people take advantage of it!
Q: During the confinement we collaborate on the initiative Abre na rede. What is your balance of it? Is it part of the usual promotions with PuntoGal?
A: We have a positive balance, as we have helped tens of business to continue their activity thanks to the Advanced Hosting we gave them and the .gal domain donated by you. Last year was a year with a lot of work but our maxim was to stay still with our clients and helping many others to go digital. So that we designed different actions, as readjusting the hosting, domain and server prices, and adding an extra effort to create more contents to help self-employed and SMEs to develop their presence on the net, free guiding 24 hours 365days per year and being sensitive to the difficulties many business have been carrying.
On our side we are very happy to establish any kind of collaboration with you. We have been working together a lot of years in initiatives as price offers at certain time of the year and profits for associations, among others, and more to come!
Q: Many people think that, in terms of online presence, a social media profile is enough. What do you think? What do you recommend to start with?
A: I really appreciate that question, because many people considers a social network is enough to sell or develop a personal brand and the communication of a company or a entrepreneur. But, social media will never substitute a web page. And, why do I say that? A web page or a online store is a perfect showcase for your brand: it helps you to rank in search engines, with a website you convey professionalism or you can increase awareness of your product with specialized content on your blog.
Your web is only yours, so you do not depend on changes on use and content policies and neither you have space and format limitations to spread your message. Imagine you are selling on Facebook and from one day to the next they tell you that you have to pay them a commission for every sale you make. You pay the price or loss your business. Your company should have its own space, and not that of a third party.
In case you need a website with a few pages and content, a Basic Hosting will be enough, but in case your business is an online shop with different kind of products you should use an Advanced Hosting. And you could have corporative email by having a domain and a hosting, with which you will convey greater professionalism.
To start, think on a simple web which brings solutions to your clients. It is essential to have a home page; with a section where you explain what you do and how you can help your client, your value proposal; another section where you will talk about yourself and your team, who is behind the website and a contact area. And at the same time think about the domain name for your business. The most important is to choose a short name, very easy to spell, remember and pronounce; that there were no similar domain names already registered and associated with other brands, to avoid your client misleading, and it should not have negative connotations in other languages.
Q: It seems a short time, but you have been working on this for twenty years. How does your company change during this period? What are your predictions for the following years?
A: We celebrate 20 years old with a great enthusiasm and very grateful to all our customers, because without them we would not be here. At the beginning we were designing websites and our name was dinaweb. On those early years we detected the market demanded hosting services and domains and that companies for those services did not exist nearby. 20 years later, dinahosting became the first independent provider of hosting and domains, from 10 workers to 120, we have more than 145000 customers worldwide and more than 400 domains available for registration.
Our aim is to keep on helping entrepreneurs and small and big companies to go online, and continue to be faithful to the values which brought us here: 24 hours customer service, 7 days a week all year round, for free and without waiting; working on our own developments which allows us to respond quickly to the demands of our customers and offer quality products which provide the best efficiency and stability to the websites which entrust us with their service.
