Web & SEO
What is a custom domain?
A custom domain is your own domain name used in place of the free subdomain a platform gives you, so your site is reached at your address rather than the platform's.
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Technical definition
A custom domain is a domain you register and control, configured to serve a site hosted on a platform, replacing the platform-issued subdomain. Setup requires DNS records pointing the domain at the host, verification of ownership, and provisioning of a TLS certificate so the domain serves over HTTPS.
Because search engines treat hostnames as distinct, moving a site from a platform subdomain to a custom domain means the SEO history accrues to your domain from then on, not to the platform's.
In plain terms
A custom domain is using yourbusiness.com instead of yourbusiness.someplatform.app.
Same site, different address, and the address is yours.
Why it matters
The address is a credibility signal, and customers read it whether or not they think about it. A quote sent from a platform subdomain reads as provisional. The same quote at your own domain reads as a business.
The more durable reason is ownership. On a platform subdomain, your address belongs to the platform. Every link anyone builds to your site, every ranking it earns, and every bookmark points at an address you do not control. On your own domain, all of it is portable. Change platforms and the address stays.
For an agency, this is a deliverable rather than a detail. Client sites go on client domains, registered in the client's account.
