Choosing the right domain name is very important for the survival of your blog. A good domain name is an important part of the whole blogging concept. It plays a vital role in helping people discover your blog, remember it, think about it, talk about it, easily find it in search engines, etc. A good domain name helps your target audience visualize your blog theme even before they visit it for the very first time. It helps in branding your blog. It requires some brain storming efforts these days to come up with a good domain name. You can combine your imagination power with some free tools to find a good domain name for your blog.
The first thing in choosing the right domain name for your blog is the blogging concept. Your blogging concept would be;
- Personal: You will be blogging about your personal life. Things like how you spend your whole day, etc. will be the blogging concept. In this case, your target audience can be your friends, co-workers, family members, and other people who relate to your day-to-day life. A domain name with your NAME would be a good choice as these people know you personally and your domain name would match up with your blogging concept.
- Hobby/Theme: If you like playing guitar, and know the insider tips and tricks to play guitar, you can get a domain name like “GuitarLessons” OR “Learnwith YourName.com”; the domain name has your blogging concept in it.
- Niche Market: A Niche is something on which a product is focusing. If you were to write about solution to some problem, you can start a blog with the name of the problem in the domain name. So, in my blog, I focus on “helping people start a blog”, so the domain name is “jackyjokes.com”.
Words have different meanings, and names have power. So, invest some time in researching your blogging concept and find a relatively matching domain name. While choosing the right domain name, you should always consider following points;
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- Brainstorm 10 keywords: Try to have 10 phrases or keywords that best relate to your blogging concept. Once you have the list handy, you can add them together; make variations by using synonyms, verbs, nouns, etc. You can also add prefixes or suffixes to them.
- Short and Sweet: Word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool to drive repeat visitors to your blog. If your domain name is short and sweet, it will be much easier for your audience to remember it and tell others about it. However, if the domain name is too long, it would be hard for people to share your site with others verbally. Nobody likes long domain names that do not have any meaning and are very hard to spell. Think about calling out your domain name to someone over the phone.
- Memorable: It should be something catchy and memorable. So, the next time they want to remember your domain after a week, they should recall it immediately.
- Don’t use Hyphens and numbers: It is not easy to pronounce a domain name that has a hyphen or a number in it. It can also confuse your potential visitors while typing the domain name in the address bar. I would recommend staying away from them.
- Keyword Relevance: You know that search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing provide most of the traffic to the websites hosted on the World Wide Web. It is always a good practice to have a domain name that is relevant to your blogging concept. By following this practice, you can help people find your blog through keyword searches on Google and other search engines. So, I always put more emphasis on finding your blogging concept first.
- Stick with “.com” extension: The “.com” extension is the most famous and widely used extension for a domain name. If you were to visit your website directly by typing the name and pressing Ctrl + Enter in the address bar of your browser, it takes you to the “.com” website. So, if you had a “.net” website, think how much traffic you would have lost once your blog start receiving direct visitors?
- Avoid Slang: You should avoid using slang for your domain name. For example, it is always a bad idea to get “guitarlessonsforup.com” instead of “guitarlessonsforyouw.com”.
- Use a Thesaurus: Sometimes, you may feel stuck in choosing the right domain name for your blog. A Thesaurus is a handy tool when such thing happens to you. You can plug in some words, or phrases that describe your blogging concept and can come up with creative name for your blog using synonyms of your previous word.
- Brainstorm with your friends: Sometimes it’s much easier to ask people! Yes, if you have finalized your blogging concept, you can talk with your friends, family members to brainstorm some ideas for your domain name. You won’t believe how many times I got a good domain idea when I asked for help.
- KISS Rule: Yes, the famous Keep It Simple Stupid Rule applies here too. You should always find a domain name with one spelling. Getting a good spelled domain name can help your visitors find your website with ease.
- Keep It Singular: Try to pick up a singular word domain name. If you get a plural word domain name, there are chances people typing in the singular word and visit the website with singular word domain name.
So, these are some of the advice you should follow in order to choose a domain name for your blog. I would also advice you not to purchase domains from companies that are very new in the field, and are not recognized enough, as you will always be at risk of losing the domain name if the domain registrar company goes out of the business.
I would strongly advise you to only deal with reputable domain registrar like Blue Host and Name Cheap so that your domain is safe. These large domain registrars also make sure to provide you excellent services at low cost.
