How To Choose a Domain Name For Your Blog? This is the first question that comes to mind when you are planning to start your own website.
Domain name plays an important role and Selecting a domain name for your business is similar to choosing a company name, it requires a lot of thought, deliberation, and consideration. The domain name actually describes the content of your website.
But before we go ahead, let’s first understand what is domain names and why they are important.
What is a Domain Name?
A domain consists of two parts; the name followed by the extension.
For example, with apple.com – apple is the name, and .com is the extension.
Your website domain name is your identity on the web and you must be very careful while choosing it. You have to make sure you choose a name that not only fits your business model and website content but is also easy to remember and promote.
Where Can You Buy Domain Name?
Always buy your domain from a reputable domain registrar company and one that is registered with ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).
A couple of safe options are Namecheap and Bluehost.
Your web hosting company may offer domains as well as hosting. There are pros and cons to whether you should buy through them or buy independently.
When I started blogging, I purchased my domains through Bluehost. But I would always recommend you buy hosting and domain names from the same provider for easy integration.
But if you are getting a better domain name and hosting deals from two different providers then you should grab it. But before that, you must know how to update name servers to link to different hosting providers.
4 Tools For Selecting a Better Domain Name
Still, stuck on picking your domain? Try some of these tools for ideas:
These tools will definitely help you in selecting the best domain name for your business.
But before you go ahead with purchasing the domain name for your business I will recommend you consider the factors mentioned below.
How To Choose a Domain Name For Your Blog
The factors you should consider while choosing the Domain name for your blog are listed below in detail.
However, the selection of domain names may require some additional considerations depending on your business model. So you must focus only on the factors relevant to your blog while selecting the domain name for your website/blog.
1. Make it Easy to Type and Remember
Finding a domain name that’s easy to type is critical to online success. If you use slang (u instead of you) or words with multiple spellings (express vs. Xpress), it might be harder for customers to find your site.
However, good promotion of your website or Good SEO Service may help you get more traffic and help people to remember the domain name. But it is suggested to use easy-type domain names without slang.
2. Keep it Short
If your domain name is long and complex, you risk customers mistyping or misspelling it.
Short and simple is the way to go. But the short domain name should well justify the content of your website and the business model.
3. Use Keywords Pointing to Your Blog Niche
The keywords pointing to your business are an important factor when choosing a domain name for your blog.
Try using keywords that describe your business and the services you offer. For example, I wanted to build a website to provide tips and tricks to bloggers. I hook on the name of the website as Bloggersutra.com
You should also try and include the keywords that people enter when searching for your products or services.
Choosing the Domain name right keyword will help you get your services listed on top of the google search engine and hence drive you more traffic.
It helps improve your rank on search engines (which increases traffic) and just makes more sense to your customers.
4. Target Your Area or Location
If your business is local, consider including your city or state in your domain name to make it easy for local customers to find and remember.
If you want to start a tutorial website your domain name should have something related to your tutorial content.
Example: BloggerSutra.com provides all the tutorials required for you to become a successful blogger and start your own website.
5. Avoid Numbers and Hyphens
Numbers and hyphens are often misunderstood — people who hear your website address don’t know if you’re using a numeral (5) or it’s spelled out (five) or they misplace or forget the dash.
If you need these in your domain, register the different variations to be safe.
Now using the numbers with the domain name are in fashion, but remember you might struggle to promote your domain name at the initial stages.
6. Be Memorable and Easy
There are millions of registered domain names, so having a domain that’s catchy and memorable is essential.
Once you’ve come up with a name, share it with close friends to make sure it sounds appealing and makes sense to others.
Quick solution: Got a great idea for a domain? Register your name today with unlimited hosting and put a website out there before someone else beats you to it.
7. Research it Before Registering
Make sure the name you’ve selected isn’t trademarked, copyrighted, or used by another company.
It could result in a huge legal mess that could cost you a fortune, as well as your domain!
8. Appropriate Domain Extension
Extensions are suffixes, such as .com or .net, at the end of web addresses. These can have specific uses, so make sure to choose one that works for your business.
The .com domain extension is far and away from the most popular, but it can be tough to get a short and memorable .com domain name because it’s been around for so long.
A bevy of new generic top-level domains — like .photography, .nyc, and .guru — offer a great opportunity to register short and highly relevant names. And here are some other top extensions and how they’re often used:
- .co: an abbreviation for company, commerce, and community.
- .info: informational sites.
- .net: technical, Internet infrastructure sites.
- .org: non-commercial organizations and nonprofits.
- .biz: business or commercial use, like e-commerce sites.
- .me: blogs, resumes, or personal sites.
Pro tip: You don’t need to build a website for every domain. Just forward any additional domains to your primary website.
9. Protect and Build Your Brand
To protect your brand, you should purchase various domain extensions, as well as misspelled versions of your domain name.
This prevents competitors from registering other versions and ensures your customers are directed to your website, even if they mistype it.
10. Act Fast for Your Decision
Domain names sell quickly. Thankfully, they’re also inexpensive, so register your favorite domain names as soon as possible.
If you’re having trouble finding an available name, domain registrars like Bluehost will suggest alternate names during your domain search to help you find the perfect domain name.
11. Make sure it Looks Right
Always write down what name you have in mind to make sure it looks good and doesn’t spell other words inadvertently. Check out these funny domain name examples.
12. Social Media
Always check social media sites to see if your domain name is available there too so that you can maintain your brand across all channels.
13. Avoid Copyright Issues
Don’t be tempted to try and use a well-established brand name on a lesser-known TLD because the company will most likely come after you and you’ll end up losing it. And always check for registered trademarks too: uspto.gov/trademarks and http://www.copyright.gov/
14. Expired Domains
There is the option to buy expired domains; i.e. domains that were previously registered but that are now available. This option should be handled carefully as there is the possibility that you could inherit any previous Google penalties attached to the domain.
Not all expired domains are affected, but you’ll need to check before you buy. Here’s a useful discussion with Matt Cutts in the Google Webmasters Forum.
15. Gpldownload.com Example
After Bloggersutra.com, I wanted to start another website that will help people to get free stuff from the internet. Everyone knows that the internet is very vast and one needs to search for getting free things.
Just to make the internet search simple and to offer stuff I started Gpldownload.com, The main aim for selecting this domain name was first the name matches my thoughts of putting content and another is the keyword.
So you must also keep most of the factors in mind while selecting the domain name for your blog.
Wrapping Up
You must consider all the factors mentioned above while selecting the domain name for your blog. A domain name that is not as per the niche of your blog will have issues while carrying out search engine optimization.
I always prefer to find a domain name having a keyword that is already searched on google. The domain name having high-ranking keywords will come heavy on your pocket.
So if you are a beginner or starting your first blog then you should avoid premium domains. In fact, you might purchase a similar keyword domain name with some other extension.
Once you are done with the domain name you require the best hosting package depending on your website needs. Remember better web hosting will help you with the SEO of your website.
We recommend Bluehost for all your hosting needs. Signup now and get an exclusive discount on the web hosting + Free Domain Name
If you have chosen Bluehost (which is actually a great choice) then you must go through the step-by-step tutorial to start your blog with Bluehost.
If you have considered any other factor that you feel is required for selecting a better domain name then do let us know by leaving a comment on this article and will include it in the post.
We would like our readers to share their experiences in choosing the domain name for your blog with our readers.
Your suggestions are always welcome!
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
1 thought on “How To Choose a Domain Name For Your Blog in 2023”
You raise great points regarding being cautious not to step on someone else’s trademarks with your domain registrations.
On the reverse side, sometimes you search for a domain name containing *your* trademark and find others have already taken the name. At that point, you need to consider your options about whether you’ll just choose a different domain and allow them to use your name, or try to take possession of their domain name.
In most cases, you don’t want someone else making money from your trademark.
The first approach to remedy this is to approach the domain’s owner and ask for them to transfer it to you, even offering reimbursement for any of their fees. However, if they have an active website on the domain, be prepared to get a flat-out “no,” or a relatively high ask. Don’t be afraid to haggle. It’s all part of what is called the domain aftermarket.
Should that fail to be successful, you have to consider more aggressive options and we have 4 alternate strategies on our blog post.