People think a lot before choosing a domain name for their website. They do research online, discuss with experts, friends, professionals. They are too much worried about a domain name for their online presence. Actually, they are a bit more careful to pick the best domain name for their next website because it is something that they will probably carry till they will continue their business or online presence, only very few people may want to take risk of changing domain name in the middle of the journey of their online business. That is why it is very important to have the best domain name right from the beginning of your online journey.
You have definitely realized the importance to have a perfect domain name and the force of such realization has pushed you to do some online research on that and as a result, you have landed on this page. RIGHT?
But what is DOMAIN NAME?What are the parts of a domain name? |
Domain name is a text-based representation of the numerical address of internet resources. Users can understand it as URL (Uniform Resource Locator) what they type it on web browser’s address bar. Technically you can call this as a user-friendly text-based representation of Internet Protocol (IP) resource.
A domain name includes two parts. One is its name what you pick considering all aspects. The second one is the extension or top level domain.
For example, www.favcounter.com
www is a subdomain and favcounter.com is my domain name which has FavCounter as a name of that domain and .com as an extension or top level domain.
You can use a subdomain as a part of your website URL or without any such subdomain you can use your domain name. Some people also use http:// as a standard prefix or https:// as secured prefix in its website URL. You can see https:// in mostly eCommerce website’s URL.
FavCounter is a name what was chosen with a top level domain ‘.com’ for this website. FavCounter means favorite Counter which can be a favorite food counter, ticket counter or any other counter from where you can get any kind of service.
There are two types of option available for your domain name. These are country specific domain (.in for India etc) or generic top-level domain (.com, .org, .net, .gov etc)
Before you go for Domain Name Hunting, you should understand that your domain name should be brand-able and you also have to consider issues of two important partners for any online business (or online presence of your offline activities). These two are readers ( Reader is king) and search engines (Be SEO friendly). Once you critically analyse all aspects of these two partners then go for domain name hunting and choose a perfect domain name which is brand-able.
Also read
Steps to get backlinks to your blog – Important tips
TIPS TO FIND BEST DOMAIN NAME
A. Reader is King
Do you want to be a pro blogger? Do you want to have a custom domain name for your blog?
Do you have an online business? Do you have any service or product to offer your potential customers? But how do you make them aware of that service or product? So you must need a blog where you will often write something about those services and products. So the reader is king and they are actually your potential customers.
You own a blog or website where you write about gadget reviews, travel story, food recipes, solutions of various problems what your readers are actually facing. So a blog can exist only if somebody reads this. Without your readers, everything will be meaningless, and your blog can not grow. That is why the reader is king.
You are promoting any service or product, writing something new on that matter. But for whom? Obviously readers. RIGHT? That means the reader is king for your online business too.
So when you will think about your domain name that time will you think about –
Which domain you will like or a domain what your readers will like?
Certainly domain name will be something that readers will like.
What types of domain name they actually like?
How will you able to impress them with your domain name?
Answer: YOU NEED TO KISS.
WHAT???
KISS – Keep It Simple Stupid. That means you need to Keep It Simple Stupid. THAT’S IT!!
A1. Easy to Remember |
It is your responsibility that when your reader will visit your site for the first time then he (or she) can actually read your domain name and remember for future. So that next time he can remember your domain and directly can visit your site.
You can see FavCounter.Com is very easy to remember and readers can easily relate to the topic of this blog. But see what it would happen if I would name it as No1-FoodCounter.com. You may forget the name or ignore the hyphen “-” or something else. So such a domain is not suitable for readers to remember. So follow KISS.
Choose a domain name which is MEANINGFUL, MEMORABLE, UNDERSTANDABLE, FUNNY or UNIQUE.
A2. Easy to Type |
A machine is something which is invented to reduce human effort. A computer is a highly advanced machine which reduces human effort drastically since last two or three decades. It is natural when they work on the internet they want things will be effortless. Nowadays people are doing banking, shopping, job application, reading ebooks, almost everything online.
So you can not enjoy such a luxury where you expect your readers will type more than 15 characters and that too with a combination of letters, numbers & hyphen.
If readers want to visit a site No1-FoodCounter.Com then they will definitely be annoyed. They simply hate such domain name. Particularly smartphone users (in recent era readers visit sites more on smartphone/tablet than laptop or desktop) will get more annoyed than others.
So choose a domain name which is easy to type also, do not include hyphen “-“ in a domain name and try to avoid numbers in the domain name but it is significant to your brand then you can use it. Avoid short form of words (we often use such type of spelling when we sent SMS or WhatsApp message, like U instead of ‘You’, ‘dat’ instead of ‘that’) or misspelt generic name (like xtra instead of ‘extra’, fone instead of ‘phone’) which is not always good.
A3. Easy to Tell Others |
Marketers always say that customers are the best persons who can promote your business more effectively. Once customers recommend your service or product to their friends, colleagues or relative then there is a higher chance that they will buy that.
Same way if readers will recommend your blog to their friends, colleagues or relatives, then they will definitely visit your blog.
So keep your domain name something which is very easy to tell others. Keep it very short (one or two words if possible), memorable, meaningful and understandable.
I have an excellent pair of tests to select the best domain name for your blog what I followed in my case.
Test 1: Ask 7 people to read your domain name.
If at-least 6 out of 7 can read it properly, means the way you are thinking people should read and they are being able to read it exactly same way, then your domain name will cross the first stage.
Test 2: Tell 7 people to type your domain name
If at least 5 people can write your domain name correct way then you should use that domain name. If people can not understand your domain name properly and as result, they wrongly type your domain name then you will lose potential readers or visitors of your website.
You can increase the number of people to conduct those tests if it is possible for your case. Those tests are something that I used in my case. But maybe in your case, you can ignore if you do not like or do not want to invest time in such activities. So be calm and move ahead.
B. Brand is Everything
If you think a brand is just a symbol then you are wrong, it is much much more than that. A brand is associated with emotion, perception, trust, recognition, a symbol in the customer’s mind (or potential customer’s mind) about the maker or seller of a product or service. It takes time to create trust and perception in the market. So think about this before go further and think long-term goal and consider long-term goal in your every step, avoid the generic word in domain name & pick right domain name extension.
B1. Avoid generic word |
Generic word is good for SEO or may help your readers to understand your blog and what all you cover on that blog too. But there may be hundreds blogs with similar names, so readers or visitors can not distinguish your blog among those. So you can use something unique, smart or even funny so that people can easily remember you and recognize you. Some people even create a new word for their blog by combining two or three words. Having something generic may good to some extent considering SEO point of you but that you can manage by adding perfect blog title and right meta description.
B2. Long Term Goal |
Suppose you have a travel blog named xxxxtravel.com but after one or two years you want to write about lifestyle or food also, then your domain name will not go with topics covered in your blog. So think about your future goal, what all the topics you want to cover. Ask yourself to know your passion & interest and if you have the answer then the answer itself help you to set a long-term goal.
C. Be SEO Friendly
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an important and critical task for any online marketer because it gives your most valuable traffic that is organic traffic. If it is valuable then it would not be easy to get. RIGHT?
In a layman language, SEO is a technique what you apply in your blog so that search engines trust your blog posts and give higher ranking in Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
And this game begins from the beginning of your blog when you start thinking about the domain name. As the name suggests Search Engine Optimization, means if you do something extra here then you may lose something there. That is why it is called Optimization, you need to maintain a proper balance.
If you are only thinking about branding then you actually neglecting SEO, because the generic name means an opportunity to add more keywords in your domain name and I have already discussed disadvantages of having a generic name.
So what will you do?
CONFUSED?
Ha Ha! But here lies your strategy towards success in your pro blogging journey.
C1. Include Keywords |
It is a smart idea to include keywords in the domain name that too brand-able. Many people combine a unique identifiable word (maybe his first name or anything else unique) with the keyword to create the best domain name for their blog. This way they include keywords and also make it brand-able.
So it is always a good idea to include keywords in your domain name because this way search engines will easily know about your blog and the possibility of being ranked higher for those keywords in Search engine Results Pages (SERPs).
But it is not mandatory and nobody will force you to have such a keyword in your domain name. It is completely your decision to choose the best domain name for your blog. It would not be a blunder if you do not include any keyword and choose some unique name or create a brand-able name for your blog. You can see big brands in the digital world like Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc are using a unique name. There are so many other names like pick any big eCommerce site they mostly created a new word or using a unique word.
You may think that those are giants in the internet world and they are spending a huge amount to promote their brand. Definitely you are not competing them but still, you have many examples of successful bloggers who are using unique names.
So if you are not choosing a generic name for your blog where you have not included any keyword then also nobody can stop you to be a successful blogger if you will write quality posts and in each post, you add some value for your readers. Not only that you can add keywords in your blog title and meta description. So nothing to worry about if your domain name does not have any keywords.
C2. Domain name Extension |
Domain name extension is also critical to get organic traffic. You can have your top-level domain based on country-specific or industry specific.
Suppose you have visitors mostly from a specific country or you want to get traffic from a particular country then you should select country-specific domain extension.
For example- .us (United States of America), .in (India), .fr (France), .uk (United Kingdom) etc.
If you did not pick any such country-specific TLD but still want to tell search engines about your target location then you can do so by submitting your site to respective search engines and select the country as the international target location.
A few years back there are only a few numbers of industry-specific top-level domain; like .com, .org, .net, .gov etc. But today you have many options to select. You can also have your industry-specific domain extension (TLD). Such industry-specific domain extension will help the search engine to know better about your website.
For example – .food (for food blog), .blog (for blogs), .cafe (for coffee industry), .edu (for topic in education sector) and many other industry specific domain extension.
D. Domain Name Hunting
Till now I have discussed every aspect to consider before selecting the best domain name. Here next job is going through a process of finding out the best domain name for your blog. You need at least 10 to 15 possible domain names to choose the best domain name. So,
How you will gather all such possible domain names?
Who can help you to find best domain name?
How to get thousand options for possible domain name within a week?
D1. Primary research/trend |
Search Domain Names of Competitors :
Search domain names for blogs covered similar topics what you want to cover. List all domain names of such blogs. This list will help you to understand the trend.
What are the keywords used by your competitors? Try to find all keywords and make a list.
Note all unique domain names used by your competitors.
Make a list of keywords what you are thinking about. What would be your main keywords for your blog? Make a list of same.
D2. Brainstorm |
Now you have three lists
First, list of keywords used by your competitors;
Second, list of unique domain names and
Third, list of your main keywords. Use these three lists to create new lists of fresh domain names which are available.
√ Make yourself a list of at least 10 domain names based on above mentioned three lists.
√ Here you will ask your friends relatives, colleagues to say three new domain names on that subject & keywords. Ask at-least five people.
√ If you have little money to spend and get more possible domain names then create a contest with prize money on online freelance jobs portal (like freelancer.com) and get thousand of such possible domain names. I do not suggest this method but I have seen many people who used this method and spend a lot of money on that.
D3. Final hunting |
Now you have two or three lists of fresh domain names. Now take each one and rethink on that and shortlist some of those. This way make a list of 5-6 domain names.
Check each one on domain registers site and check the availability of such domain names in different top-level domains, check prices too.
Considering prices, available top-level domains and of-course give priority of your choice finalize one domain name. You can purchase domain names with all top-level domains to protect your brand. But it is costly that many people can not afford.
Now you have the best domain name for your blog. 😀
Also read
How to build internal links for your food blog?
Get backlinks through active blog commenting
Conclusion
Choosing domain name is a very critical task for your blogging journey. This is something that probably you will continue till the end of your blog’s life. Yes technically you can change your domain name but that is a very very risky job and nobody want to change such a thing unless any major issue. If you do change your domain name and you make a mistake then you may lose huge blog traffic and it may take a long time to regain its position.
Steps to Get Best Domain Name for Your Blog :
THINK ABOUT READERS ⇒ THINK ABOUT BRAND ⇒ THINK ABOUT SEO ⇒ GET BEST DOMAIN NAME
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