Here I'll tell you how to choose a domain name for your blog. I know the pain of making a decisions when you are starting a blog. You are just a newbie in this area, but you already need to know:
- How to choose a domain name the right way.
- How to register a domain
- How to set up the best hosting for your website
And you get overwhelmed and stuck at the very first steps of your life-changing blogging journey.
I know how it feels. I don't want you to lose your dream, and I want you to avoid typical mistakes new bloggers make - I made them all, trust me.
A mistake in choosing a domain name for a blog can be very costly. You put a lot of effort at the start of your blog, and later if you decide to move to another domain, it can cost you not only money and efforts, but also may end up in huge traffic loss.
Lets talk about the best steps to pick domain name for your blog.
Investigate
Before you make any choice regarding the domain name, make sure that there are no popular blogs with a similar name unless you want your blog to always stay in the shadow of the bigger competitor. To find blogs with similar domain names, just google your domain without the .com or other zones in it and check what comes up for this name in TOP-10 search results on Google.
Also, check your domain name for availability in the major social networks. A great service that helps you check most of the social networks automatically is knowem but I'd still do my manual research as well. Just start typing in your domain name in the search of Facebook or other networks and check the suggestions that are appearing.
Try to find a name in .com domain zone
I know that often you come up with a great domain idea, search for availability in .com zone, and oops! it's available in .org or .net... sounds like a nice compromise. I didn't avoid this temptation with my previous sites, and honestly, it wasn't the best experience.
Domains in .com zone are considered as more trustworthy by Google and other search engines. Also, .com domains are the easiest to remember, especially for users who are not very tech-savvy. Some of them type .com automatically, having no idea that any other domain zones even exist. Imagine, you have a name in a domain zone.
Avoid numbers and hyphens
The same applies to hyphens " - " avoid using them if possible, it will be better for your site in the long run. As most of the returning visitor won't be able to type your blog name correctly.
Choose a domain name that includes your focus keywords
Using keywords which best describe your blog's main topics, or your business promoted on the blog, is a great idea. This way your domain name works not only for the audience to remember your site address easily, but also helps search engines, like Google or Bing, to rank you better for the relevant queries.
In some niches findings an available domain with keywords is really tricky, but you can test your creativity here and try to add some extra words to look different from your competitors.
Keep domain name under 15 Characters
Some bloggers get carried away adding keywords to the domain and forget about the other rules that is even more important. Your blog name has to be short, otherwise, no one will ever remember it.
Something under 15 characters is okay. But when the domain name gets longer than this, I would seriously consider some adjustments to your ideas before you make the final decision.
Say it aloud
Your domain, like any word in any language, lives a double life - it can be spelled and it can be pronounced. Say it aloud at aleast 5 times, ask your family or friends what do they think, is it easy to repeat after you? Now, before showing to them the written name, ask them to spell it as they heard from you.
Did they easily spell without mistakes? All of this is very important because you don't want to frustrate people with odd spellings. Those who remembered your blog name and come back frequently directly through the domain name - they are your best and most loyal audience.
Don't go too specific
Choosing a domain for your blog that explains to your users what is your main topic is a good idea. But you have to avoid being too specific.
Imagine, you are currently all into experiments with your hair color and you know a lot about hair dye, you choose a domain that that includes this keyword, something like hairdyeblog.com and start writing passionately. For some time but when you get into healthy natural hair thing, and you decide to post about treatment hair products, or even broader - about beauty products in general.
You could do it but your domain will sound weird and irrelevant to the broader new topics.
Now, how do you actually register a domain name? You will be surprised to know how many domain registrar companies are available online, and how prices for domains can differ even within the same registrar. The price will often depend on how pretty or in demand your chosen domain name is, some domains can cost thousands of dollars, but for most of the bloggers there is no need to pay that much. In fact, there are even free domain available (to be more precise, the first year is free).
Here is the list of Registrar giving free domain name with hosting plans:
Did you learn something new from this blog post? if so, make sure to share it with others.