How to Choose a Domain Name
for Your Blog
A “How To” Guide
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Choosing A Domain Name For Your blog
The very first thing you need to do to get your blog up and running is to choose a suitable domain name for your blog site and then register that name.
This guide will help you in choosing an appropriate domain name for your blog.
What a domain name is
A domain name is simply a website address for your website.
You could compare the address of your website to the street address for your home, where you have a street number and street name.
A typical domain name is displayed as: http://www.domainname.com
A domain name is normally preceded by http://, which indicates that it's a website address. Http means hyper text transfer protocol.
Sometimes you can just type in www, then a dot, and then the domain name followed by .com or whatever extension the website address is using, to get to the website, without the need to type the leading http://.
Often, just using the domain name followed by the extension is enough to take you to the website.
Domain names can be up to 67 characters in length including the dot and extension on the end.
Domains can only contain letters, numbers and dashes (-). No other symbols are allowed.
Why you need your own domain name
Here are a few good reasons:
1. A unique domain name provides an easy way for people to get to your website, increasing the likelihood that you'll get traffic to your website.
2. If you've purchased your own domain name, you may decide to sell it for a profit at some time in the future if your website gains in value.
3. Choosing your own domain name is a more appealing solution than some of those names generated from the free services. There's nothing more frustrating than trying to remember and use a really long and ugly looking domain name that someone got for free somewhere.
4. Having your own domain name comes across as more professional.
Having your own domain name is critical for your long term success as a blogger, and the more you get into blogging, the more this will start making sense to you.
This is a very important topic because a great domain name can make a huge difference in the success of your blog. There are several things to consider when picking the domain name for your blog.
The Intent of Your Site
When selecting your domain names, selecting the correct one to establish your brand identity and search ability is critical. The domain name you select will also be based on the intent of the site it will be associated with. You will probably have different domain names for your Blog, your Landing Pages and your product Sales Pages.
A point you want to remember is that your branding identity will be with you for a while. So for your Blog, I would recommend you use your name. i.e.
www.yourname.com. (If your name is not available, get something close, i.e. www.yournameanswers.com).
If, however, you would prefer not to use your name as your domain name, the following are some criteria to consider when picking a name for your blog. Use words that describe your site
This tip should be obvious. Think of domain names that relate to your blog topic and are relevant to the market you intend to target. For instance, if your blog is going to be about Perennial Flower Gardening, brainstorm domain names that include the words "perennial", “flower” and/or "gardening", e.g.
perennialflowergarden.com
This will help for search engine rankings as well as for increasing click through rates from the SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages), as someone looking for tips on growing perennials is more likely to click on a site listed in the search engine results that has the word perennial in it than something more generic like
"plantsandflowers.com".
You're unlikely to be able to get exactly the domain name you want, e.g. PerennialFlowerGardening.com, so be creative and look for good variations. For example: PerennialFlowerGardening YourPerennialFlowerGarden PerennialFlowerCare GrowingPerennialFlowers ThePerennialFlowerGardeningGuide PerennialFlowerGargensMadeEasy
Use Niche Keywords
If at all possible use your niche keywords in your blog domain name. Your niche keywords are the words that people would type into a search engine to find information about your subject or topic of your blog. Many search engines give a higher priority to a site that has keywords in the domain name when those words are searched for. Some examples of using keywords in your domain name would be:
bestsurfingsites.com trainyourdogtohunt.com weddingplanning.com customtshirts.com
The above recommendations are probably the two most important that you can follow. Once you have written down some potential domain names that are related to your topic and contain keywords, here are some additional points to consider. Keep it as Short as Possible
A good domain name should be short, the shorter the better. Short is better chiefly for two reasons: a short URL is easier to remember and less likely to be misspelled than a long one.
Avoid long hyphenated URLs. One school of thought popular several years ago was to register domain names with strings of keywords separated by hyphens. The thinking was that you could get higher rankings in the search engines if lots of keywords were in your URL. This approach led to some ridiculously long URLs prone to misspellings and confusion. This thinking has since changed as it is not clear that search engines give any preference to long hyphenated keyword URLs. Other reasons to avoid long hyphenated URLs are that:
They are harder to type and harder to remember. This is a problem especially if a competitor has the non-hyphenated version of your desired domain name. You may lose customers to the competition when a customer tries to type in your domain name but forgets the dashes.
Also, heavily hyphenated URLs look like spam to many potential visitors. As a result, potential visitors may not click on your pages when they see them in the search results, and you may lose traffic and potential customers. Publishers of low-quality sites designed strictly to earn revenue from pay-per-click advertising ("Made for AdSense" sites) have abused keyword-rich URLs nearly to death already. You don’t want to take the chance of your pages being mistaken for these sorts of pages when people see your URL in the search results!
Yes…I know that www.startyourownonlinebusinessnow.com is NOT a short domain name! But I really couldn’t think of any other way to express what I was looking for. At least I didn’t hyphenate it!
Try to Make it Memorable
Not all short URLs are memorable. Using my domain name again, I could have decided to get a domain name like syoobn.com, the initials for Start Your Own Online Business Now. Yes, syoobn.com is short, but it is only memorable to me. Now if you're the Internal Revenue Service, then using the initials IRS for your domain name makes sense; that's how people know you. But most of the time, using initials for your domain name is not the most memorable and or customer-friendly approach you could take.
If the domain name makes no sense and is not memorable, your customers won't be able to remember what in the world it is.
Have it Hard to Misspell
You'd be surprised how many domain names are tough to spell if you've only heard them orally. Many people are poor spellers. Still others are poor typists. Combine them together and you're better off with a short, memorable, logical, easy-to-spell domain name. If you always have to explain how to spell your domain name, then it's not a very good one.
You don't want your visitors trying to find you again but can't figure out how to spell 'ecclesiastical' or some other, hard to spell word.
Here’s a tip: If you have the money, buy up common misspellings of your domain name. That way, you don’t leave traffic on the table -- and competitors won’t be able to buy the misspelled domains and siphon off traffic intended for your site. You can try this method to find misspellings: get your family and friends to type in your domain name 100 times each in a browser. As they are doing this, keep track of every mistyped URL. Those that happen most frequently are the URLs you want to buy and then point to your site.
When you are just starting out, spending even a small amount of money to secure a domain name may seem like a major investment. But as you grow, you'll wish you had purchased the common misspellings of your blog name. When you become successful, your competitors may make a nice living off the traffic from poor spellers who wanted to get to your site but weren't competent with the alphabet.
Choose a Domain Name that Comes Early in the Alphabet
…if you can. Although this is not a priority in choosing a name, it can be somewhat important to consider what letter your domain starts with because this will
determine how the big directories such as Yahoo will display you.
Many directories list domains alphabetically so it can be an advantage to start your domain early in the alphabet. Also something to consider is that numbers come before letters in the sorting process. This means that a site called 4yourpuppy.com will come before even the A's! Coming up at the top of the list with a directory such as Yahoo can give you a LOT more traffic.
However, keep in mind that while it's nice to have your domain name toward the beginning of the alphabet, it's not critical by any means so don't worry too much if you can't do it or if you already have a list of good potential domain names that fit the other criteria. With Yahoo selling so many of its positions and their new layout, being alphabetical isn't nearly as important as it once was.
And, Finally…
There is No Such Thing as Free
If you plan on building an internet business with your blog I recommend that you own your own domain. It's just too much work to take the risk of somebody else reaping all the rewards because they are the actual owners of the domain.
Never use a Virtual or FREE domain. Many portal sites such as Yahoo provide free domains. Free domains do not belong to you, can be taken away at any time, or have the terms of free use changed at any time.
Websites offering these so called absolutely free domain names want to use you as marketing material, or a soon-to-be-captured client. These websites will give you the domain names that you want (if available on the internet), but with the
For example, let’s say there is a fictitious domain name provider called
anyoldwebsite.com who offers you an absolutely free domain, and your chosen domain is “expertdogtraining.com”, your URL will probably end up looking like www.expertdogtraining-anyoldwebsite.com, and many other permutations. These absolutely free domain name providers may also spam or insert pop ups into your site. Instead of having a poor domain address, it’s definitely much better to shell out a few dollars for a decent name provider.
That being said, absolutely free domain names can be a great way to get basic, non-business websites up and running quickly, particularly if they also come with online software that allows you to create your own website online. In some cases, you could be up and running with a basic website within an hour. They might provide an attractive alternative to a paid domain name if you are trying to put up a simple hobby or family site which is unlikely to require high bandwidth or
comprehensive services.
Dot Com is Still the King of the Hill
As a general rule it's best to grab the .com version of the domain name if you can, as it is the TLD (Top Level Domain) extension that most people will use
automatically. Especially in the United States, most people typing in a domain name will type “.com” by default. Even though it's getting harder to find a good .com domain name, its still the one people go to first because it is easy to remember.
According to the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) website, the “.com” extension is by far the most popular with over 80 million registered URLs, with “.net”, “.org”, “.info”, “.biz” and “.us” lagging far behind in popularity. So, choose any domain name, but if it all possible, try to get a “.com” extension
If you can't find a suitable domain name in a .com format, you may be forced to use a .net, .org, or any of the other formats available. If you are going to be building a primarily information based (non-commercial) blog, then going for a .org is a good second choice as people tend to recognize these sites as "non-profit" free
However, if you will be using your blog in a commercial way to generate income, be aware that having other than a .com domain may create some problems.
Let’s say you tried to register www.digitalcameras.com but it was already taken, so you registered www.digitalcameras.net instead. This is what could happen to you. After a lot of time and effort, you finally start to get quite a bit of name recognition on the internet. People start to remember your domain name, digitalcameras, but many will forget that it is a .net site and will automatically go to digitalcameras.com instead! Some portion of your customers will end up as customers buying from that site instead of yours.
Consider Protecting Your Brand with Other Extensions
While the “.com” extension is the most popular, as a defensive measure consider also securing some of the other extensions of your domain name. Secure the .net, .info, .biz and similar extensions. If you primarily do business internationally, think about securing country extensions, also (such as .co.uk). Again, this is just something to think about.
Initially Register for a Year
You can register a domain name for as little as one year or as long as ten years. When just starting out, one year is adequate. This will give you time to decide if you are really committed to this endeavor and if the domain name continues to fit your niche as you develop it. You can always renew for a longer time period.
Keep Them Separate
Never have your domain registered with the same company that you use as your hosting company. If anything goes wrong with your hosting company, you can “point” your domain to another host easily.
In Summary
Yes, although there is some complexity in finding a good domain name, in principle it's simple - your domain name should be simple, short, unique, and personalized. Be sure it suggests the topic and subject matter of your blog. It should not be difficult to remember, spell or pronounce.
Next , we'll check to see if your potential name is available. Is It Available?
Before you attempt to register your domain name, it’s a good idea to search to make sure that the name(s) you are considering is, or are, available.
Before you begin your search, try to come up with a list of at least ten domain names that you would be happy with. Remember, not all domain names will be available, especially if the topic of your blog is a popular one. By having several names that you like, you will increase your chances of finding a name for your domain.
When you sit down to do your search, you should be prepared to register it as soon as possible when you find the one you want. If you search and then go back to register it later, you may find that someone else keyed in on your search, saw the interest and bought it on speculation that they could resell it for a lot more.
There are numerous domain name analyzer programs available to download and use to check name availability. However, all domain name registrars have to check the availability of the name at the time you try to register it. You can use this feature to check availability without having to register or purchase the name.
One registrar that many people use, myself included, is GoDaddy. This extremely popular registrar has been offering the latest TLDs (Top Level Domains) at the industry's lowest prices since 1997. At the time of this writing, they offer .com domain names for $10.69 (plus 18 cents) per year ($6.99 plus 20 cents if you transfer from another registrar). Note that (as with all registrars) the exact price varies depending on which domain you are registering (for example some domain extensions are more expensive than others).
Both credit card and PayPal payments are accepted when you are ready to register your chosen domain name.
In addition to .com, they offer .us, .biz, .info, .net, .org, .ws, .name, .tv, .co.uk, .me.uk and .org.uk and a whole host of other international extensions.
They have a web interface to manage your domains, free web redirection (where people who visit your domain will get transferred to another URL of your choice), personalized email account, blog/podcast tool, photo album and more - all
absolutely free.
How to Check Availability
To check if one, or more, of your potential domain names is available: Open GoDaddy in your web browser by clicking HERE.
.
The main page for the GoDaddy website will be displayed.
Type your potential domain name into the box. Remember, no spaces between the words. Although dashes (-) are acceptable.
Using the example from earlier in this guide, I’ll use perennialflowergarden. I could use perennial-flower-garden, but not perennial flower garden. Again, dashes (-) are okay in your name, but spaces are not.
Notice there is a box for the extension with .com already selected. So you do not have type the extension onto your name.
After you type your potential name into the box, select and click on the “GO!” button.
GoDaddy will then search the domain name perennialflowergarden.com in the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) database to determine whether it is available or if it is already in use.
I would then make a note that this domain name domain name is available for me to register and use for my blog.
Repeat this process for as many names as you have on your list. Cross off the ones that are not available.
Hopefully, you’ll be left with several available domain names that will work for your site.
Rewrite a new list with the names that are available. Read and re-read the names on the list many times. Wait a day or two (but not too many) and think about them. Ask some friends or family members what they think about your domain names.
This is not something you are going to be able to change once you buy the domain name. Make sure you are very happy with it and it will work for your website. Say it out loud. Pretend you are answering the phone using the domain name. The name you choose will represent your presence on the web. This will be your blog name. Make sure you will be proud to use it.
Then choose a name and register it.
You will learn how to do that in the “how to” guide titled: How to Register a Domain Name for Your Blog
