Introduction
In the world of online businesses, the domain name is like a digital storefront. It is the address that people use to find your website, and it is often the first impression that people have of your brand. As such, choosing the right domain name is crucial for any business that wants to establish a strong online presence. In this blog post, we’ll explore why a domain name is so important, and what factors you should consider when selecting one for your business. From branding and marketing to search engine optimization (SEO), we’ll cover all the key aspects of domain names and why they matter for your business’s success.
Your basic domain name can be a secret weapon.
If you’ve ever heard a catchy song on the radio, only to forget what it was called five seconds later, then you’re probably familiar with the power of a good name.
That’s why naming your blog is so important — it can make or break your ability to stand out and attract readers. Unfortunately, most people don’t put much thought into their domain name (a.k.a., what comes after www).
That’s a mistake. Your domain name can be one of your best assets, especially when it comes to getting noticed and attracting more readers to your blog.
It’s what people are searching for
People are searching for your site, and you want them to be able to find it. So choose a URL that your visitors will be searching for.
If you’re launching a new blog, you’ll want to make sure the domain name is something people are actually looking for online.
This is helpful information because it tells you which keywords might drive traffic to your blog if they’re in your domain name.
For example, let’s say I was starting a blog about pancakes and waffles from around the world.
It would be great if my site came up on Google when people typed “pancakes and waffles.”
But what if there were already a hundred sites about pancakes and waffles?
That would mean my page probably wouldn’t come up in the results unless someone specifically searched for “Couch Pancakes” or “travelblogofpancakesandwaffles.”
So how do you know what people are searching for?
There’s a nifty tool called Ubersuggest that can help you with this.
You basically get free keyword suggestions by typing an idea into Ubersuggest’s search bar.
The best part is that the tool aggregates data from other keyword tools like Keyword Planner, Wordtracker Scout, and KeywordDiscovery.
It also pulls in suggestions from Google Adwords’ auto-complete system so that the words it suggests align with what real users are actually typing into search engines online.
A good domain name tells search engines who you are.
Search engines use domain names as a way to understand a website’s content, in the same way, that people do.
They’re one of the top-ranking signals search engines use to determine what your site is about.
You can see this in action whenever anyone Googles anything—you’ll rarely find results from an overseas page with an unfamiliar domain name (e.g., .cn or .ru).
It’s just easier for everyone if you stick with a simple and well-known extension, like .com or .net.
It’s the first step to building your brand.
The first step to building a brand is getting your domain name. It’s the first thing people see when they think of your business and it sets the tone for what you’re about as a person or company.
If you want to start creating a brand and showing your customers who you are, consider buying a domain name today.
It’s the most important part of your blog address.
If you’re just starting out in the blogosphere, you may not be aware of how much a good domain name matters.
While your domain name is only the beginning, it’s still an important part of building a professional online presence for your blog.
Here are some reasons why you should spend some time choosing and registering your domain:
It’s the most important part of your blog address.
Your domain name is what people will type into their browser to get to your site (e.g., www .yourblogname .com).
When people talk about your blog or share it with others, they’ll say something like “just go to www .yourblogname .com.” They won’t say “go to www .myblogproviderwebaddress/yourblogname .”
It’s the first point of contact with your brand.
As soon as someone visits or hears about your blog, they’ll see its URL (the web address) somewhere—whether that’s on another website or on a piece of paper in real life.
The URL serves as an introduction to your brand and is often the first impression that visitors get of you or what they think when they see it again later on down the road (e.g., while using search engines).
If someone doesn’t remember exactly what was in that post from last month, chances are pretty good that when they look at those links again later down the line those memories will instantly come flooding back thanks to a good “Domain Name“.
Your domain is how your readers will find you and share you with others.
Your domain is how your readers will find you and share you with others. It’s a critical identity element, so it’s important that it be memorable, concise, and easy to read.
Here are some tips for choosing a good domain name:
Avoid hyphens and numbers.
Using either make the domain more difficult to remember and harder to type correctly.
Don’t use the same name as a competitor.
If your blog is about recipes, don’t use recipeblog.com as your domain because chances are people will have trouble differentiating you from other sites that do the same thing but with slightly different names (themindfulchefblog.com or reciperamblings.com).
Don’t choose a name that could change meaning over time or maybe difficult for people to understand without further explanation (for example, using “carbs” instead of carbohydrates).
Use a domain name extension that is relevant to your business (e.g., .com).
Domain extensions such as .co or .me may confuse users on where they need to go to find content related to your business.
You don’t need to spend a lot of money to find a great name.
First, search for a name that is available.
You want to make sure that your readers can click on the domain and visit your blog. Next, you want to check your social media handles.
You don’t want to have a different handle on each platform. It’s confusing for people and it looks unprofessional.
If you plan to use your blog as a source of income through affiliate marketing or by selling something, it’s important that the name is available as a business name in your state as well.
Remember, you don’t need to spend a lot of money or stress yourself out if you pick a good blog name from the beginning.
How do you choose a domain name that’s brandable?
In my opinion, the best kind of domain names are brandable. A brandable domain name is one that has no real meaning but is memorable and easy to say/spell.
Most often, a brandable domain would be invented or made-up word, but not always.
Here are some qualities of a good brandable domain name:
Memorable (sticky)
Not descriptive of the product or service – doesn’t give any indication as to what they sell or offer
Short – 6 characters or less is ideal
Easy to say/spell
Make the domain easy to type and remember
It’s pretty simple. Your domain name should be easy to type, easy to remember and if possible, brandable.
If you can’t type your domain quickly and easily, people will make mistakes and look elsewhere.
If you can’t get it the first time around:
Make sure the domain you want is available with a .com extension, as this is the most natural ending for a website.
If there are no .coms available, try different TLDs (.net, .co) or try a more creative spelling (e.g., Flickr).
Your domain name must be short and punchy
You’re more likely to remember a short domain name than a long one.
Take this one,, for example, http://yourexcellentblogdomainname.com is far easier to remember than http://yourreallylongexcellentblogdomainname.com
Short domain names also make it easier for your readers to type them into their browser’s address bar or a search engine like Google and Bing.
Shorter domain names are also much easier to share when you want your readers to tell their friends about your blog.
They can easily tweet it, email it or write it on Facebook without worrying about making any mistakes with the spelling of a long domain name.
Use keywords in your domain name
Using keywords in your domain name can help with search engine optimization by giving search engines and users an idea of what your website is about. It can also make your domain name more memorable and relevant to your target audience, potentially attracting more traffic to your website.
- Use keywords that are targeted. Pick words that define your blog niche and purpose.
- Use keywords, but try to limit them to 2 words.
- Use keywords that are relevant to your niche (targeted).
- Use keywords that have a high search volume (popular).
- Use keywords that are easy to remember (broad terms and brandable).
- Use keywords that are easy to spell (avoid homonyms).
- Use keywords that are easy to pronounce (avoid silent letters or tricky combinations).
- Avoid numbers and hyphens in your domain names
- It’s best to avoid two types of characters in your domain name: numbers and hyphens.
Both can be hard for people to remember, which means that you run the risk of losing traffic simply because you made it difficult for them to find your site.
For example, if someone hears about your blog on a podcast, then they might forget whether the URL is
StunningPhotographyTips.com or
Stunning-Photography-Tips.com or
StunningPhotographyTips.net or
26StunningPhotographyTips.com (and so on).
If you do use a number, make sure it’s spelled out (e.g., TwentySixStunningPhotographyTips.com).
The same goes for hyphens; search engines may see your keywords as separate words, rather than as one phrase, which could affect how results appear in search engine listings.
Avoid using trademarked terms
The first thing to do is make sure you have a unique blog name or domain name and do not infringe on another company’s trademark.
Don’t use any copyrighted, trademarked names, words, or domains.
On the other hand, try to get as close as possible to your desired name by selecting combinations that are closely related to it.
For example, if the domain for your desired blog name http://www.yourname.com is already used, try http://www.your-name.com instead.
You will always find difficulty when you decide to create a blog so you should take this seriously.
The domain name is the identity of your website. It is the address you enter in a web browser to visit a particular site.
- A good domain name has all the qualities of a great brand and it does not have any negative connotation associated with it.
- A great domain name must be catchy enough so that people remember it and come back to your site again and again by just hearing it from someone else.
- It should be unique but at the same time easy to remember, otherwise people won’t bother typing your URL correctly in their browser and they will simply move on to your competitor’s website if they think that they can get what they want there as well.
- A good example of a catchy and memorable domain name would be Facebook
- An example of a bad domain name would be www.that-russian-dating-site-where-i-met-my-soulmate.biz because it isn’t catchy or memorable at all and also because most people aren’t going to see “that Russian dating site where I met my soulmate” as something positive but rather as something shady instead
Blog domain search tool.
A tool that searches domains with the word blog
The tool will use several word lists to provide the maximum potential of finding good blog domains that are available.
Specifically, it will use a word list of common words, another list with common misspellings, another list with common plurals, and one more list with common top-level domains (TLDs).
Also, looks for the plural and misspelled words
You might also want to change your search terms to “bloog” or “bloggg”, which are common misspellings of the term blog. Pluralizing the word (“blogs” or “bloggs”) can help you find different available domains.
Search for different top-level domains
In addition to searching for the most common top-level domains such as .com, .net, or .org, you can search for any of the hundreds of other TLDs available.
To do so, simply click on “Add new domain” and click through to find and select your desired TLD(s).
For example, if you are interested in getting a blog about the United States history, but all domains ending in .com are taken, you can search for both .us and .history.
Search for different word combinations
Once you have a list built for each category, it’s time to generate domain names. You can do this in a few ways.
The first way is to simply combine words together.
For instance, if your topic is “cars”, you might see that “great” and “autos” are both good suffixes and prefixes, so you could combine them with your keyword as greatcars.com or autosgreat.com.
Another way to generate names is to take two lists of words with the same number of items, like the example lists above, and use one item from each list in combination with your keyword.
So, if the first item on one list is “good,” and the first item on another list is “best”, you could make a domain name such as goodcarsbest.com for an auto enthusiast website (or carsgoodbest .com).
A third way to generate combinations of words would be to take all of your prefixes and suffixes from both lists and build them into different variations by adding them before or after your main keyword (or both before AND after).
A domain search tool needs to be fast.
You type something in and you need an instant response. Not only that, but it also has to be able to handle the massive number of combinations a search query might return.
5 domain search tools
NameStall — Best for finding available domain names fast
- NameStall is an easy-to-use domain name search tool. It’s free, and it allows you to search available domain names by keyword.
- You can filter your results by domain extension or length, and you can see which domains are popular (like .com).
- Unfortunately, if you’re using NameStall for one of its more advanced features like finding a random available domain name or a common misspelling of your keyword, the results will display with ads from NameCheap.
NameCheap — Best for domain name registration
NameCheap is a popular domain name registrar.
It has some of the lowest prices in the industry and offers plenty of features. Many people use it because they’re looking for affordable prices, but they end up staying because NameCheap makes domain names easy to manage and renew.
A very popular feature of NameCheap is its free Whois privacy option. This means that you can protect your personal information associated with a domain name for free. This is particularly useful if you’re worried about spam or phishing attempts.
Instant Domain Search — Best for finding a domain that matches your brand
No time to waste?
Instant Domain Search is fast and simple.
To use this domain search tool, just type a keyword you want your website to reflect into the search bar, and it will show you a list of matching domains. The results are sorted by relevancy, length, and popularity, so you can find the most suitable domain for your brand quickly.
If the domain is available in .com, .net or .org extensions, Instant Domain Search will show it to you in green color — click on one of those green links, and they’ll take you straight to GoDaddy where you can register it. If it’s already been registered or if there are no exact matches with your keyword (but there are some which contain it), they’ll be shown in gray color.
LeanDomainSearch — Best for brainstorming ideas
If you’re looking to start your own website or find a domain name for a new business, but you’re short on ideas for what would be good, then LeanDomainSearch.com is the best tool for you.
You can search by keyword and sort by length, popularity, and alphabetical order. How awesome is that?
The advanced features make it easy to quickly narrow down your options so you can snatch up a great domain name before someone else does.
Luckily there are plenty of domain search tools available to help you find exactly that: the perfect match for your website that isn’t already taken. But not all domain search tools are made equal; some will only be useful for certain purposes.
Conclusion
In conclusion, choosing the right domain name is crucial for the success of your website. It not only creates a strong first impression but also helps with search engine optimization and branding. A domain name that is memorable, relevant, and easy to spell can attract more visitors and help your website rank higher in search engine results pages. Moreover, it can enhance your brand recognition and credibility among your target audience. Therefore, it’s important to take the time to research and select a domain name that aligns with your business goals and values. Ultimately, a well-chosen domain name can be a valuable asset for your website and online presence.
FAQ
What is a domain name and why is it important?
A domain name is the web address that people use to find your website. It’s important because it creates a first impression and can impact your search engine optimization and branding efforts.
Can a domain name affect my website’s SEO?
Yes, a domain name can affect your website’s SEO as it’s one of the ranking factors used by search engines to determine the relevance and credibility of your website.
How do I choose a good domain name?
To choose a good domain name, consider its relevance to your business, its memorability, and ease of spelling. Avoid using numbers, hyphens, and unusual spellings that can confuse your visitors.
Can I change my domain name after setting up my website?
Yes, you can change your domain name but it can have a significant impact on your website’s SEO and branding efforts. It’s recommended to consult with a professional before making such a change.
Can I purchase multiple domain names for my website?
Yes, you can purchase multiple domain names for your website but it’s important to redirect them to your primary domain to avoid duplicate content issues and confusion among your visitors.