How To Select A Good Domain Name For Your Blog

Posted on the 29 December 2012 by Butterchicken @vivekkrishnan

A good domain name is critical for building a successful blog. No matter how much you say that the name does not matter – it does matter a lot. While content can make your blog stand out, selecting an awesome domain name can cut down on the efforts that you need to put in to your blog to make it successful.

If you are already a blog owner, you probably know how much easy work becomes with a good domain. Despite, Google cracking down on Exact match domain names – it is only on low quality EMDs that this crack down has effected. If you have an EMD with good content, then there is absolutely no negative impact in search results. So as usual, always look for a domain name with a keyword you intend to rank for.

Here are some important points on how you can select a good domain name:

Prefer .COM as much as possible

I love the .COM, most people do. It has a short key on the keyboard and people intuitively consider all sites to be a .COM domain. Although, search engine wise .ORG & .NET are okay, but I am never comfortable with it. As much as possible, always prefer a .com extension domain name as it is the most commonly used and most intuitive TLD (top level domain).

What to do if you don’t get a .COM extension?

It is a very valid question while selecting a domain name for your blog. What to if you don’t get a .COM extension that you want. In this case, make sure that the site that runs the .COM is not your direct competitor. So that if your audience wrongly appends the domain extension, he/she is not taken to your competitors site.

Addition Reading – 3 Tips When you Don’t Get Your Business Name as the domain name

In essence, you really need to focus on the fact that even if you have a domain name with a non .com extension that it does not affect the way people search for your site or discover it. This is a challenge and you need to address it as carefully as you can. Rest assured, as long as your content is good – your TLD will not matter a lot.

Make it easy to recall

You would want to ensure that your domain name is easy to recall and does not hang out of the users head the next time he visits it. Some cool ways to make your domain name easy to recall would be to constitute it with simple words, ensure that they are words the user usually knows and does not conflict with some other existing sites.

Do not use hyphens or numbers

Do not use hyphens or numbers in your domain name. It is a dumb idea as illustrated in the example: a domain name such as 4sportslife.com can be wrongly typed as forsportslife.com. Moreover, the user may never figure out what he/she is typing wrong to not be able to see your site. A number completely kills the effectiveness of a domain name. The same also goes for hyphens, since it does not come naturally to a person when typing a domain name. Also, it is tough to recall a domain name that had hyphens. I have never seen any big brand use hyphens or numbers for their website and for good reasons.

Is there a ring to the name?

Ask yourself if the domain name has a ring to it when you say it out loud. It is really important, because some domain names look like words all forced together. Select a domain name that rolls of the tongue and has a nice ring to it when people say it out loud. Trust me it is a great way to get branding rolling for your blog.

Lastly, I understand that getting a good domain name is not an easy task with millions of domain names being registered each day. However, you must try to keep the above points in mind as you look to choose the perfect name for your blog.

If you are looking to buy domain name, I suggest you buy from Namecheap. All my sites are registered with them and they are a much better service than GoDaddy or any other domain name registrar.

Who Read This Post, Also Read:

  • 7 Reasons Why Namecheap is Better Than Godaddy
  • List Of Top 10 Domain Name Registrars