Buying a website name can be one of the most difficult aspects of starting a new website or blog. Before you get to the point of website name registration, you need a name. When brainstorming cool website names, there are a few things to consider. Being share-friendly should be at the top of that list.
Long gone are the days when people simply hit Google and took its first return as the end of your search. Today, we want to know who is talking to us online and who our friends are listening to also. And when we find a website we love, we share it. Whether our friends care or not, they are going to see it on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and hear about it at your next lunch date. This is why choosing a recognizable, brandable and share-able website name is so important.
Tips for Choosing a Website or Blog Domain Name
Always get a .com. Other extensions are cool to grab for branding sake, but they should not be used as your main URL. Everyone goes to .com first. Make sure they are finding you and not your competition or worse, an unsavory website.
Spell it like it sounds, please. You do not want to have to spell out the URL each time you pass it along. And you don’t want people being directed to another site because they are typing the traditional spelling into their browser. Make it easy on everyone and don’t get too creative with spelling or use too many abbreviations. Chances are good you will either be directing traffic to someone else or having to buy the domain with the traditional spelling at some point.
Make it trustworthy. There was a time, not so long ago, when keyword specific domains were the in thing. They were not always so trustworthy-looking however. If I am going to send a friend to a jewelry blog, I am likely to send her to sallysgems.com long before I send her to buy-diamond-jewelry-online.co.uk. If this example was not convincing enough, exact match keyword domains are also considered bad SEO business these days. There is a good chance Sally’s Gems is going to do a lot better in the search engines than Option #2.
Now that we have seen hyphens in action in the above domain, it is a good time to advise you to just leave those out. A lot of people get confused when it comes to slashes, dashes and hyphens online.
To wrap things up into one simple piece of advice when mulling over ideas for blog names, no further explanation should be needed when passing along your URL verbally. When I tell people to visit The Work at Home Wife, I don’t need to tell them how to spell it, where to put the dashes or words that require alternate spelling. I do not need to tell them to remember it is .net, someone else owns .com. And when they tell their friends, they do not need to worry about that either.
Now that you have a good idea of what you don’t want, it is time to hop over and start performing a few domain name searches to see what is available. If your first choice is not available, try using alternate descriptors – sallysgems.com is already taken, but sallysjewels.com is available. Dust off the thesaurus if needed. The perfect domain name is out there without needing to resort to unappealing techniques. Get your ideal domain name now!
Join my newsletter subscribers! You will not only receive free updates by email and subscriber-only content, you also get instant access to my Ultimate Work at Home Business Plan.
About Angie Nelson
great post Angie! My sister and I recently began a website together and it took us weeks just to come up with a name. We wanted something easy to say, memorable and wouldn’t restrict us on what we talked about. We are sharing free crochet patterns but what if later we decide to add kitting patterns? We didn’t want to feel the need to start a whole new site. It was very hard because everything we thought of was already taken or was a premium domain, costing thousands of dollars. Finally, TheYarnBox, came to mind and it was available….we were quick to buy it and quick to get things set up and started and then BAM…we found out the domain had previously been owned by a well-known spammer…meaning our website domain was being blocked by many browser security add-ons and even Facebook’s security scanner!!! It was a horrible way to begin a website (especially a membership based one). But with a lot of work and emails, we were able to clear our name and make it all one bad memory. lol
Anyway, I think my experience blogging has taught me that I tend to want to branch out and so keeping the name narrowly focused may limit my potential later. You are right- a blogs name is very important!
You picked a good one, Miranda. So much room to grow there. Even beyond patterns!
Angie, this was a great read thank you.
Picking a good domain is extremely important, your point on trust worthy domains really stood out to me, I’ve noticed a lot of sites use this; originally Google couldn’t parse domains as easy so it would help rankings but that was a long time ago, they’ve improved a lot since then.
I usually avoid any domain name that’s hyphenated.
Thanks for the comment, Adam.