There are few simple rules to follow while choosing a Domain Name / Blog Name. Doing this will help your site with greater synergy effect. Check them out and follow which ever rules you can.
Shakespeare once said “What’s in a name? We can….”. Funny irony is that, the same quote has been published a million time with his name attributed at the end of it. Ha ha..
1. Always use “.com” Domain Name
Stay away from other top level domain names apart from “.com” The reasoning is pretty simple – dot-com domains are pretty easier to remember, consider de facto and feels comfortable to link to a site. If someone said you to type yahoo, chances are you will type yahoo.com by default.
You can choose a different top level domain, if you cannot find a better dot-com domain name. Although avoid local / country specific domain names like “.co.uk” or “.co.us” unless you are focusing your site to target those geographical area.
2. Keep Blog Name same as your Domain Name
Apart form search engine optimization, it also help in your reader to better connect with your blog. So make sure your domain name is linked to your Blog name if not an exact replica. Dailybt.com can be linked to Daily blogging tips or Nytimes.com can be linked to New York Times.
3. Easy to remember
Avoid confusing letters, alpha numeric words, abbreviations like L33T, Tips4u etc. in your both Domain name and Blog name. They are confusing, often misspelled and not easy to recall.
4. Put your main keyword in your domain name
An absolute must, at least according to me. The most important criteria for search engine optimization are the domain name and the title of the site. Putting your most targeted keyword (also known as primary keywords) in these areas helps you maximize the SEO potential of your site. Don’t ignore this tip.
5. Don’t go too general, Don’t go too niche
Avoid very general topics like Blogging news if you are not able to cover decent share of news from the blogging world. Rather narrow it down to a geographical location like Australian bloggers or narrow it with respect to category like SEO news or Blog design news.
But don’t over do it. It might happen that you choose too narrow a topic that either you find it difficult to gather content for the site or there are no visitors for the topic you have chosen.
6. Think of a tag line to your blog name
Make your blog sound like a movie, add a tag line.
Why? to have the same effect what tagline have in movie poster, to attach a recall value to the word. Problogger.net has it, JohnChow.com has it, heck even I have it, so why don’t you. Start thinking one. It should be a short sentence, very focused to the main target area or service you are blogging about.
There you have six quick points to help you choose your blog name / domain name. This list is not exhaustive, and i am opening the post for discussion. Let me know what tips you can add to the above list. Use comments to reply.
Have a nice day ..!!
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Good ideas.
Though the really random names are also not too shabby.
http://www.totallyrandom.com or something along those lines are pretty good names.
[...] Tips to choose a good Blog Name (tags: blogging tips) [...]
This is a great post with some spot on tips for domain names. I 100% agree with your tip to only buy .com. I think the other TLDs don’t perform as well and people will ALWAYS try to put .com. So you may inadvertantly lose traffic because people put .com on your domain name instead or .org/.net/.info. I also agree with your tip to put the keyword in the domain. This will give you a big edge.
Great post, I just found your blog today and will definitely be reading more of it. Well done.
LOVE your site, will visit again
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thank you, this info is really helpful.
I think that’s what I’ve been lacking with my blog. I think I have a unique enough name, but I need some tag line. Something that is catchy. Great post.
I have a different point of view on Point 4. If you include your main keyword in your domain name, it is not possible to spread to different domains at some later point of time.
For instance, when you find that some off-topic posts work better than the main ones, you can shift your domain if you have a more general domain name. That has been working for me, when I started organised blogging, the general domain name realyl helped me out
Arun Basil Lal
Hello to all ! Great site. I am new here greetings to all from Poland.
A SUPPORTED BY THE DEVELOPER TOOLS? It was interesting. You seem very knowledgeable in ypour field.
I Want to set a good block name for my own. please suggest to keep a good block name.
please suggest me step by step how to design excellent with images, home , about us ,suggest as for..
These are great tips, but it’s getting harder to follow them with so many good names taken.
I agree with you author…Blogging is way to express your thoughts and feeling.So as the name of the domain should be self expressive or it can be bit random to give a pull feeling to the readers.
ye if you want to rank quick you need the keyword in your domain name
it’s very important
oh…this article is very easy to understand.I have a plan to buy a new domain.This tips helping me to choose a right domain.
i agree with the 3rd tip. because there are some people who keeps confusing letters, alpha numeric words to make their blog unique from others.
Need some advise … should I use my name in blog?