Your name is the one of the most important parts of your blog. It is the thing that viewers remember about your blog. It is important to really put some thought into your name. You can change it, but if you do, you lose traffic, have to buy a new domain, and have to buy a new logo.
When choosing your name think about different you need to think about these things:
- Keywords
- Length
- How well visitors can remember it.
Having keywords in your name is important. Though it is not necessary, if you can put at least one keyword in it, it will really help with SEO. Some famous bloggers don’t have keywords in their name so it is optional. You can even find an example of a name without keywords in it on this blog. If you are a beginner, I recommend you have a name with keywords in it though.
You want to keep your name short and sweet. If it is too long, your URL will be to long, and it will be hard for visitors to remember your blog’s name. If you look at all the most successful bloggers, you will see that their names are short, two words or less. Examples are Pro Blogger, Life Hacker, and Boing Boing.
If your visitors can’t remember your name then they won’t be able to come back very easily. Make it something catchy and easy to remember.An example of a catchy URL is Blogussion. It shows that the website is about the discussion of blogging and is one word. This is an easy
name to remember.
When thinking about what name to choose, think about these three things. The name of your blog will follow you as long as you keep your blog active. It is almost as if you are naming your child, you care for your blog like a child, so why should it be any different for your blog’s name.
Ways to Research
Look for the keyword that you want to become first in the search engines the most. A good tool is the Google Adwords Keyword tool. This is called your primary keyword. You can then brainstorm names that have the keyword in it.
Try to use real words and change them to fit your keyword. Examples are Blogussion (puts blog in discussion) or Teenius ( puts teen in genius). This is a great way to come up with catchy names. Also, when looking at a name, make sure the URL isn?t taken. It may be annoying constantly thinking about the perfect name, but it will surely be worth it in the long run. I hope you come up with the perfect name!
This is a guest post by Teenwebguru, a beginner blogger who has just started Web Journey, a blog having to do with everything in the web. He also is passionate about soccer and has a soccer website called The Complete Soccer Guide.
Hello TeenWebGuru!
Very good advice you have in this post. Certainly the domain name is not only one of the first things but perhaps one of the most important.. It’s good if your domain name reflects what your site is about too.
Great job, keep it up!
Keith’s last blog post..Key to Cashflow
Agreed. For me, the domain name is the first impression, so if you can get that right then you’re bound to get some success. Therefore, making the domain relevant is a very important aspect of picking a domain name.
Yeah! Keyword + branding in domain is such a great mix. Keyword in domain name plays a major role in search engine optimization. I believe choosing domain name for your blog is the hardest part as almost all good domains in the web is already taken especially in the .com extension. The main tip is, give time in deciding and choosing domain name as it is the foundation of your blog.
Splendid Kid’s last blog post..How To Know If A Blog Comment Is A Spam
You say that, but there are several different ways of finding good domains. I’ll be doing a post about it in the next few days, so stay tuned for that
Thanks, I agree that it is really hard to find a good domain name. I once typed in http://www.jubble.com and all the extensions except for .info and .me were taken. That proves how hard it is.
The annoying thing is that many people take the good domains but don’t do anything with them. They just sit and hope someone will buy them.
teenwebguru’s last blog post..40 Common Negative Thoughts
To be fair, a lot of webmasters find this annoying, but in the end business is business and they got there first. Domaining is a big part of the internet, so I don’t think we can moan too much about it
Great Post there TeenWebGuru. I totally agree with Splendid Kid, choosing the domain name is really the hardest part as almost all of’em are already registered.
About the SEO thing, if one can manage to find a good short, readable domain name with one keyword in it too.. What else a Good Domain requires?
To be honest, Its almost a month, I’m not able to decide a domain name for my new upcoming Blog.
Enk.’s last blog post..Create Custom Sidebar in Wordpress Blog
I agree. If you find a a memorable short domain with one keyword in it, you should buy it. It is also important to try to get .com if it is for your blog. My domain is a .me but I have a plan for it.
My plan is to make many Web Journeys all with .me to make a franchise of blogs. Once I create more and more web journeys people will remember to put .me.
teenwebguru’s last blog post..40 Common Negative Thoughts
Awesome idea
Plus, ‘Web Journey’ is a very very strong domain whether it’s .com, .info or .me. It’s brandable, memorable and straight to the point, which are the most important three parts of buying a domain.
SEO Wise, it’s always good to have keywords in your domain, but if you’re producing quality content then people are bound to link to you anyway, thus increasing your chances of doing well in the SERPS anyway
Great post, Teenwebguru, I loved it.
A memorable domain is MOST important IMO
Farrhad’s last blog post..Earn Money Using Twitter
Thanks for the reply Farrhad A. Domains are definitely very important. Many people just starting their blog choose the wrong one and have to start over.
teenwebguru’s last blog post..40 Common Negative Thoughts
@TeenWebGuru: You are right about keeping the domain name short and such that people can remember the name. I was foolish enough to use ‘gr8′ in one of my sites. I even got it in mentioned in a national daily but imagine my horror when my friends called me to say my site is not working.. They were using ‘great…’ domain
Jeet’s last blog post..Are you tired of looking for dofollow blogs?
Abbreviations in a domain? Hmm, not really a good idea to be honest. If you’re making a .mobi site then it might be alright, but for any other niche I would just use normal words, even if they are a bit longer.
Thanks for the comment BTW… hope you stick around and post more
Haha, sorry that happened to you. it’s a common thing that happens to beginners. My first domain was jakeo-soccer.wetpaint.com. Very memorable right?
The important thing is to learn from your mistakes and others. Thanks for the comment.
teenwebguru’s last blog post..40 Common Negative Thoughts
Agreed with the ‘learning from your mistakes’ point.
I feel that researching any potential domain you’re going to buy is a big part of registering a domain. For example, before I regged this domain I didn’t really look into it, just saw it was available and had to buy it!
I later found out that there was a film called Teenius released in 2007, so I’ve had to fight my way past all the film related results just to get near the top of Google for my own website name!
Really, that stinks. After registering my domain I figured out that I wanted to blog about blogging, more than the web. I hope to get some writers for other subjects so I can focus on the blogging part.
teenwebguru’s last blog post..40 Common Negative Thoughts
Great post man. I know that one of the hardest things to do when planning your site is coming up with the name. Actually, I think it’s the hardest part (at least for me).
It’s a battle between what’s available, what’s brandable, what has keywords in it, what’s memorable and so many other things. Once I pick the name for any site, I am so relieved as the hard part is over.
Loving the article. Maybe you should come over Blogussion some time and share some of that wisdom with out community? :p
Alex | Blogussion.com’s last blog post..5 Funny Things Bloggers Do To Make Their Blog Look More “Official”
Yea, I was planning on it. I hope to do a guest post for Blogussion tomorow
teenwebguru’s last blog post..40 Common Negative Thoughts
Alex, a new post is up that should hopefully give you some ideas for HOW to find a good domain. Check it out
Thanks for all the comments on this post, and teenwebguru, awesome article, hope you’ll post more in the future
Thanks for letting me post it. I hope to continue to contribute to Teenius.
teenwebguru’s last blog post..40 Common Negative Thoughts
Awesome! I look forward to future posts
I like the way you think, Simon.
The best thing you can do when getting your own domain is have something catchy, sounds good and also will help you rank well in search engines. That combination is a great mix!
Daniel – WPThemeKid’s last blog post..WPThemeKid Didn’t Sell!
Like you say, that’s a great mix, but unfortunately finding that combination is extremely tricky.
Oh, btw, should be made very clear that this is the way teenwebguru thinks, as it was a guest post by him (and a very nice one too, might I add
)
Simon, I guess, you are able to edit your own comment (other’s too) btw..
i have just made my proxy site as yourownproxy
cause the site is made for the people to use
SO
YOUR OWN PROXY
how is it ?
In my opinion it’s quite good: short and memorable. Nice find!
Short + keyword + .com = Great domain name.
That’s what I have personally found but I’m sure the extension has only a little effect on the overall ranking.
Yeah, that’s usually the winning combination, but remember that picking something brandable is equally important if you’re looking to make a name for yourself and get return visits.
Take ‘Teenius.com’ for example: it’s got no keywords and it’s 7 letters long, still it’s quite valuable and, in my opinion, a very good domain name!
Its always a tough task to choose domain names. I am in a idea to buy with my name show that I can have like a “About and PortFolio” Website