Tips for Choosing the Best Domain Names

Choosing the right domain name for your website or blog is a crucial step in establishing your brand. Also, a domain name is the first impression of your website, so make it professional and easy for users to remember. Choosing a domain name poorly, likewise, might wind up starting all over again. We will go through some tips for choosing domain names in this article.

Why should you make it right when you first start blogging?

You might not want to change your domain name later since you have to start a whole journey of rebuilding your brand. Also, if you change your domain name, you have to “report” to Google and redirect old URLs to new website in order to not lose ranking scores on search results. However, for beginners who do not specialize in Tech SEO, website migration can be a complicated step.

In short, you should take some time to carefully choose a suitable name for your site at the beginning. Before starting, there are notes you properly want to keep in mind:

Read It Before Choosing Domain Names

You need to determine whether you make money to blog (blog as a hobby) or blog to make money (MMO – Make money online). If blogging is more like a hobby, then choosing a name for your blog will likely depend more on your feeling than other factors that are listed below. However, I believe for a long-term goal, everybody wants to make money from what they are doing or from their hobby. So, make sure that you consider all of the factors to come up with the best domain name.

•  Always prioritize popular domain extensions (Top Level Domain) like .com .net .org. If your website is only aimed at local people, you can choose some local extensions like .my (Malaysia) .uk (The UK), .ca (Canada), etc. To me, Dot-com domains are always my first priority because they are the most common, trustworthy and memorable.
• Domain names should be short and easy to remember.
•  Make your domain easy to pronounce and spell.
•  Avoid using odd spellings, hyphens, numbers, and special characters in your domain names.
•  Avoid double letters because users can make typos error which causes you losing traffic. For example, avoid these kind of domain names: fulfillife.com, trekkinggo.com, etc.
• Always give priority to choosing available domain names. You might know that a domain can cost from $7 -$7.000 or more. As a beginner, you should go for the cheapest one. I have already bought more than 20 domains, all cost $7-10$/ year. All you need to do is invest a little time in searching the cheap and suitable ones.

Okay! Now let’s jump into the main part of our article today – tips for choosing domain names.

#1 Name your website after your name

I think this is probably the way that many bloggers prefer. Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of this approach.

• Pros: Naming your website after your own name will be less likely to be duplicated. Your website name will be unique and stand out from the crowd. Of course, there will be a few cases of similar names, so make sure you follow the trademark checking steps at the end of this article before buying a domain.
• Pros: suitable for those who want to write multiple niches/ topics in one website.
• Cons: It is difficult to reach new users with a domain named after a personal name. For example, if users are looking for information about traveling, they will likely prefer visiting the site travelmalaysia.com to peterblog.com

#2 Use keyword in your domains

This is my favorite approach for naming my blogs. Determine what niche you want to blog, and name your domain according to that niche. This approach works best for products and services. For example, a yoga blog could be named loveyoga.com, yogajournal.com, yogaguru.com; a travel blog could be named travelwanderlust.com, traveljournal.com, etc.

• Naming your website according to keywords and topics can attract new users more easily. By looking at the URL, they know what your website is about and they can probably find many articles on the same topic when visiting your site.
• Besides, including keywords in the domain name helps search engines understand your page’s context and also boost your site’s ranking. In fact, having the keyword in the domain or URL doesn’t give you as much boost as it once did. But it is still considered a relevant and reliable signal of your site and your page.
• However, it is a bit hard to find the domain with keywords because the most common keywords are already taken. You need to be patient to search for a domain with keywords.

#3 Combines your name and niche/keyword

This approach helps readers immediately know who you are and what your blog’s content is mainly about. Combining your own name and keywords will also help your domain to be unique and stand out from the crowd.

For example, if you love yoga, you can find a domain name like rubiyoga.com, yogawithrubi.com, rubiyogaguru.com, etc. This naming also helps you easily build your own and unique brand.

#4 Include location in your domain names

This approach works best for a local brand and for site owners who want to focus on customers or audiences in a specific place. You can include city, state, country, or area in your domain name. For example: asiatravel.com, malaysiatrekking.com, klhotel.com.

It also helps users find you easier and your site will work better when user search for local brand or “near me” search term.

#5 Naming the website by shortening keywords

This approach is more common for business websites than blogging sites. And this trick is also used to shorten website names that are too long. Usually, they will take the first few letters of each word to put them together. 

Examples: digimarketing.com (digital marketing), hm.com (Hennes & Mauritz), kfc.com (Kentucky Fried Chicken), etc.

Naming with abbreviations makes your domain name shorter and easier to remember. 

#6 Create an unique word

You can create your own catchy and total new word. Something new and different can possibly help you to stand out but be considered if your are a beginner. 

You can find countless websites or giant branding using unique names like moz.com, pepsi.com, lazada.com, shoppee.com, google.com, yahoo.com, etc.

However, this approach is usually suitable for large businesses or companies. As a beginner, choosing a strange name that doesn’t make any sense requires a fairly strong branding strategy.

Check If Your Domains Are Not Trademarked Or Already Used

Okay, above are 6 tips for choosing the best domain names. Before you move forward and buy a domain name, you have to check if the domain is available on social media sites, and remember to check Trademark here. I would like to list step by step to make it easier for you.

Step 1: List Down Any Ideas You Come Up With

Follow the 6 tips for choosing domain names above and decide which approach you are going to use. Right away write down any ideas you come up with.

If you don’t have many ideas, what do you do? 

Go to Google Search and type the keyword or niche, then browse the search results and take a look at your competitors sites as reference.

For example, if I plan to blog about marketing, I will search for “top 10 websites about marketing”, and then refer to how they name the website. By searching and learning how your future competitors name their sites, you will definitely come up with some ideas.

Step 2: Check If It Is Available And The Price

After having a list of website names. I will check trademark. But it is more strictly for business.

Then, I’ll go online and see if these names have been used. There are 3 ways to check as follows:

• I used Namecheap’s search bar to check. If it is the available and super cheap price ($ 7 – &10). I will let it on the list. If it is already owned by somebody or too expensive, I will cross it off. Besides, Namecheap will recommend similar domain names. I will also write it down if I like it.
• I go to Google and type the domain name without the extension, and check if there are many similar domains. For example, the website I want to buy is wanderlustjournal.com, and there are many similar sites like wanderlustjourney.com, wanderingjournal.com, and wanderjournal.com. iwanderlustjournal.com. Then I can consider crossing this name off my list.
• The last step, I go to Facebook and other social channels and type the domain name (without extension) to see if it is used for a personal Profile, group, or Fanpage. If yes, I might cross it off the list.
• After checking all steps, the list will be shorter and easier for you to come up with your final decision.

A domain name is likely your home digital address. Choosing a domain name matters since it helps improve your visibility and authority for both users and crawlers. Follow the above steps and tips to make sure that you choose a suitable and standout domain name. After choosing a name, you can buy a super cheap domain name at Namecheap, and buy Hosting at a reputable provider Bluehost.

I hope that these tips for choosing domain names can help you out!!

Hello and welcome to my creative space. I’m Mai! I am thrilled to have you visiting my blog. Wish you a wonderful trip that is filled with lots of sweet and memorable moments. Check out all of FREE Courses for Bloggers & Marketers HERE. Best!