“I had finally came up with an absolutely catchy and unique best domain name for my blog. It was the perfect one until I found that it was no longer available!”
Does this sound familiar? You probably have figured out by now that the number of good domain names available is fast diminishing. Many are complaining that they are having an awful time trying to pick a new domain name for their new blogs. Yes, to the extent that even those weird ones have been registered!
What can be done? Well, there are ways to make the naming process as painless as possible. After all, picking a good domain name for a new blog should be part of your pleasant blogging experience.
Why Are Domain Names So Important?
Well, your website is like your home and your domain name is your house address. It is not enough to have a website. People need an address or a domain to find your house/website. But they also need a domain that they can associate with your website. So how do you go about choosing the perfect domain name?
Tips On Picking The Best Domain Name
Here are a few practical tips on how to pick the best domain name for your blog.
1 . Relevant Keywords
Keywords should be the first thing you look into when creating your domains, for 2 reasons. First, so that your readers and potential readers are able to quickly figure out what your blog is about, your niche. And second, it helps with your search engine rankings!
Having said that, it’s pretty difficult to find an available domain name that has a straight forward keyword, especially with the increasing number of domains being taken up these days. So you may need to mix keywords around to come up with a catchy name for your blog.
One common way is to add in some prefixes and suffixes to keywords. Examples of prefixes include my, the, e-, free, pro, best, first, great and quick. While some examples of suffixes are network, world, place, bay, tools, review, system and trend.
2 . Branding
Alternatively, instead of insisting on having keywords, you could make your creative juice work for you. Create something unique and that is easily remembered. It does not need to have any keywords in it.
Having relevant keywords is just one way to create SEO friendly blogs. There are many other ways and having a uniquely yours brand works just as well in generating a following for your blog. Take for example Google, Twitter and Boing Boing.
3 . What’s After The Dot
Much has been debated over which domain name extension is the best and whether it is worth it. Of course the most popular domain extension is .com simply because most people assume that a website or a blog (especially an online business blog) ends with .com.
However, it is not that easy to get a good .com domain anymore so you may want to check out other Top Level Domains (TLDs) instead eg .net, .co and .biz, which are just as good. Then there are also the country’s TLD eg .us, .uk and .asia that you can consider.
4 . No Fancy Punctuation Marks Please
Although it increases the domain names options, adding hyphens and punctuation marks in your domain names can make it more complicated. It is difficult to type and to be communicated and has more chance of keystroke errors. And if your customers or blog readers cannot find you, you may have lost them for good.
While you may argue that nobody types in URL anyway these days, do take into consideration that not everyone would bookmark your URL immediately after the first visit, and most people do not bother to look for your website in Google if they failed to locate you by your fancy domain name!
Some friendly domain name tips
There are a couple of things that a beginner (and also a seasoned blogger) should be aware of. One, do not pick a domain that is already an established brand or you will find yourself in a legal suit!
Domain names do not allow any spaces, punctuation marks nor symbols. It’s a combination of a few words. So do be careful that you don’t unwittingly change the meaning of your domain name. To give you an idea, here’s an example. If a therapist name Mel wished to build a website for his practice, the last thing he should consider is www.melstherapist.com in case others read it as www.MelsTheRapist.com!
Do beware of scammers. Buy your domains from an accredited domain name registrar.
Domain Name Search Tools
There’s good news though. You don’t have to crack your head (unless of course if you wish so) to come up with domain names only to find that they are unavailable. There are many online tools that can assist you in finding variations of good domain names.
- DomainsBot
DomainsBot is a simple domain name search tool that lists down various domain options, including available ones, registered as well as for sale domains. Pretty useful when you are out of names yourself. Can be used as a domain name idea generator. - Nameboy
NameBoy is an easy to use domain generator. You just enter your primary keyword and an optional second keyword and immediately you will have a long list of possible domain names available for the different TLDs. Great tool for those looking for keyword rich domain names.
Best Domain Name Registrars
Now that you have a domain name in mind, it’s time to register it quickly. Here are two domain name registrars who are affordable, reliable and highly recommended by many webmasters.
1 . Godaddy
GoDaddy is by far one of the more affordable domain names registrars. They are also hosting providers though they are more popular as a domain names registrar. A .com domain name costs only $11.99 per year.
They have 24/7 customer support and are generally easy to use. When you are registering your new domain name with GoDaddy, you will be able to save on other related services, such as web hosting, SSL certs and other domains if you bought them together. However, these related services are completely optional, so you can buy them if you need them or just leave them out of your cart if think they are unnecessary for the moment.
You can clearly see how expensive some registrars charge for a domain name. While they are charging a few times more, the features they offer are not necessary better! Therefore, don’t allow yourself to fool by them. instead, make informed decisions and thoroughly research before making any choices. There are good reasons why GoDaddy is voted as the number 1 registrar, with over 84 million domains registered through them!
2 . Namecheap
Another big player in domain name registrations is Namecheap. A .com domain costs only $9.58 per year, excluding ICANN fee which is actually very minimal. To make their deal sweeter, they offer a free customizable “coming soon” landing page and an advanced control panel for multiple domain names management.
For a limited time only. NameCheap offers .com domain names at the discounted price of $5.98 per year! with NEWCOM598 coupon code. Visit Now
Final Advice – Picking a website name
Deciding on a website’s or a blog’s domain name is crucial as it’s the name that people know your blog as. While there are many things that one should look into when deciding on a domain name, it does not necessarily need to be a stressful quest. I hope you have found the above tips informative and helpful in creating the best domain name for your website or blog!
