Howdy Friends,
If you are reading about this article, then probably you are thinking about starting a blog or a website. Or you might have already decided to go down this path and you want to pick a suitable domain name which suits your requirement.
If you have figured out what is your niche then it is wonderful. If not, then I can help you out in that. You need to read an in depth article I have written on identifying your niche (area of interest).
Read the article here: 5 Secrets About Identifying Your Niche
It is very important to know what you are going to write about in your blog or what services you are going to provide to your potential customer.
Table of Contents
Why is it important to select the right domain name?
When you select a domain name you might want to consider multiple things. What is your niche, what services you are going to offer once your blog has reached a reasonable level and how do you want to keep your customer engaged with the content you are providing.
If you choose the wrong (it can not be wrong, it’s just that it should suit your business) then it can become really a problematic situation to change a domain name and not hurt your older brand name and search engine rankings.
I think now you are getting it.
I would suggest not buying domain names (potentially this applies to all the life decisions) in excitement.
Based on experience in life, many times excitement leads to failure. You need to think multiple times, do some research and then jump into the decision.
What are the types of brands?
There are different brand names you might observe around you.
Many businesses have their
- first or last names in the brand name
- their full name in the business
- a name which resonates to their niche
- a name with some meaning attached to it.
For example, Ford Motor Company used the last name of the founder. Ford was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903.
Look at another example, Ola Cabs uses a spanish word. The meaning of Ola is “Hello”. This is a type of catchy name founders wanted to choose for their ride sharing business.
Now I think if you look at any brand you should be able to figure out what type of branding companies want to do.
Many people use their name in their business. For example Digital Deepak, he has used his first name along with an adjective. This is a type of personal branding example.
Even if you look at my domain name it is https://maheshzanwar.com/. I am building a personal brand of my own.
There are advantages and disadvantages of personal branding which is not the scope of this article. Maybe sometime I will write about it.
But I think, now you get the differences.
I would like to give you some of the tips and tricks to choose the right domain name for your blog. So, let’s get into it.
Tips to Select Good Domain Name
When starting a blog, selecting a right domain name can become a stressful job. I suggest you not to think a lot about it and just follow what your mind is saying about it.
I will try my best to provide some of the tips which I used in the past in selecting the right domain name.
Tip No. 1
Always go for .com extension of domain name.
There are tons of extensions like .in, .xyz, .org, .net, .pizza and many more. But I recommend you to always go for the .com extension.
Domain names with .com extension are the most established and credible domain names. The domain names with .com extension can be trustworthy.
Tell me, can you trust a domain name with extension .xyz or .ninja or .pizza over .com ?
No right!
It is always a smart decision to avoid any issue which might lead to an untrustable website and stick to .com extension.
Tip No. 2
Try to include the keyword into your domain name.
By keyword I mean, the niche you have selected. Try to include a keyword related to that niche into your domain name.
For example you are building a blog to promote affiliate products only related to dogs then you must have the keyword “dog” into your domain name.
There is an exception though, if you are planning to build a personal brand like me, you can go with your name in the domain name.
Tip No. 3
Make sure your domain name is not too long. Keep it short and simple.
I recommend you to keep your domain name less than or equal to 16 characters. The reason behind this is very simple.
It is very difficult for a user to remember longer domain names. This will help you in providing a higher SEO score as well for your blog.
Tip No. 4
Try to make your domain name sounds simple and easy.
The reason behind this is that if you keep complicated names then it becomes very tough for people to remember and even if they might have liked your content but they won’t be able to search you back that easily.
Tip No. 5
Avoid any type of special character in your domain name.
See it is very simple, if you have underscore (_) in your domain name then a user will have to type it using shift+- and it is not simple especially if most of your users are mobile phone users.
Domain names with special characters in it and prone to typos and you don’t want that. Say due to unavailability of a specific domain name you choose hyphen in your domain name then it is most likely that your users might end up at your competitor’s domain/website which doesn’t have hyphen in it.
So think twice before using a special character in your domain name.
Tip No. 6
You might be choosing a domain name very close to your niche but at the same time you do not want to limit yourself for the options in the long term.
For example, today you are planning to write about dog food and you choose a domain name which has “dogfood” in it.
But in the long term you should think about expansion as well. You can plan on writing about dog training, dog homes, or dog health and care etc.
So you should keep some options open for you in long term.
Tip No. 7
Do you research, think about all the tips which I have provided to you.
But do not take forever to buy a domain name.
Buying a domain name is going to be the first step in your blogging career. So they say you just need to take a step.
Where to buy Domain Name?
There are multiple websites which provides platforms to buy domain names to name a few:
- Godaddy
- Namecheap
- Hostinger
- Bigrock
- Bluehost etc.
I would suggest you buy domain names from namecheap. They provide the cheapest domain names, and their service is also very good.
You just click on the link below and you will be redirected to purchase a domain name.
Conclusion
Follow all the tips mentioned above about buying a right domain name for yourself. Let me know in the comment below which domain name you have chosen and start blogging.
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