How To Choose A Domain Name – Simple Guide

So, you have decided to start your online journey. Yup! Very good decision. To begin the blogging journey or online journey the first & foremost thing is choosing a domain name. Your domain name is known as the key element of your website. Yes, it can make or break you, so it’s very crucial to choose a domain name that works perfectly for your business. How to choose a domain name? That’s precisely what I’m going to share with you today.

Confused, why is your domain name so important? Well here’s the explanation:

1.) First Impression: Your URL is the first thing that your visitors will see. A great domain name can make a positive and long-lasting impression, while a bad domain name definitely can send visitors away.

2.) It affects SEO: Although exact match domains (EMDs) are no longer a prime factor, but keywords in your domain name surely going to help your SEO ranking.

3.) It’s your brand: Your domain name is a branding opportunity. A great domain name can increase brand value. We’ll talk about this in a few moments.

How to choose a domain name for a blog

1. Use Right Domain Name Extensions (.com, .org, .net)

While you choose your domain name extension, be sure of one thing: “.com” is still the best. As per the recent

stats from DomainNameStat, approx 41% of all domains have the “.com” extension. “.com” is the most familiar, popular, and very easy to remember. Undoubtedly, there are many successful websites having “.net” and “.org”, but having “.com” is a safe bet.

One Hosting Center team advice: Go with .com. In case your desired domain name with .com is already taken then try .net or .org. If these are taken too, do brainstorming for a new domain name.

2.) Brandable Over Generic

Always remember – Your domain name is how your visitors will find, remember, as well as share your company on the web, so it’s the foundation of your brand.

A major difference between a brandable & generic domain name:

A brandable domain name is unique and helps you to stands out from the competition, while a generic domain name is usually stuffed with keywords.

How to find a more brandable domain name:

• Create new words: Make up your own catchy, new words just like what Google, Bing, and Yahoo did.
• Use existing words: Use a thesaurus to find interesting words that suit your brand.
• Use domain name generators: This is a great option. These tools can easily help you create a unique, brandable domain name from your initial keywords ideas.

3.) Short Domain Name Is Better Than Long

Length or say the number of characters is always important while you pick a good domain name. Yes, the most common name length is approximately 12 characters – Research from DataGenetics.com.

If possible, aim for 6-14 characters – and always remember the shorter, the better. If you can’t find something short, make it brandable.

4.) Make Sure It’s Easy To Type

When you think of some of the most popular websites – Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Instagram, Twitter. What comes to mind?

One big thing they’re all easy to spell. Without a problem, users can type these names. If the domain name is complicated or not easy to spell, there’s a high chance that users mistype your domain and landed on a different website!

Our Advice: Tell 10 people your potential domain name and then ask to spell it. If more than a couple of people struggle to spell it, you need to rework on it.

5.) Make Sure It’s Easy To Pronounce

If your domain name is easy to pronounce visitors feel comfortable sharing your domain name by word-of-mouth. They also share your site with their friends and potential customers. Just like the above step – write your domain name & ask 10 people to pronounce it. If done right, it’s OK to go else you need to work on that.

6.) Avoid Hyphens & Numbers

Hyphens and numbers make it difficult to pronounce. So, your domain name should be smooth and punchy – hyphens and numbers can’t help you in this. Stick to the letters!

7.) Consider Using “Niche” Keywords

Our website mainly about hosting deals or helping people to get the best price for web hosting. Hence we chose to add a name that reflects all of it – “hosting”.

Keywords help a lot to improve your SEO! But yes, if you try to awkwardly stuff keywords into, it comes across as generic. Make sure to build a brand. If you choose to use keywords, put them at the beginning of your domain. You can find keywords with the help of tools like Google Keyword Planner and Keywordtool.io.

8.) Think For Long-Term Over Short-Term

Before you choose a domain name for a blog, you must consider it for the long term. In case, you decided to change the domain in the future, it will cost you money as well as it will affect your branding and SEO rankings.

9.) Check If it’s Trademarked Or Not

Before you go with the specific domain name, always check if the domain name is available on social media sites or not, as well as check for any trademarks issue. You can check current trademarks here: https://trademarks.justia.com/

In order to build your brand, it’s recommended to have the same name across your domain and social networks.

Using a tool like Knowem you can easily check social networks and trademarks for your potential domain name. Thus go to Knowem & search your potential domain name.

10.) Stuck with Domain Name Selection? Use Domain Name Generators

Some of our favorite domain name generators are:

1. Lean Domain Search: This tool matches your keyword with other keywords and then generates a list of available domains.
2. DomainHole: This tool helps you to search keywords, find the expired domains, as well as generate new names, and more.
3. Wordoid: This tool allows you to plug in a word & it will come up with ideas containing that word, in the beginning, or the end.

Domain Name FAQ