Important Tips To Select Domain Name For New Bloggers

Jane Sheeba 2084 Views, ,
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It is a great task to select a new domain name for your business niche. The importance of a domain name is realized by entrepreneurs because of its significance in SEO, among other things. To achieve success in business you should utilize all the possible means. And it all starts with an address – the domain name.

Having realized the importance of keywords in SEO listings, you cannot be ignorant of the selection of the most appropriate domain name for your niche. With that said, here are a few tips which will be definitely useful for those who would like to pick up a new domain name.

To select a unique name

The domain name is the starting point where your web journey begins. Domain name is the foundation for the very existence of your online presence.

The domain name selected should be as catchy as possible. It should be closer to your business niche. The domain name should set expectations for visitors about the type of content that will be presented on your site. In this way, people can fittingly recollect your site and refer to others as well.

The time you spend in the selection of an artistic domain name will fetch you many times by returning benefits in the years to come. Hence, you should pick a domain name which qualifies the following characteristics:

  • Easy to remember
  • Easy to type
  • Related to your business niche
  • Search engine friendly
  • KISS (Keep It Short and Simple)
  • Relative to the content on your site

You should avoid names with the following characteristics:

  • Names similar to existing popular sites (although I totally understand the urge to do so)
  • Domain names with hyphen
  • Misspelled domain names

For branding

If you are very serious about branding and want to establish your business on a long-term perspective and would like to cover customers catered throughout the world, .com is a viable option.

Even though top level domains such as .net, .info, .org, etc. can be leveraged to imbibe all kinds of SEO benefits, .com gives a professional appearance. Most of the people try .Com as it was very popular since the advent of the internet. It is useful to get global image.

Growing businesses will also buy domain names with .net, .org, .info so that even if customers try to visit your site by typing other top level domain names, they will be redirected to your .com site.

For instance, if my blog is myname.com, I could also purchase myname.net, myname.org and other TLDs and redirect them to myname.com. This way I won’t miss those visitors who type the TLDs as well.

Keyword popularity

You can check the popularity of a keyword. There are various online tools to check the value of a keyword in various aspects. The free and the most convenient tool is the Google Keyword Tool.

But if you want to go the extra mile, you’d want to use a tool like Market Samurai.

You will be able to find the worth of keyword in SEO aspect, the competition for the keyword, unique keyword, etc. Market Samurai is a great tool that will definitely help you in this aspect.

You can include keyword in your domain name that will have less competition. In this way, you will be able to promote your site very well in the coming days.

Check the availability

After having clarity about the domain that you would like to choose, you should check the availability of the same on sites that offer domain registration facility. You can try sites like hostgator.com or godaddy.com to register your domain names.

If the desired domain name is not available you should be flexible enough to choose the one closer to your expectations. As you type a domain name of your choice, if it is not available, you will be provided with a list of available alternative site names.

Used domain names

Domain names that are already used by others and set for sale are not as attractive as used cars. In case of used cars, you will be able to check the performance of the car. The same will not hold good for purchasing used domain names.

You may need to pay a hefty price for good and popular niche sites if they are available for sale. You can take advantage of back links and Google PR in such cases.

On the other hand, if domains were involved in spamming activities and completely banned by Google and other search engines, you cannot invite furthermore trouble by purchasing such kind of domain names.

Hence, you should be very cautious in the purchase of used domain names. And, it is advisable to go for brand new domain names rather than for a used name unless you have specific justifying reasons of business interest (unless you are a savvy to drill deep and analyze the history of the old domain name; especially, given the recent Google changes).

Name registration plus hosting

There are very many sites which will help you register your domain name as well as help you with web hosting. As you opt for both of these services from the same service provider, it will be easy for you to renew the registration and to get extended help from them.

It is always advisable to select services from a reputed service provider which has presence in the market for a considerable period of time. You should be able to reach them through various means including chat, email and voice channels.

Takeaway

Even though selection of a domain name is not the ultimate factor that decides the success of your business, you should be cautious and can take advantage of the name by following the above mentioned tips. You are invited to share your views.

Jane Sheeba

Jane helps bloggers and entrepreneurs to build blogs that succeed.

20 thoughts on “Important Tips To Select Domain Name For New Bloggers”

  • Nice article my friend. How I wish I had read an article like this when I first started blogging. Anyways, I’m sure a lot of future domain owners will find this very useful.

    • Glad to know that the post will save quite a few lol 🙂

  • If you are new to blogging, there are many essential things, you must know .. It is important for a visitor to get an idea of what the website is about just by looking at the domain name..

    • That’s right Russel. It is wise to choose a domain name that tells something about the blog or the business. Even if a blogger has made the mistake of choosing a less effective domain name, they can still get a new good domain name and redirect it.

  • Hi Jane,

    Super tips! And yes, I second jaypee’s comment above. My blogger blog is tight, domain name wise, but my WP blog a bit different. Live and learn, I suppose.

    If you are new to the online arena follow Jane’s advice carefully! Take months or years off of your learning curve and generate targeted traffic with greater ease. Pick the right name.

    Thanks for sharing your insight Jane!

    Ryan

    • Live and learn – well said Ryan! Thanks for your comment

  • Choose a hyphenated name to help search engines distinguish between the words in your domain name. This is especially helpful if your domain name may appear to be a different phrase or words without spaces.

    • If the domain name gives a different meaning or a misleading term when the words are combined then its a good idea to use hyphens. But in general it is better to go without the hyphens 🙂

  • Great tips, Jane
    For SEO purposes great domains are old domains with good reputation. But sometimes it’s very hards to check it.
    BR, Chris

  • Excellent guide Jane. I also prefer buying short and memorable domains instead of long and keyword rich domains. Thumbs up for this awesome advise.

    • You’re very welcome Zara!

  • Hi Jane, choosing a domain name is one of the first and most important decisions someone has to take before he/she build a website, thanks for sharing all these advices this post could be used as a referenced whenever someone wants to start a new site…

  • These are really helpful tips! It’s really difficult to choose a domain name especially those that would really be easy to remember just like a brand recall in consumer products.

  • It is really crucial to learn about the basics of blogging first before really getting into it. Good thing WordPress caters to that need of providing a free website for anyone who would like to try out blogging.
    With hundreds or thousands of new blogs getting established each day, it sure is hard to think of a domain name that is unique and easy to remember. The tips you have put out here are really going to be very helpful especially for first-time bloggers. Thanks for sharing!

  • Hey Jane,

    Informative tips about buying new domain name. I have heard many a times that you should avoid domain name with hyphens, but didn’t know the reason behind it. Could you explain it for me. thanks!!!

    • avoiding hyphens in the domain names is good for SEO. It is also easier for people to remember and conventional to type a domain name without hyphens. Thanks for asking Aasma.

  • hey jane great tips … As u said purchasing banned domain is a trouble, is there any tool which can check that the domain name is banned or not??

  • Some great tips Jane, and lately in recent years I’m starting to see the value in going for a used domain, even if it means a higher price tag. I think it all comes down to how long you plan to be keeping your business, and perhaps digging down and paying $500 or $1000 might be worth the investment if you happen to come across a decent name in your niche.

  • This is called the ultimate guide to choose a domain name, Jane, very useful. just did a retweet for this post.

  • It’s hard though, selecting a good domain needs to be very unique and as you mentioned, easy to remember.. You surely mentioned everything about selecting a good domain and it is really useful but for some reason, it still be hard for others to choose which is best and which is not a good domain for their website that defines what their site is all about.

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