Do you know choosing a good name has a great impact on SEO? Let’s explore how to choose a domain name for a blog
Before I write about the actual content, let me tell you about one of the biggest mistakes that I did in my blogging career. Back in 2018, I thought of starting a blog that will talk about blogging tips, SEO, etc.
I browsed GoDaddy.com and to my surprise, all my favorite domain names were already taken. So I ended up buying www.geekybyte.in and started putting blogging stuff into it. I wrote many articles, used a premium theme, did all on the page and off-page optimization for SEO, but still, it could not get traffic and www.geekybyte.in became a big failure. Can you guess the reason?
Why My First Blog Failed?
It’s the domain name that betrayed me and my first blogging venture failed?
But how can a domain name be the reason for failure? Let’s find out the reason in the below points.
I was uploading good content but under the wrong domain name. Confused? GeekyByte sounds related to gadgets. Right? But I was uploading content related to blogging. Even when I tried some SEO checkers, it suggested that the domain name and contents do not complement each other. I stopped uploading blogging content and started uploading content related to gadgets only and I see a good amount of traffic.
The domain name was targeting only the Indian audience. Since www.geekybyte.in has a .in domain extension so it was only pulling an Indian audience. But I wanted a worldwide audience. Do you feel any visitor will visit my blog by seeing that it has a .in extension?
So the learning is that domain name has significant importance in the overall success of our blogging career. You can change everything in blogging like you can change hosting, you can change the look of your blog, or you can change the niche of your blog but one thing that you can’t change is the domain name of your blog. So you might have now realized how significant is a domain name in blogging. So in this article, we will find out how to pick the perfect domain name for a blog. Before that, if you don’t know what is a domain name or how it works then please read this article first before reading further.
Generic or keyword-based domain name?
To explain what is a generic and what is a keyword-based domain name I will take an example of my other blogs. Presently I have a total of three blogs on which I upload content. Those are listed below.
https://geekybyte.in
http://127.0.0.1/riansblog
https://riansclub.com
If you look into Blogbyts you might notice the name is based on a keyword named Blog. that means it will have content only about blogging. Only those who love blogging will visit my site. Make sense? Now, look at RiansClub. Can you tell me what could be the contents of Riansclub without visiting the blog? Unless you visit the blog you can’t tell about the content of Riansclub but in the case of blogbyts, you could able to tell without even visiting the blog. That’s the difference.
BlogByts is a keywords-based domain name whereas RiansClub is a generic domain name. Now the big question. Which one you should choose? For that, you have to ask the below questions.
- You want to write only in a particular niche?
- You have no plan to change the niche?
- You can write many articles on that niche?
If the answer is YES go for a keyword-based domain name
Now answer the following questions.
- You want to write an article on multiple niches but same domain?
- You want to create branding?
- You might have the plan to change the niche?
If the answer is YES go for a Generic domain name
How To Pick A Domain Name For A Blog
Go For a.Com domain name
No matter what is your niche but going for a .com domain is the best bet. Don’t you want more traffic? Don’t you want traffic from all over the world? Then .com is the only extension that can help. More than 80% of the domain in this world uses the .com domain as it does not differentiate the name based on geographic region.
Choose a different brand name if you don’t get the .com domain in that brand. In the worst case if you tried all your favorite brand names and still could not get a good domain name with the .com extension, try the .net extension. Though it’s not the first preference it should not create major issues compare to the .com extension.
Use a short domain name
It might sound funny before buying Blogbyts domain name I thought of buying a domain name ?sucessfullblogging.com?. I know many of you might miss an ?S? while typing this domain name in the browser. That’s what I don’t want and that’s why I did not buy that domain. So the learning is to buy a short domain name preferably under 10 characters. Don’t irritate your readers to have pain in their fingers by typing a long domain name. In fact, Google also does not like long domain names and you have to keep Google Baba happy to earn money from blogging.
No special Character Please
How many times do you get confused by a hyphen and underscore? Many times right? That’s just an example but domain name allows hyphen in their name which we should avoid. The reason is simple. Google Baba does not like it. Readers do not like it. It does not mean that if you choose a domain name with a hyphen you won’t get success. Look at Team-Bhp.com but that’s the story of 2004. In 2019 strictly avoid domain names with a hyphen.
Choose a unique domain name
After the Technical Guruji youtube channel became a hit, I see many channels like Technical Yogi, Technical Baba, Technical amma, technical swami. Frankly, I can’t stop laughing while writing this paragraph. Can’t we use our senses and choose something where we can excel. Choose a name and build a brand on it. Be unique, be special. Blogging or YouTube is not about only money but also about Fame. Chase for it.
No copyrighted word
Stay away from a domain name that has a copyrighted word. For example, if you buy a domain name like aa. in which is actually AmericanAirlines.in, you might get notice very soon. Because the word AA or American airlines is already copyrighted and you are not supposed to use it. If you do so get ready for legal action.
Easy to pronounce
I hate if someone called Amol to pronounce his name like this over the phone, A for apple, M for mango, and so on. I don’t like my domain name to get pronounce like that. Google has no problem with this kind of problem but your readers might have. So choose a domain name that is easy to pronounce.
Conclusion: How to choose a domain name?
Well, I understand, it is not always possible to follow all the best practices that I mentioned above to figure out A Perfect Domain Name For A Blog. But that’s what many successful bloggers follow and there is nothing wrong to follow it. Beginners won’t mind it as they can choose any name following these best practices unless they are choosy about a certain name like TECHNICAL____. You can fill in the blanks if you want.
That’s all I have in this article. Hopefully, you got some useful information from this article. If you have any questions, then do write in the comment section and I will be happy to answer you.