How To Choose A Domain Name
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Where on earth do you start?
With more then 46 million active dot com domain names registered, it is getting harder and harder to find the right domain name. I have been looking for a domain name for the case study blog on photography. It’s not been as easy as I thought it would be, a little bit of knowledge isn’t always a good thing! I find I have been spending far too much time and effort getting caught up in trying to choose a domain, but finally I have done it, phew!
What was I looking for?
The hard part obviously was finding a domain that I liked and that wasn’t taken already. So I just had to buckle down and trawl through all my prospective names until I found one that was free, which took a good couple of days to do.
Now there were several elements that I wanted to incorporate into this domain name. This should have been an easy step to make and I made it harder than it had to be, by putting pressure on myself to find the ‘right one’. It became very frustrating just because I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted. I was looking to fit these factors into the domain:
- a keyword from the niche, this will help with SEO rankings
- a .com suffix for the domain, because it’s the most popular suffix
- a catchy name that is easily remembered
- a certain amount of branding so the topic of the blog is easily recognised
- try to avoid hyphens they’re not good and may affect traffic
Keywords or Branding
This was a pretty long wish list and maybe not realistic, but this was the first domain name I had really thought about. I think there will be some need for compromise. Saying all that the domain name is not the be all and end all of a blog or it’s rankings. It would be nice if these elements could be in it, but they are not essential. There are lots of very popular blogs whose domains do not have these factors eg doshdosh, this blog has become its own brand through highly valuable content on a regular basis. The domain is only one part of a blog, what is more important is the content I produce.
There are two main points that I looked at when choosing the domain name, keywords and branding. Did I want to brand myself or the blog. I thought of using my own name as a domain but all the main ones were taken. And when I put mandyjones[dot]com into my browser bar to see what kind of site it was, it actually redirects to an adult site! Other variations brought up Mandy Moore sites when I checked. So I changed my mind about using my name. And this is something to consider when choosing a domain, what are the variations to my domain like, and would I want my visitors to land there by accident?
So what did I choose?
I decided to go with branding the blog using keywords and a generic domain name for the niche. So that if in the future I wanted to expand my photography site then it can be easily done, like adding a photo gallery eg domain name/gallery.
So I sat down and wrote out what I wanted the blog to be about, and what my main keywords are going to be on the blog, and hopefully worked into the domain name, then started to check if they were free. I used the domain checker at my hosts site, Bluehost (I just kept backtracking when I found one). Unfortunately because I wanted a .com suffix it was very hard to find a name that wasn’t taken already. But eventually with a bit of fiddling around and compromise I came up with thephotographerblog.com, and that is the new case study photography blog domain name.
What do you think? How well did I do with what I wanted to incorporate? Let me know in the comments.
Thanks
Mandy
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Site Search Tags:Bluehost, branding, doshdosh, keywords, thephotographerblogComments
9 Responses to “How To Choose A Domain Name”
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Along with Mandy’s useful article, you might find this tool useful for deciding on a domain name -
http://www.bustaname.com/
Hi, yes as you said that it is hard to find good domain names. What i am doing in changing the characters slightly, as dig(g) do
@ Satish, thanks for the link that is a really useful site.
@Rajesh, That’s another good idea, it also helps to build a brand as Digg has done so effectively.
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Yes, Mandy and you did really well!
Unfortunately, we have the beginnings of scarcity within the favored dotcom TLD and no sign of change. The situation can only become more of a challenge as more and more folks embark on their online adventures.
However, there are still a few dotcoms around, and if you’re willing to expend time and patience, and have an active imagination, they are still around!
Check out my website where you can see some awesome names that I’ve picked up, some of them have surprised me, I never dreamed they would be available.
Yes it did take a concerted effort to get that domain.
Oh and thanks for the link I’ll take a look.