Choosing the perfect domain name for your new blog is one of the most important decisions you’ll have to make when starting out. A good brand name should be kept short, simple, catchy and brandable. This will help for long-term success as far it goes. How then can you ensure you tick all the boxes to help you get a suitable domain name for your brand? This guide contains all you should know about how you can choose the best domain names for your niche site.
Personally, I’d often research and spend hours whenever I’m at the point of starting a new blog. In this article, I’ll share with you some of those things I usually consider when finding a suitable domain name for a new blog. I try to approach this as I would for a business rather than see it as a small side hustle like most people tend to. Whether it is an Amazon niche site or any other affiliate marketing site, you need to have your eyes set on the big picture.
So, if like me you’ll want a domain name that portrays your brand and ideas in the best light for long-term success, then, check out the following 6 simple tips to ensure you get the best names for your affiliate website and other blogs.
1. Keep your domain name short and simple
The first thing you should consider is keeping your domain name short. While it is hard nowadays to find single name domains, you can still try as much to keep it simple and short. This ensures that your potential visitors are able to easily recall your site’s name. Some people advise keeping the domain name under 13 characters. This is one way of keeping it short enough. Use a name that is catchy and won’t prove too difficult for your visitors to recall.
2. Find a domain name that is broad enough for the future
We talked earlier about branding but it is so important that we’ll discuss it again. While many people choose to go with a domain name that seems too specific, it is advisable to go with one that seems broad enough to accommodate more topics and idea after you’ve fully or substantially covered your specific niche. Having a brandable and broad domain name rather than a sub-specific name is better. Online tools such as DomainNameBrain and Panabee among others are useful and can be used to check for catchy and brandable before you proceed to register the domain name.
3. Avoid numbers or hyphens in the domain name
While some blogs and websites have domain names that contain numbers, we strongly advise against this as it may be confusing at times for your visitors. You don’t want to start teaching everyone how to properly write your domain name. Visitors may get confused on whether to write the number in word or digit and this will complicate the issue of easily recalling the name. The same applies to using hyphens in your domain names. This is often confusing and negates the idea of easily remembering the blog’s name.
4. Don’t stress yourself out about Exact Match Domain
Google’s come a long way past the era of using Exact Match Domain names for ranking. Rather than stress yourself out trying to find an exact match domain name, a partial match would do perfectly fine while still opening room for broadness and branding. Exact Match Domains aren’t what they used to be, not anymore. So rather than go hell-bent on MostComfortableRunningShoes.com, ComfyShoes would seem a better domain name.
5. Completely avoid using a trademark or brand name
On most occasions, you’d run into trouble while using a brand name or a trademark of another organization. Things may seem fine initially when you’ve not started getting traffic but as soon as the traffic comes along, you’ll inevitably get a mail that would simply tell you to stop using that domain name. While there may be a few exceptions of people successfully getting away with this, I’d advise you as it’s not worth the risk. Legal mandates at times may even make it impossible to 301 redirect the traffic, this will render all your links and works useless. Most brands protect their trademarked names and won’t allow anyone else use them by defending them with lawyers.
6. Check if the domain name was owned before
While you can start your blog by registering a brand new domain name, you can also find expired domain names which have been previously owned and used. These domains are often available for purchase and registration when previous owners decline to renew their domains. These can be good and bad at the same time. Good if you can find a domain without spammy backlinks as older sites rank easily and faster than newer ones. Bad if the domain names have spammy backlinks as these will point to your site. This is a recipe for disaster. The worst case scenario is when the domain name has a penalty attached to it. You’ll find it difficult to rank on search engines in this case. You can run a background check on the domain while you can also check the archive for a domain with the Wayback Machine.
After you’ve carefully followed the steps above, you would have positioned your blog on a path for success as a short, simple, catchy, descriptive and brandable domain name will speak volume about your blog and what it is all about. Remember too that you can always change this along the line if you picked a domain you feel is bad or even if you happen to not like it again in future. Though it may seem stressing, it’s something you can resolve.
After you are done picking the right domain name for your niche site or brand, you can then go ahead with the registration process. Godaddy or Namecheap can be used for this. You can also decide to go with Bluehost. Bluehost will give you a free domain name if you buy a hosting package from them. It’s that simple. With a nice brand name for your niche site, you are on your way to success. Follow these steps above and I’m sure you’ll be happy with what you’ll get. Cheers!