When you start blogging, it is mandatory to choose a domain name for your blog. Let us learn why you must pick a domain name and how to select and register a blogging domain name.
In the early 2000s, blogging was a mere hobby for many. Online users can share their everyday experiences and hacks through free blogging websites like Blogger, WordPress, etc.
Slowly, blogs became money-making tools, thanks to the advent of Google Ads.
In order to monetize from blogs, bloggers had to get increasing viewership. So, to achieve this, blogging started to transform into a professional business.
Growing bloggers in India are making around Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 1,00,000 or more every month. Anyone can start a blog with rich experiences, knowledge, and basic language literacy.
Like any other business venture, one succeeds in blogging with continuous efforts, determination, and high-quality content.
When you start a business, you need your own space and a unique name to operate.
— These are essential to ensure you are visible to your consumer.
— People use this name and space to find you on the Internet.
Operating under another business platform will show you as an amateur. That is why many professional bloggers no longer tend to blog on free portals like Blogger, WordPress, etc.
Likewise, giving your blog a unique address is the first step to show your authority as a reliable blogger. It is your blog’s domain name.
Let us learn how you must choose a domain name for your blog. We will also go through the steps in registering a blog domain name.
Why Choosing a Blog Domain Name Is Important?
👉 Search engines look for unique and relevant domain names when selecting blogs for search queries.
As mentioned above, domain names that are unique and relevant to a user query are considered more professional.
Bloggers blogging as a hobby commonly use free portals with extensions like xyzblogname.blogspot.com or xyzblog.wordpress.com.
📌 It is crucial to choose a relevant domain name for your blog.
The domain name you select will be the face and brand of your blog. Domain names sell like hotcakes.
Millions of new people enter this blogging field and select blogging niche(s) similar to yours.
Someone may have already taken the names you have in mind. Or your chosen name has tough competition from new bloggers.
Also, once registered, changing domain names is not advisable and can give rise to confusion.
So be clear when you choose your blogging niche. Did you read the best practices in choosing a blogging niche?
Your domain name is a reflection of your niche. Ensure you have sufficient content to blog for a long time.
What is a Domain Name?
Your blog website is recognized by the domain name on the Internet. The domain name is the human-perceivable form of a website’s Internet address.
It consists of letters (A – Z) and numbers (0 – 9).
This name is a translation for the machine-readable IP address of your blog hosted in a hosting server. It has three or more parts, separated by dots.
When you choose a domain name for your blog, you create an identity that helps users recognize you as a brand.
Consider this domain name; (www.rajsoftechsolutions.com)
Entering this on your browser leads you to our business website, Raj Softech Solutions.
Let us understand the anatomy of the above domain name;
.com – represents the top-level domain (TLD). They can also be generic TLDs like .edu, .org, or country-specific like .in, .uk, etc. It can also include subdomains.
rajsoftechsolutions – the actual name indicating what your website is about (second-level domain or SLD).
www – refers to the World Wide Web.
10 Steps on How to Choose a Domain Name for Your Blog
Selecting a domain name establishes the face of your blog.💪 Readers recognize your blog posts with this name.
When returning to read your subsequent blog posts, they will use the domain name to locate your blog.
Act fast in choosing a blog domain name before your competitors register the same. On the contrary, you must not act in haste when registering a domain name for blog websites.
- First, you must perform detailed research on the blogging niche to explore opportunities. Ensure the domain name helps you cover a broad spectrum of topics in your niche.
- Domain names must be short and crisp to be etched in the minds of your viewers.
- Keep them unique to avoid copyright issues. Be sure to renew your domain name on time to prevent paying higher prices in the future.
Now, let us learn how to pick a domain name for your blogging venture.
1. Find the Right Blogging Niche
One has to choose a particular domain or niche when starting a business or a startup venture. Being a Jack of All Trades is never a successful formula in this competitive world.
The blogging niche is the area you will be delivering content on. It could be politics, cooking, food, lifestyle, parenting, nutrition, etc.
You can blog about one or more niches, but ensure that you are well-versed in them.
First-hand experiences and knowledge in your blogging niche are the essential factors that decide your blogging authority.
If you are sure that you will be blogging on only one domain, choose the most relevant domain name to your niche.
Some good examples of cookery blogs are;
- www.hebbarskitchen.com
- www.kannammacooks.com
- www.biggerbolderbaking.com
The first two domain names show that their websites cover all kinds of cooking recipes. The third one indicates that the website is restricted to the sub-niche, baking.
You can blog on several related blogging niches with a generic yet relevant domain name.
Consider my blog, www.onlinehomeincome.in;
— I write on topics like blogging tutorials, affiliate marketing, working from home, starting a YouTube channel, etc.
— Observe those topics I blog about earning an income online while you work in the comfort of your home.
So, the reason I have chosen such a domain name is justified.
2. Do Domain Name Keyword Research
Once you have chosen a blogging niche, you must brainstorm ideas to choose a domain name for your blog.
Researching for keywords is compulsory, irrespective of whether your blogging niche is saturated or relatively new.
First Step.
Go through the existing domain names of your competitors and top blogs in your niche. Analyze how their domain names convey the blogging niche.
Second Step.
Find the top trending keywords in your blogging niche, often used in queries. Incorporating the same or semantically similar keywords in your domain name makes your blog stand out.
Search engines look for relevant keywords in domain names when ranking blogs for SEO. If your domain name is unique and matches its metrics, your blog gets a top spot in SERPs.
- For example, www.stackoverflow.com is a top technical blog solving problems programmers face.
Stack overflow is a technical error every programmer encounters in their programming journey. Stack overflow errors are the top most queried errors.
Using this keyword as the domain name has fetched high-quality traffic for the StackOverflow blog.
- Take the case of my blog, www.onlinehomeincome.in.
For any queries made with words like work from home, online income sources, blogging, affiliate marketing, etc., my blog has a good chance to come up in your search results.
Use tools like Semrush, AHrefs, Google Keyword Planner, etc., to analyze top keywords in your domain.
Also, research how your competitors are using and targeting such keywords.
3. Select the .com Extension for the Blog Domain Name
We came across the anatomy of a domain name earlier. The Top-Level Domain (TLD) comes at the end of the domain name.
The Internet Corporation manages your business TLD for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
There are two types of TLDs – Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLD) and generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD).
- ccTLD – represents the country related to your website content. .in, .us, .eu, .uk, etc., are some country-specific TLDs. Blogs can use a particular ccTLD only if they operate from that country. However, they are accessible globally.
- gTLD – categorizes websites based on their ventures. .com, .org, .info, .net, .app, etc., come under the ever-growing list of generic TLDs.
A Third level of TLD can be used, like www.yahoo.co.uk. Such domain names are meant for access specifically for those in the UK region.
This way, website developers of big businesses create region-specific pages under different domain names.
Out of all the domain name extensions, .com is the most preferred extension worldwide. It has become a norm to associate .com as a default extension to almost every website.
But, it is not wrong if you are to start your blog with a different extension, say www.myblog.in.
But, when you or someone refers your blog to someone, they will type www.myblog.com in the browser.
People will go to that blog if they find the same domain name with a .com extension. It makes you lose branded traffic.
🚀 .com extensions are a business standard these days. Instead of switching your TLD for a famous name, choose another unique domain name without compromising on the .com extension.
4. Keep Blog Domain Names Short and Memorable
Domain names help in identifying blogs and websites on the Internet. That is why they are human-readable forms of complex IP addresses.
Currently, there are millions of domain names in use.
Blogging is a competitive field. Every blogging niche reaches a saturation point, as bloggers try to provide new and engaging content.
If someone finds a captivating blog solving their queries, they will immediately note the author and the blog name.
The next time they come across a similar query, they will directly make their way to that blog with the domain name. This way, they become regular followers of that blog.
For someone to get back to your blog, it isn’t sufficient to provide quality content alone.
— Choose a domain name for your blog that is short and memorable.
— The next time they come up with similar queries, your blog name must be the first thing that comes to their mind.
Let us understand this scenario better.
Someone tells you that a blog has the best reviews and product discounts for TVs. He tells you that the blog is something like www.gadgetreviewsinindiaforelectronics.com.
Now, you Google for best reviews and product discounts for TV. You cannot find the domain name.😱
But another blog comes to you in search results, and you proceed with it.😁
One loses a quality subscriber for the above blog with a confusing domain name despite having good content.
This blog could have vouched for domain names like www.gadgetadvisor.com, www.(name)reviews.com, etc.
5. Avoid Copyright and Trademark Issues in Domain Names
The main reason behind picking a domain name for your blog is to ensure that your blog stands out uniquely. It improves your credibility and authority in your blogging niche.
Including words or parts from a trademarked or copyrighted name is an act of copyright infringement. Be ready to face legal proceedings from the host party for using their Intellectual Property (IP).
While there is no way to protect domain names, businesses or brands can Trademark their brand name, logo, slogans, etc.
Anything that is trademarked exclusively belongs to that person or company.
Using such terms can confuse their customers and is seen as an attempt to reduce their profits.
How do you know if the domain name you choose is legally compliant?
This is where DNS registrars come into the picture. They work with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). ICANN delegates the responsibility of selling possible domain name registrations to registrars.
The role of such registrars is to ensure misuse and hijacks of existing domain names.
They are equally important for ensuring security and preserving trademarked terms from being used in new domain names.
Copyright laws vary with the TLD registration types. So, be informed of global as well as regional laws concerning domain name copyright infringement.
6. Future Scalability of Blog Domain Names
Blogging is a long-term venture. To earn profits from blogging, you must work with zero expectations.
You must frequently publish quality content that is new and rich in information.
When registering a domain name for your blog, ensure that it does not restrict your content.
The domain name must help you accommodate your new content when scaling up.
For example,
I plan to blog about cooking traditional South Indian recipes in my grandmother’s style (for six months).
— Furthermore, I plan to share my baking experiments and how I did it without an oven.
I plan to learn and experiment more in the forthcoming years and include them in my blog.
I must not let my domain name give viewers the impression that I am blogging only on selected areas.
- Names like www.bakingwithatwist.com, www.myammammacooks.com, etc., limit my blogging to baking or traditional cooking alone.
- Names like www.anyonecancook.com, www.myriadcookingtrials.com, www.(name)cooks.com, etc., show that I want to share cookery blogs on various subdomains based on trends.
So, plan to choose a domain name for your blog that gives sufficient scope to scale up your content.
7. Check Name Availability on Social Media
Social media presence is essential for bloggers to promote their blogs.
Social media channels are free and provide multiple ways to engage with those interested in your content.
We know that your domain name must be unique. This name is your online identity.
👉 When you type a famous domain name in Google search, along with the website, Google lists its relevant social media pages.
Blogs and businesses maintain the same name for their website domain and social media business accounts.
Sometimes your new domain name may be used by some social media pages.
- It is not enough to check only the availability and redundancy of your domain name.
You must ensure it does not replicate any existing social media page.
Users must find only your blog website and supporting social media pages at the top when they type your domain.
Finding the social media pages of a completely different blog or business affects your blog’s credibility.
Likewise, choosing a domain name for your blog must be consistent across all your blogging profiles.
Check if any Facebook groups, Facebook Business Profiles, LinkedIn company pages, Instagram businesses, Google Business Pages, etc., have names coinciding with your chosen domain name.
8. Avoid Hyphens, Numbers, and Double Letters in Domain Names
Selecting a domain name for your blog must serve the purpose of being human-readable and perceivable.
Your domain name must be specially meant for your blog.
However, do not add hyphens, numbers, or double letters to alter and register an existing domain name.
Search engines consider such additions in domain names as spam.
Avoid Hyphens.
Domain names with hyphens are prone to typo errors.
When someone mentions a blog or website with a hyphen, there is a high chance the listener will not know where to add the hyphen.
Avoid Double Letters.
Adding double letters or modifying the spellings of existing domain names can confuse your viewers.
Consequently, this will reduce organic traffic coming to your blog. Use standard words that anyone can spell upon hearing or reading once.
If you plan on including a professional email service from your blog, your email address includes your domain name. So keep your domain name easy to pronounce and spell.
Avoiding hyphens, numbers, and double letters makes your blog a credible brand. Check out any top blogs in your blogging niche. None of them would have repetitive or spam-like domain names.
9. Use Blog Domain Name Generator
Nearly 300 million domains are in use as of today. The process of picking a domain name for your blog can be overwhelming.
Not everyone has access to DNS directories containing all registered domain names. Manually typing and checking possible domain names is cumbersome. Also, this is not a fool-proof process.
On the other hand, it can be hard to choose a unique name, especially when you blog on a popular blogging niche. It is where some tools come to the aid of naïve bloggers.
Domain Name Generators help suggest unique domain names that are not yet used.
There are some advantages of using these tools for suggesting domain names;
- Follows proper naming conventions and avoids hyphens, double letters, and numbers.
- Avoids duplicates or spelling variations of registered domain names.
- Checks for existing social media presence.
- Saves time and is available for free.
Nowadays, tools use AI algorithms to generate unique domain names that have semantic relevance to your blog.
Some top domain name generator tools are Nameboy, WordPress Business Name Generator, Domain GPT, AI Name Generator, etc.
10. Use Your Name as Domain Name for Your Blog
There is always the option to use your name or pen name if you ever run out of keywords for your domain name.
Using your name is the best way to establish your authority and create your brand.
In a sea of blogs in a blogging niche, using your name to share first-hand experiences and expertise shows off your authenticity.
www.kannammacooks.com
www.hebbarskitchen.com
www.subbuskitchen.com
www.rakskitchen.com
Above are some popular blogs in the cooking space. Notice how the authors have used their name or pen names in their domain names.
More than their original name, such bloggers are recognized by their domain names online.
Using words from your lineage or family customs shows their closeness and relevance to your blog.
Such words strike an emotional chord with viewers. Such domain names have the power to influence and target niche audiences.
📌 Personal domain names give positive signals to search engines to rank your blog higher in terms of first-hand experiences.
EEAT metrics look for such rich experiences coming from unique brands for checking authority.
However, if your name is common, your blog can be filtered as spam.
Say, a Korean blog with the domain name www.kimbeautysecrets.com can confuse users.
Kim is a common surname in Korea, and the beauty niche is a highly saturated blogging domain.
So, even if you are using your name, ensure your blog domain name is unique.
Types of Blog Domain Names
Now, we know the best practices in choosing a blog domain name. The next step is to decide the domain name types for your blog.
For this, you need to assess the purpose of starting your blog. Every blogger aims to share their experiences and earn money.
But they do not qualify to become domain names. Your name must show how your followers benefit from your blog.
When I named my blog www.onlinehomeincome.in, I was curious to help people from the Indian subcontinent with methods to earn from home.
The strategies and ideas I blog are for students, housewives, and part-time job seekers from a typical Indian household.
Let us see how to choose a domain name for your blog from various types.
a. Brandable Domain Names
Such domain names are unique. But you cannot find these names in any standard language dictionary. This quality makes them unique!
Google terms like Flipkart, Chaipoint, Temptalia, Adsterra, etc.
— These are popular domain names in their respective domains.
Observe that none of them have a dictionary meaning.
Think out of the box to come up with such names.
- As discussed earlier, you can bring in terms from your culture, ethnicity, business domain, etc.
In one of our examples, Chai refers to the beverage – tea.
If the website content targets the Indian audience, www.chaipoint.com strikes an emotional chord over www.teapoint.com
Temptalia is a beauty blogging portal that covers a wide range of beauty topics.
— The domain name is generic enough to cover weekly product deals, new product releases, trending looks, etc. These topics would tempt anyone to browse through their blogs.
There are some advantages of using such unique words as a domain name for your blog;
- Brandable names are etched in the minds of your followers.
- They can last as long as you have content to provide.
- Followers want to talk about cool blogs.
- No trademark and copyright issues.
However, remember that you need to trademark such unique names.
Also, there is a high chance that such names are repetitive.
Include a privacy policy in your blog to inform your followers that you do not encourage such activities.
b. Personal Branding Names
Using their names is a popular strategy used by bloggers starting to blog. We came across how one can use their name or pen name as a part of their blogging domain name.
www.bakewithshivesh.com
www.cookingwithmanali.com
www.ankionthemove.com
www.traveldiaryparnashree.com
The above examples show how bloggers use their names to share experiences. It is more common in the case of over-saturated blogging niches.
Advantages of using your name in your domain name include;
- Followers get to know that content comes from real experiences.
- Search engines find your blog authoritative.
- The chances of domain name duplication or repetition are low.
However, if your name or surname is very common, using it in your domain name creates confusion.
www.rahultravels.com is a good option if your name is Rahul and you are a traveler. But Rahul Travels can be a travel company offering tour packages.
So, do not avoid doing proper research, even if you are using your name.
c. Exact Match Domain Names
These domain names contain the exact keywords that a user is searching for.
www.tutorialspoint.com www.roofpainter.com, etc., are some examples of exact match domain names.
Such domain names came because of the notion that keywords in domain names help websites get a higher SEO rank.
👉 As much as this is true, keywords are not the only ranking parameters used by search engines.
Google uses latent semantic indexing to list blogs with quality content. Your blog domain name need not match with keywords.
Furthermore, Google uses algorithms to understand the semantic relevance of your domain name and its content.
Likewise, try to Google any blog topic. The domain names of the top ten results will not have exactly matching keywords.
The top results will have content from expert bloggers who have established themselves as knowledgeable. So, it is equally important to focus on the quality of content.
It is no longer a good practice to have exact-match domain names.
d. Partial Match Domain Names
As the name says, these are a mix of personal or brand names with user keywords.
www.bajajfinserv.com
www.easycookingwithmolly.com
Above are some examples of partial match domain names.
Partial match domain names have a perpetual click-through rate as they contain target keywords and personal names or brands. It is an advantage to rank high with a good SEO score.
But today, Google sees more than just matching keywords in domain names. Google can change its SEO quality guidelines anytime.
Additionally, rich content and domain authority are equally important to help blogs rank high. Hence, it is unwise to pick a domain name relying only on keywords.
Do not worry that your blog will be penalized or blacklisted.
You can have a partial match domain name if it is unique, catchy, niche-relevant, and scalable.
On the contrary, if you choose a domain name solely for SEO ranking, your domain name and its content may go out of sync sooner.
3. Domain Name Buying Guide
Now, let us go through the steps for registering a domain name for a blog. Once you have shortlisted a list of possible domain names, it is time to finalize one.
The ICANN is a global body that handles domain names on the World Wide Web. Domain Registrars are representatives or agents of ICANN who perform global domain registrations locally.
Raj Softech Solutions offers premium domain registration services. You can glance at our services from the features below.
a. Cost of Domain Name
Firstly, analyze the associated costs when you choose a domain name for your blog.
Domain names have a time period. There is no permanent registration. Whenever your name is going to expire, you need to renew your subscription.
Some Registrars or domain name brokers charge brokerage fees for selling a domain name.
If another owner or a broker holds your domain name, and you have no other choice, be prepared to pay extra costs.
Domain name prices mainly vary with the type of TLD extension you want. .com extension costs around Rs. 900 per year. Likewise, every subsequent renewal starts from Rs. 1000 per year.
b. Select a Reliable Domain Name Registrar
Most domain registration companies have plans for registration, transfer, and renewal of domain names.
This way, you can register your domain and get your website resources hosted as a package.
The ICANN is the body that licenses the registrars and sub-registrars for handling domain name registrations, renewals, and transfers.
Therefore, ensure that your registrar has a valid license provided by ICANN.
Domain Theft Protection should be a mandatory service covered by your domain name provider. It shows their authority with the DNS repository.
c. Pay and Register the Domain Name
After analyzing the company portfolio, you can check and register the closest available domain name for your blog.
Choose the duration for holding your domain name. Ideally, domain name registrars offer holding periods starting from one year or more.
Provide relevant details about you in the registration portal, like your contact information, residence, etc.
Make the payment from the available options and finish the process.
Once your registrar makes an entry of your domain in the local DNS server, it will enter into the ICANN directories.
From then on, all domain generator tools will show that your domain name is unavailable.
3.4. Verify Ownership
Finally, you can verify your ownership once you register your domain name. Whois search is a domain lookup tool used for this purpose.
You can get the ownership and time period of a particular domain name.
Whois searches all global DNS registries used by authorized domain registrars.
If you have registered your domain with an authentic domain registrar, your domain details will be available for public viewing.
The details listed include;
- The domain name
- Registering registrar
- Start and end date of the domain period
- The name servers doing name-to-IP translations.
Furthermore, one can also get information about the registrar and their company.
Moreover, you may also check existing domains and their expiry with this tool.
If you have analyzed that a particular domain is no longer in use, you may wish to use it after its expiry.
Subsequently, you can contact the owner to sell it to you.
Conclusion
I hope that you are convinced with this bible on how to choose a domain name for your blog. We are now aware of how to register and renew our domain name.
Have you realized how significant a domain name is for a blog?
Your blog domain name is the face that shows what your blog contains.
- First, the domain name must be unique and catchy to get etched in the minds of those who hear or see it.
- Second, it must be scalable to accommodate a wide variety of content under the name.
- Third, choose the .com extension to have a global reach for your blog.
👉 Beware of bad practices like including hyphens in your domain name or registering with spelling changes to existing domain names.
👉 Brandable or personal domain names work best for blogs. Both are equally important in creating top blogs in all blogging niches.
On the contrary, if choosing a domain name for your blog is too hard, domain name generator tools are available for help.
👉 Select a reliable domain registration company that can handhold you through each step.
👉 They must patiently answer your queries regarding registration, renewals, hosting, etc., in the event of any conflicts.
👉 Once you have registered your domain name, you have a garden of opportunities in front of you.
👉 Unlike any other venture, blogging as a business involves minimal costs. Above all, your major investments are your experiences and knowledge.
Once you finish all the prerequisites, like registering a domain and creating a website for your blog, you can concentrate on content creation, promotion, learning, etc.
Contact me today to discuss your blogging goals and find the perfect domain name for your blog.
