Choosing the Right Domain Name for Your Blog

Choosing the right blog domain name isn’t a decision to be taken lightly. A non-corporate blog is a very personal thing, with a potential to develop in ways that are unforeseen at the outset. From evolving subject matter to the introduction of sponsored content, it’s important not to pigeonhole future growth by picking restrictive or inappropriate blog domain names.
Unless you’re already in the public eye, every new blog starts with a small audience. Initial posts might only attract a few dozen readers, but this can increase very rapidly. An easy way to achieve this is by choosing a blog title that makes its theme or premise self-evident. Calling a mindfulness blog A Mindful Life gives people a clue about its content before they click through from a linked site or search engine result. People often decide to visit blog sites based solely on their titles, in the same way older generations used to discover new bands purely because they liked their album covers.
When selecting blog domain names, it’s useful to analyze the names given to existing platforms. Are your rivals using plays on words and puns in their titles, incorporating their own names to raise personal recognition, or presenting their entries as authoritative guides on a certain topic? Although it’s not always advisable to follow the herd, it is worth paying attention to naming trends among other writers. It’s also vital to avoid restricting your blog’s future growth, so don’t use the word ‘impartial’ if you might consider sponsored posts or affiliate marketing.
Having chosen a suitable name, the next challenge involves securing blog domain names that are still available. Unless you’re happy for the URL to incorporate ‘wordpress’ or another proprietary name, you’ll need to register a dedicated domain. That’s very easy to do, and Midphase can supply domains from as little as $1.49 a year. These temptingly low prices are typically for less common domain suffixes, which leads onto another key decision when selecting blog domain names – the top level domain.
The .com top level domain has always been held in high esteem, and it powers roughly half of the world’s websites. People almost expect addresses to end in .com, and this TLD also has far higher levels of recall among new audiences than trying to remember a domain name plus an unusual TLD. However, these alternative domains were introduced because the .com market was filling up; every possible combination of four-letter .com addresses has now been registered. Research indicates each additional character makes website addresses harder to remember, so there’s a trade-off between having your pick of .me and .site TLDs or trying to find a .com address that’s still available.
Regardless of your preferred TLD, ensure any new blog name can be understood without needing to be spelled out or explained. Does it include hyphens, which search engines associate with spam? If the main body of the name contains several words, are they all legible when written without spacing or punctuation? And finally, does the name appeal to search engines? Keywords or popular search terms that appear in the web address will boost ranking results quite considerably, increasing your potential audience…
Register your perfect domain name today and start your online journey!