There are few simple rules to follow while choosing a Domain Name / Blog Name. Doing this will help your site with greater synergy effect. Check them out and follow which ever rules you can.
Shakespeare once said “What’s in a name? We can….”. Funny irony is that, the same quote has been published a million time with his name attributed at the end of it. Ha ha..
1. Always use “.com” Domain Name
Stay away from other top level domain names apart from “.com” The reasoning is pretty simple – dot-com domains are pretty easier to remember, consider de facto and feels comfortable to link to a site. If someone said you to type yahoo, chances are you will type yahoo.com by default.
You can choose a different top level domain, if you cannot find a better dot-com domain name. Although avoid local / country specific domain names like “.co.uk” or “.co.us” unless you are focusing your site to target those geographical area.
2. Keep Blog Name same as your Domain Name
Apart form search engine optimization, it also help in your reader to better connect with your blog. So make sure your domain name is linked to your Blog name if not an exact replica. Dailybt.com can be linked to Daily blogging tips or Nytimes.com can be linked to New York Times.
3. Easy to remember
Avoid confusing letters, alpha numeric words, abbreviations like L33T etc. in your both Domain name and Blog name. They are confusing, often misspelled and not easy to recall.
4. Put your main keyword in your domain name
An absolute must, at least according to me. The most important criteria for search engine optimization are the domain name and the title of the site. Putting your most targeted keyword (also known as primary keywords) in these areas helps you maximize the SEO potential of your site. Don’t ignore this tip.
5. Don’t go too general, Don’t go too niche
Avoid very general topics like Blogging news if you are not able to cover decent share of news from the blogging world. Rather narrow it down to a geographical location like Australian bloggers or narrow it with respect to category like SEO news or Blog design news.
But don’t over do it. It might happen that you choose too narrow a topic that either you find it difficult to gather content for the site or there are no visitors for the topic you have chosen.
6. Think of a tag line to your blog name
Make your blog sound like a movie, add a tag line.
Why? to have the same effect what tagline have in movie poster, to attach a recall value to the word.Problogger.net has it, JohnChow.com has it, so why don’t you. Start thinking one. It should be a short sentence, very focused to the main target area or service you are blogging about.
