How to derive a good domain name for your blog or website

One of the first thing you need for your online presence is a domain name. Chosen domain name for your online space could be soft like pap as well as hard like stone. It could be simple if the domain name you desire is still available and hard if all the domain names you desire is no more available or has been taken by others.



This post was original written and posted online on my blog letgoonline.blogspot.com in 2012 but i have decided to edit it and make it available for my readers on this blog. Read the excerpts from the post after the cut…

The type of domain name you choose is very vital for your online success. Your domain name is what you want your website or blog to bear. It must be nice, memorable, exciting and brand able, easy to pronounce and spell. Your domain name should be attractive, creative
and rich in keywords so that it will be search engine optimized. It is always good if people can predict what your site is all about from your domain name.

How to derive a good domain name

1. Avoid long domain names
A domain name that is long like a sentence can scare people away. A one-word domain name like goal.com is good. Two-word domain name like nairaland.com is also good. Three-word domain name like onlineknowhow.com is not bad. Also, four-word domain name like howthingsworkonline.com is still good. A short memorable domain name is always interesting and result-oriented.

2. I prefer domain name with .com though my domain of the blog you are currently reading is not .com but .website

The reason why domain name with .com extension is preferable is that it is the most popular and what first come to people’s mind when thinking about online domain names. Most people don’t bother to know the extension at the back of a domain name once they hear the sound because to them every domain name end with .com
If the .com of the domain name you love has been taken, try to do a slight change or choose another domain name that is entirely different from the one you initially choose. Sometime it will be necessary to
try up to 10 or more names before you will get the one that is still available. Whichever way, always make sure your domain name relate to your niche, is keyword rich and memorable.

3. Make sure your domain name is related to your site

People should be able to speculate what your site is all about from your domain name. For instance, the name fcbarcelona.com shows that is
the website of Barcelona football club. Even if you choose to use
generic name, you can choose it, in a way that a second thought can show the meaning of the site. For example Amazon.com is an online marketing website but the word ‘ Amazon ‘ does not relate to market.

Meanwhile, Amazon river is the longest river in the world, so I guess Amazon.com could mean the largest online market place.

4. Avoid domain name with hyphen

Hyphen is used to join two words together to make a new one e.g back-up. It is symbolized as (-). If you put hyphen in your domain name it will only benefit your rivals
by sending your supposed visitors to them. Domain names with hyphen is always difficult for people to remember, try to avoid it as possible.

5. Avoid using already established brand names

Using a brand name like pepsi.com is risky because the owners can sue you for trademark infringement which can attract huge sum as penalty.
Though, You can register and sell it to the brand but not for personal use.

6. Don’t use anyhow domain name

Use a domain name that you love. A domain name you can promote with all your heart. If you don’t like your name it will be hard to tell people what your name is, also If you don’t love your domain name it
will be difficult to promote it. Don’t rush into choosing a domain name, take your time. Remember : if you rush in you rush out

7. Expired domain names are good

After trying different domain names which are not available, some people have chosen to use expired domain names that are 100 percent related to their niche. expired domain name can make your site
easily popular, drive unsolicited traffic and ease your chance of
getting Google Adsense approval.

8. Use sociable, brandable and easy to spell domain names
People should be able to relate effortlessly with your domain name (sociable). People should be able to relate your domain name with a concept (brandable) e.g aboutonline.com or can be easily liking to online
stuff. Your domain name should be easy to spell and not vocabulary. By only hearing your domain name people should be able to type it in their browser and get the right result e.g Facebook.com.

The above 8 aforementioned points was the original points i posted in 2012 but i have added the below number nine point for readers to benefit from my direct experience in my blogging career.

9. One more point i will add which i have learnt from experience is that it is good to choose a general name for your domain. What i mean by general name is that you should choose a name that can can be easily adaptable to any niche in case you are no more interested in the niche you are fond of before. For instance, i have an health blog that the custom name is strictly heath####.com within like five months i was having above 5000 daily visits but all of a sudden i just lost interest in only health blog and i want to start posting on general knowledge. Before i know the traffic to my health blog started falling and the blog eventually die. My point is that if i had used a general name for my blog like gogle, i will be able to use to blog for anytime and it will still be alive today.

The success of every online website or blog heavily depend on it domain name.
If you like this article please comment below.