When getting started in blogging, after choosing a niche the next thing to do is to choose a domain name for your blog. This is a very important factor for your success.
Every day, domain names are being brought over the web due to this, the choice of domain names is getting more and more limited. Therefore, it is very important you buy a domain that will last a lifetime.
In this article, we shall discuss:
- What is a domain
- Types of domain name
- Things to consider when buying or choosing a domain name.
- different domain extensions and the one you should use
- How to generate domain name.
- Top sites where you can get free and cheap domain names.
So let’s get started!
What is a Domain
A domain is simply the name of a website or blog. It is the address where a user or someone can access a site or blog. For Example Ideapify.com is a domain (root domain).
Types of Domain
There are basically, two types of domain, they are:
- Brand– This is a domain that is unique to a particular site, it could be the name or company. E.g Zonahub.com, BBC.com,etc
- Keyword Domain– This involves adding keywords in the name of the domain. It can be exact or partial. Hence, there are two types of keyword domains.
- Exact match domain (EMD)– This is the usage of the exact keyword you want to concentrate on (niche). For example, if you want to blog on cars, your domain should be cars(.com, .xyz, .is, or any preferred domain extension you desire). For weight loss, it should be what……weightloss.com/.xyz or any domain extension you like.
- Partial Match Domain (PMD)– This is the partial inclusion of the keyword you are targeting. For example, Canada visa is your target keyword, instead of having Canadavisa.com (which is an EMD), you should have Canadatips.com or Visagoal.com (or with any domain extension) You the point.
So, you may be wondering, which domain should I go for brand or Keyword? It depends on your goal, if you want to easily rank high on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP) and fast, go with the keyword domain.
Note: Having keywords in your domain alone doesn’t guarantee a good ranking but rather the combination of good on-page SEO does.
How To Choose A Domain Name For Your Blog/Personal Website
1. Use keywords– It is essential you use your target keyword or niche in your domain name. For example, if you want to go into the fashion niche, your domain name should be something like fashion trends, latest fashion,etc. I’m sure you got the point, isn’t it?
By using keywords in your domain name, it helps to tell search engines and users what your website is about. It can also help you rank higher in search engines together with quality content. Example of sites with keywords in the domain name includes
Before you include keywords into the domain name be sure that you are going to blog based on that keyword. Imagine if health.com has a tech post in its blog. Weird isn’t it?
2. Keep it short and simple – An ideal domain name shouldn’t be more than 15 characters. Having a domain name that is very long can lead to typos from users and harder to remember by users. Therefore keep it simple and short.
4. Easy to pronounce and spell– You should be able to easily pronounce and spell it without any difficulty. For example, zonapoint, isn’t that very easy to pronounce and spell.
5. Keep it unique and brandable– Brandable domain names are unique, catchy and memorable. For example eBay.com, It is better to have a brandable domain name than to have a keyword-stuffed domain name.
Brandable Over Generic
Creative and brandable are always better than generic.
Remember: Your domain name is how visitors will find, remember and share your company on the web. It is the foundation of your brand.
Here’s the main difference between a brandable and generic domain name:
A brandable domain name is unique and stands out from the competition, while a generic domain name is usually stuffed with keywords and unmemorable.
For example, do you know the difference between Healthinsurance.net, Newhealthinsurance.com, or Healthinsurancesort.com? Probably not, right?
These are horribly generic. They don’t have any meaning. You won’t hear anyone talking about how awesome “Insurance.com” is. Plus, variants of the word “insurance” will increase the competition and make it blend in even more.
But sites like UnitedHealthCareOnline.com and Anthem.com stand out because they stand for something. When people hear those domain names, there is a trust factor there.
6. Avoid hyphens– It could be tempting to include a hyphen in your domain name when the domain you want is already taken. Domains with hyphens are prone to typos because if users forget to add hyphens, they will end up at another site and you will lose traffic.
7. Avoid doubled letters-It’s a good idea to avoid domains with doubled letters because it increases your chances of losing traffic to typos. For example, a domain like WordPresssetup.com will be more prone to typos and result in lost traffic.
8. Use your name– This is not a bad idea to use your name as a domain name. Example is Matthewwood.co.UK
Note: It is good to choose a domain name that is related to your niche because it tells users what your site is about. But this can create limitations if you want to blog about other niches on the same blog. This also applied to the keyword domain.
For example, a fashion designer might choose a domain name like menfashiongist.com, but then want to start blogging about women and kids’ fashion besides men’s fashion. In that case, the domain might prevent you from attracting readers interested in other fashion other than men’s fashion.
9. Use domain extension that matches: Domain extensions are the last part of a domain, they usually end with .com, .org, etc. There are many good domain extensions in the market to choose from and more are still added monthly. Some of these domain extensions are keywords. For example, .visa, .college, .church are keywords themselves with thousands of searches monthly. So having a keyword extension will definitely help your blog rank high and fast on search engine.
Most of the time, the domain extensions you may want for your domain name might be available, so it is a good idea to go with a domain extension that matches what you want to blog on. An example is, you want your domain To be collegenews.com but it’s not available, you can go with college.news, or even news.college, both college and news are uncommonly used domain extensions available. Others include:
- .Health
- .School
- .University
- .Club
- .Church
- .Shop
- .Bid
- .Lawyer and so on.
Other Domain name Extensions
- .com
- .org
- .net
- .us
- .co
- .xyz
- .edu
- .gov
- .Info
- .club
- .TV
- .biz
- .app
- .shop
- .site
- .me
- .online
You read more on domain extensions and how it affects your site SEO.
The list of domain extensions is endless. All the aforementioned domain extensions are known as TLD (Top Level Domain). The most popular and commonly used extensions are .com, .net, .co, .us and .org. Among these five domain name extensions, .com is the most popular, it is cheap and is commonly used. XYZ domain extension is getting popular when Google’s parent company Alphabet took the address of abc.xyz.
Here are some top extensions and how they’re often used:
.co : an abbreviation for company, commerce, and community.
.info : informational sites.
.net : technical, Internet infrastructure sites.
.org : non-commercial organizations and nonprofits.
.biz : business or commercial use, like e-commerce sites.
.me : blogs, resumes or personal sites.
Additional tips to consider in choosing a domain extension
You can also choose a domain extension based on location or where your targeted audience are. For example, if the audience you want to target is in a particular country let’s say the USA, then your name extension should have .us, if it’s India, use .in, if it UK use .co.uk or .uk, Nigeria use .ng or .com.ng, it goes on and on like that, do you understand?
These domain name extensions are known as Country Code Top Level Domain or ccTLD for short.
Here is what Namecheap wrote about ccTLD in their article “Maximize The Benefits Of A Country-Specific Domain“.
They can be great to help localize your site traffic and boost your search engine results. In order for search engines to send your website more organic search traffic, they need to understand your website and your business. Give them all the information and indicators that your website is located in a certain country and the search engines will reward you for it.
Some ccTLDs are used because the abbreviation is shorthand for something else. For example, some .IT domain names marketed in the United States are often used simply because owners of the domain name thought it was clever to use “it” at the end of the domain name. They likely had no plans to market the website in Italy, the country to which that ccTLD is assigned.
However, if you are a business using a ccTLD as they were designed, you’ll need to specify with search engines that you’re doing business in the country referred to in your domain.
Here’s the key,
- If you have a global target, “.com, .org, .co, .net”, etc are good options for a global TLD.
- If you have a regional target, a country code TLD will help you rank well on that country’s search engine versions. For example, “.co.uk” domains should do better on google.co.uk, .com.ng will rank better on google.com.ng, if your SEO is good.
How to generate domain name | Top domain name generators
Getting a domain name can be hard sometimes. So if you are finding it hard to get a domain name, here are some ways to generate a domain name:
1. Usage of prefix and suffix
You can add a prefix before the word or suffix after the word you want as a domain name. For example, IdeaPify was formed using IDEA (word) + PIFY (suffix). You get the point now.
2. By using domain Generators tools
- Lean Domain Search
- Domains Bot
- Panabee
- Name Station
- Domain fellow
- Bust A Name
- Name Mesh
- Name Stall
- Name Boy
- Name Puzzler
- Domainhole
- Domainr
- Impossibility
- Domain typer
- Domize
- Wordiod
- NameTumbler
- Dot-O-Mator
- Suggestname
- Bulktopia
- I want my name
- BatName
- NAMESMITH
- Domain Name Soup
- Brain Storm Domains
- Naque
These are the different domain name generators that can help you generate domain names.
Now you have learnt how to choose a domain for your site, this is the cheapest domain registrar to register it.
3. Use Chatgpt
Watch the video below to see how to find a good domain name using Chatgpt
Sites you can get Free and Cheap Domains For Blog
The sites I will list below give their customers free domains when they purchase a hosting plan from them but if you already purchase a hosting plan from another site, you can buy a domain at a very cheap price (as low as $0.99) I highly recommend their services. They include:
For more tips, you can watch the video form of this article ‘Choosing the best domain name for a blog, business or personal website‘.
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