Today we will talk about How to choose a domain name for your personal website?
Choosing a domain name is one of the most important steps when starting a personal brand website or business website. The website domain name is the first step for users to recognize the personal brand and company, and it affects the impression of the website to people.
A well-chosen website domain name for your business can increase the interest of web users and increase website traffic.
Before building your own website, have you thought about what domain name to use for your website? Are domain names really that important?
If you have a lot of business operations and a high-quality website, will people visit it regardless of its domain name? So how do we choose a personal website domain name?
Choosing the right domain name can be tough when you first start building your personal website. Fortunately, there are several criteria you can use to make sure that you find the perfect name for your site.
Keep reading to learn more about finding and choosing the right domain name for your personal website!
A domain name is what you'll type in your browser's address bar to get to your site. It should match both your name and your brand, but it can be really hard to choose.
The best way to come up with good ideas to choose a domain name is by brainstorming—and that's exactly what we've done below. You don't have to use any of these, they're just there as starting points or jumping-off points!
Choosing a domain name there are two ways to do brainstorming: either alone or in a group. In either case, pick one thing at a time from each category (one emotion, one color, etc.) and write down as many ideas about that thing as you can think of.
You might want to start off writing the best domain names list on paper and then move on to typing them into an online tool like Google Docs so you can collaborate with others if needed.
If someone else comes up with domain name ideas for a personal website that seems better than yours, feel free to swap out whatever word(s) came before it (for example- red hair = ginger hair).
Notice how I only mentioned colors without providing an explanation?.
The domain name of a personal website is a key part of the website, and sometimes it can even determine the success or failure of a website, so choosing a suitable domain name is particularly important.
So why is the domain name of a website so important?
- A website domain name is the "first impression" of a website. A link to a website is the first thing a website visitor pays attention to. A good domain name makes a good impression, and people remember your site more easily; an inappropriate domain name can sometimes just be the one that repels web users.
- The domain name of the website affects the SEO of the website. If a website's domain name contains a certain keyword, it will help to optimize the ranking of the website.
- Your website domain name defines your brand. The domain name of your website is your brand, and a good website domain name can improve brand recognition.
The above three aspects are just a few of the significance of the website domain name. Next, we will share with you How to choose a domain name for your personal brand website or business website?.
How to choose a domain name for your personal website?
When building a blog, choosing a website domain name is especially important, after all, we don’t want to make mistakes in website domain names. Therefore, in order to facilitate everyone to choose a domain name suitable for their own website, there are 14 suggestions for your reference.
1. Use .com/.org/.net as the website domain name suffix
There are many new website domain name suffixes on the market. The website domain name suffixes have developed from .com, .net, and .org to the current subdivisions.
For example, the suffix of the pizza website is .pizza, and the suffix of the photography website is. photography and even the suffix of some blog sites have become .blog.
However, it is recommended that you choose .com as your website domain name suffix from beginning to end. If .com is already occupied, you can also use .net and .org as website domain name suffixes.
Although the new website extension looks very tempting, it has to be said that .com is still the most used and most trusted website domain name extension.
Domain extensions like .ninja and .photography and .club are not trustworthy.
Website domains that end in .com are also the least likely to be forgotten. Many web users, especially those who don't know enough about website technology, will subconsciously use .com as the domain name ending when entering a website name.
If your website domain name is answersrates.com, but web users use answersrates.net when entering the domain name, they will only see answersrates.net as an error page.
In order to reduce this risk, we'd better use .com as the suffix of the website domain name.
It's also worth mentioning that the .com button pops up automatically on the keyboard of most smartphones.
2. Add industry-specific keywords to the website domain name
Industry-specific keywords play an important role in website domain names. Therefore, we need to pay attention to the use of keywords in the domain name when setting up a domain name for the website.
Adding keywords to your website domain name is equivalent to directly telling search engines the domain and purpose of your website. If the content on your website is of high quality and the user experience is good, a website domain name with keywords can also help your website rank in search engines.
But at the same time, we must also pay attention not to stack multiple keywords together, otherwise, it will increase the competitiveness of peer websites.
But it is very difficult to find a website domain name that contains keywords but is not taken by others.
Therefore, we have to give full play to our imagination and creatively combine keywords and other words to name our website domain name.
If you understand these, you still don't know how to choose a personal website domain name. I suggest that you can put the industry keywords at the front of the website domain name, and then add another non-keyword at the back. This is very beneficial to the SEO of the website.
Here are a few examples. Some websites focus on making money and online earning, so the word dollar will be added in front of these websites, such as dollarsprout.com; some websites focus on WordPress website building (abbreviated as WP), so there The website domain name is wpbeginner.com.
3. Keep your website domain name short
Although it is more important to embed keywords in the website domain name, we cannot ignore the length of the website domain name. Domain names are best kept short and easy to remember.
We recommend that you keep your domain name within 12 characters when naming your website. The longer the domain name of the website, the harder it is for users to remember.
In addition, the longer the domain name is, the easier it is for users to make mistakes when entering the domain name in the address bar, which will directly lead to traffic loss. Therefore, it is necessary for us to shorten the website domain name.
Having said that, it is worth mentioning shortened links. We can make money with short links.
4. Domain names are easy to pronounce and spell
You can think about the most popular website in the world, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
Is it Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Yahoo?
What these website domain names have in common is that they are very easy to spell. Generally speaking, users who visit a website can easily enter the website domain name directly in the browser's address bar. If you also need to explain your website domain name to others, it's too complicated.
Moreover, you are more reluctant to see that users who visit the website enter the wrong website domain name and log in to other websites.
Also, a website's domain name should be easy to share, whether in everyday conversation or in everyday writing. Because you don't know when someone will ask you for a website's domain name.
Especially when planning to use a website domain name to create a commercial mailbox, you should pay more attention to the spelling of the website domain name.
This method is also very simple to do. You can write your favorite website domain name on paper and invite 10 people to write and spell it. If several people have difficulties in writing and spelling, you may wish to make your website domain name more concise.
5. Pay attention to the uniqueness and identification of the website domain name
The domain name of the website must be unique, and it needs to be unique so that the website can stand out in the minds of readers. Researching other websites in the same field and finding out the commonalities of these website domain names will help us to choose a good website domain name.
After all, we don't want to use an already existing brand name and be found by search engines as plagiarism.
Generally speaking, a website domain name with a high degree of identification is very unique, while a very common website domain name is usually a pile of keywords, which is easy for users to forget.
What we have to do is choose a personal website domain name with branded attributes. The website domain name must be catchy, unique, and unforgettable. For example, amazon.com is more branded than buybooksonline.com; the difference between newhealthinsurance.com and healthinsurancesort.com seems to be less obvious.
Like the above two websites with the keyword insurance (insurance), it is not only difficult to distinguish, but more importantly, it increases the competitiveness, and it is particularly easy to be confused.
Therefore, in order to let your website domain name highlight its characteristics and irreplaceability, we recommend that you take the following strategies when acquiring a website domain name:
- Create new words. Users themselves can create catchy new words themselves, as Google, Bing, and Yahoo do.
- Use existing vocabulary. We can use this call to find words that fit our business but have particularly interesting words.
- Utilize a website domain name generator. These tools can help users create very unique and recognizable website domain names.
The logo and logo of the website must also be unique. However, many people do not have professional skills in image design. For this reason, we compiled several fool-style drawing tools for your reference.
6. Avoid using hyphens and numbers in your website domain name
Never use a website domain name with hyphens. Be aware that hyphens are a sign of spammy domain names.
And website domains that use hyphenated links are prone to misspellings. If you choose a personal website domain name that is already occupied and switch to a website domain name with hyphens, when other users enter the keywords that exist in the website domain name in the search engine, they will often be directed to the competitor's website.
7. Do not have the same letters connected to each other in the website domain name
It is wise to avoid using the same letter of the necklace to avoid typos that can lead to missed traffic. Domain names like pressset.com can easily lead to user typos that can lead to lost traffic.
In addition, not using the same letters connected in a website domain name can make the website easier to type and also enhance the brand value of the website.
8. How to choose a personal website domain name should consider later in website development
It is wise to choose a personal website domain name associated with a certain segment and industry because users can directly understand the general content of the website through the website domain name. However, the later development of the website should also be considered when choosing a domain name.
For example, a florist might want to consider a domain name like orchidsblog.com when building a website, but then he might want to introduce other species of flowers besides orchids on the website. In this case, the domain name may limit the traffic to the website.
Moving a website to a new domain name is a complicated process. If there are any mistakes in the process, the site will lose its original ranking. Therefore, we should choose a flexible website domain name from the beginning.
Because of this, how to choose a personal website domain name is also a test for webmasters.
9. Do your research on website domains
Before registering a website domain name, you need to find out if other users or businesses have already registered the same domain name.
You can also do a search on Google or other search engines to see if those domains are already registered on top social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, etc.
So how do we quickly see if our favorite website domain name already exists on the social media network?
We can use tools like Knowem. We can do a search on this site for a favorite website domain name ideas, and then this website will earn information on the 25 most popular social media sites, and then tell you whether the website domain name you searched for is already taken.
If the favorite website domain name has been occupied, we need to adjust the strategy and strive to get the most original website domain name.
In addition, similar or identical domain names can not only cause confusion but can also lead to serious legal disputes, which can also indirectly lead to wasted money.
Once you have a website up and running, you also need to learn more about the trademark and copyright aspects of website domains and website logos.
10. Get Tips with a Website Domain Generator
At present, there are as many as 360 million registered website domain names, so many people are saying that good domain names have already been occupied by others. Manually searching for each website domain name is time-consuming.
So we can use some website domain name generators to deal with it. These free tools can automatically suggest domain names based on keywords entered by users.
It is recommended that you can use the website Nameboy to generate a domain name, so as to check whether the domain name you want has been occupied, and you can also get some useful tips. You can also use IsitWP’s domain name generator to find more tips on domain names for your website.
11. Choose a personal website domain name to start quickly
There are thousands of users who register website domain names from all over the world every day. If you find a domain name that you really like, don't wait for the delay.
A website domain name is like real estate. Thousands of people are struggling to find a quality website domain name that these users can register at a better price.
If you don't act fast, there's a good chance someone else will register your favorite website domain name in advance. As the saying goes, the first strike is stronger, and the second strike suffers. This is the truth.
Since the domain name of the website is relatively cheap, we recommend that users act quickly. If you feel that the website domain name you have registered is not what you want, you only need to let the registered website domain name expire naturally.
12. Buy a domain name that is highly similar to your own website domain name
Buying a domain name similar to your favorite website domain does increase your costs, so it's up to you to decide.
Here is an example. For example, loteria.com is likely to be misspelled as loteria.com, and the original website domain name has 2 in it.
After we have purchased these similar website domain names, we can redirect these purchased website domain names to the main website domain name.
Buy a website domain name
At present, there are many website domain name registrars on the Internet. We should be very careful when choosing these domain name registrars because some domain name registrar platforms are more troublesome when changing domain names.
Similar to web hosting, website domain registrar pricing varies – from $9 to $24. Users can even get a website domain name for free.
Let's take a look at how to buy a website domain name.
A free website domain name that comes with web hosting
Most web hosting companies also offer website domain registration services. Some companies allow users to use a free website domain name while signing up for a new web hosting account.
If you're building a new website, you can take advantage of this event to get a free website domain name.
Here are two foreign web hosting hosts that offer free website domain names, free SSL certificates, and 60% discounts:
Bluehost is the longest-standing and most reputable web hosting provider in the world. They are also one of the web hosting providers recommended by the official WordPress website.
Hostinger is hosting more than 1 million websites, and it is also the most suitable web hosting provider for users who are in a hurry to build a website. Its web hosting service is $1.99 per month, and users can also get a free website domain name.
One thing to note, though, is that most web hosting providers offer one year of free website domain registration. After a year, we need to renew, which is about $14 per year.
A lot of users take advantage of the free domain name for the first year because after all we still have to pay for the domain name, but why not use it for free for a year?
Most Popular Website Domain Registrars
If you just register a website domain name without purchasing a website hosting host, we can directly choose the website domain name registrar to purchase and register.
In the field of website domain names, Domain.com is also the most famous website, through which you can register domain names.
NameCheap is one of the largest website domain name registrars in the world, and they manage more than 6,300 websites with more than 14 million web users. They also provide web hosting services. You can also get a website domain name for free if you buy their web hosting.
SiteGround is the most reputable American web hosting in recent years, and it is known for its fast server speeds and great customer service. However, SiteGround also hosts as many as 20 million website domains in the world. Therefore, if you want to simply register a website domain name, you can also log in to this website to register.
Summary: Choosing a domain name for your personal website
Learning how to choose a personal website domain name can feel tricky at first since it's not an easy decision to make. But we can choose a personal website domain name through research and with the help of tools.
To choose a personal website domain name, generally speaking, we can follow these 4 steps:
- select one or more keywords that can represent the website;
- Use the website domain generator to browse website domain options;
- Choose the most suitable domain name for your website;
- register a new website domain name;
If this is the first time you've decided to start building your own blog site, this article on the ultimate WordPress blogging tutorial and Bluehost's two articles on building a WordPress site will definitely help you. The difference between these two tutorials is that one is built on Bluehost's Chinese host, and the other is built on WordPress, an American website host.
I hope this article can help you figure out how to choose a personal website domain name for general blog websites and enterprise websites.
If you like the style and content of this article, you can also subscribe to other content on the website and share and forward this article.
FAQ: How to choose a domain name for your personal or business website?
Which domain is best for a website?
Choosing a domain name is arguably one of the most important steps in starting your personal website. But how do you know which domain is best? Choosing one based on functionality, availability, or aesthetic appeal can make all of the difference in your website’s success. So if you’re looking to choose a domain that sets your site apart from others, take some time to consider which one will be most successful for your business needs and branding objectives. Let’s break down what each option has to offer and explore which are right for you.
What are the factors to choose a domain name?
Choosing a domain name is an important factor in building your website. While it doesn’t directly affect how your website looks, it will have an effect on who finds your site and what kind of reaction they have to your site. When thinking about choosing a domain name, you should consider some factors. The most important factor is that people can easily remember and spell your domain name. As well as considering whether or not it creates curiosity or confusion when you tell people about it, and that it’s easy to say. It should also be short enough so that users don’t encounter problems typing in the URL address, while also being descriptive enough to give readers an idea of what they can expect when they visit your site.
How do I know if a domain name is good?
The most important thing to remember when choosing a domain name is that it should be short, sweet, and easy to remember. If you think your chosen domain is going to get confused with something else down the road, reconsider your choice; it’s always better to have an address that’s unique in its purpose than one that could lead to confusion with another existing entity. The more people who can type your domain without having to add .com or any other suffix after it, preferably using their fingers rather than their brain (i.e., instinctually), then, generally speaking, it will hold up well in search results over time.
Should I use my name as a domain?
Although not required, it is often a good idea to include your name in your personal website’s domain. This makes it easy for people to remember, increases your chances of being found in search engines, and ensures you don’t lose visitors who think they might be going to someone else’s site. However, if you are concerned about privacy or don’t want every stranger knowing your name then you can create an anonymous domain or add The Official Site of... or Company Name® Official Site. Just remember that less is sometimes more – some brands and companies overdo it with their domain names so look around and check out what works best in similar situations.
Can I use .com for my personal website?
In most cases, you can use .com for your personal website, but there are some legal implications. First of all, it's unwise to create your personal site under any TLD (Top Level Domain) extension that is associated with any type of business. That includes .com, .net, .org, and other commonly-used extensions. This applies even if you don't plan on using your site to sell products or services. With that said, companies like Google have been known to park domains by either buying them up or registering them directly through ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). Doing so can prevent you from using such domain names if they happen to match your desired ones too closely.
Is it OK to use a hyphen in the domain name?
Yes, you can use a hyphen in the domain name. However, hyphens are not allowed at all in some TLDs like .us (.co .nyc .me .bike .accountant) and even some ccTLDs (e.g. de). So before deciding on a domain name - be sure to check if it's valid for your target TLD/ccTLD. Otherwise, you'll waste time, money, and nerves trying to register it only to find out later that it is invalid.
How to Choose a Domain Name for Your Business?
Choosing a domain name can be tricky. If you’re just getting started, you may have plenty of time to mull over your options; but if you’re trying to get your business off the ground in time for Black Friday or Christmas sales, you probably need to make a choice fast. You want something catchy and memorable—and it should be easy enough to spell that people can find it easily on their smartphones. Here are some things to keep in mind when choosing an online name - Do not use hyphens or numbers (unless they're part of your brand)
- Make sure it's easy to pronounce and spell
- Keep it short and sweet—the shorter, the better
- Avoid common misspellings (e.g., florist instead of floristry)
How do I choose a domain name for my small business?
It can be hard to come up with a domain name that matches your personal brand, but getting it right is critical. The ideal solution is to create something witty and memorable. Ideally, it should reflect what you do or who you are (if you’re launching an e-commerce store) in some way. This is definitely easier said than done, so take your time and use these tips to guide you through the process: If you already have an idea for your website, write down as many words or phrases related to your brand as possible.
Should your business name be your domain name?
A lot of people use their company name as their domain name, which is fine. However, it can be confusing or misleading to visitors who see your website and think it’s actually your company’s name when it’s really just you. For example, if I google Diply and click on one of their articles, I might expect to be taken to Diply's official site; however, when I click through from an SEO-based search result, I find myself at Jane Doe's personal cooking site (her personal website is diply dot com) where she writes about her family recipes for her family cookbook in all its horror and glory.