If you have been thinking about starting a blog with a great domain name or you already have one and would wish to start a new one, then your search comes to an end here. In this article, I will be breaking down how to pick a great domain and also tell you about the offer that Hostgator has for all its new customers.
A quick disclaimer, this post has been included as an entry into a giveaway/sweepstakes.
Before I dive into explaining what to consider while picking a great domain, I thought it would be nice to remind you that if you are having trouble starting a blog, then you can go and check out my post on How to start a blog after reading this entirely of course.
Having put that out of the way, let me take some of your read time to explain to you what exactly Hostgator is offering its new members. Well, if you sign up for a new 12+ month hosting plan for a shared, OWP, or cloud hosting, you will get a free .com, .org, or .net domain for the first year.
So, if you buy for instance a shared hosting plan, you will get a free domain and finally get to launch your dream website with Hostgator. Think of how much you will be saving with this.
How do you choose a great domain?
You would ask. Picking a domain name should not be a random activity. It should not be done for the sake of it. You have to take some ample time and do research around the niche that you want to dive in and the available names that would suit your website.
In line with this, I have five points that I recommend you to consider while picking a domain name for your website.
Make it easy to type
Make sure that you choose a domain name that can easily be typed by others. Avoid ambiguous names that would otherwise be problematic to type.
Include your Brand name
By including your brand name in your domain, it makes your audience or clients reach you easily. For instance, if you deal with mobile phones and your company name is Dayeli, then you can have your domain as “dayeliphonedealers.com”. That way, people will easily know your brand (Dayeli) and what you deal with.
Keep it short
Long domain names often do not appeal to most people. Try to keep your domain name short and avoid irrelevant inclusion of unnecessary words.
Use Keywords
Keywords are those words that are popular on the internet. If such words are included in your domain, this means that you will easily have a high preference from search engines by ranking you higher (however you should keep in mind that this is not always true).
Use a relevant extension
Extensions are suffixes at the end of a web address. These extensions would include, .com, .org, .club, .biz, .net etc.
here are some extensions and how they can be applied:
.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.
Picking a great domain name will always come down to what you really want to achieve from your blog/website. For instance, if you ask me why I chose www.elidayjuma.com as my domain name, I would definitely give answers that are reasonable.
Number one, ElidayJuma is my name.
Secondly, being a website developer, I wanted to build a brand around my name.
Third, using my name means that everyone who knows me will easily know how to find me on the web. Additionally, my extension .com, simply means that it is a business that is built around a community of readers like you.
If you already have a domain name and you would wish to know if it is taken or not, you can do so using the Hostgator Domain Name Checker. This is a tool that helps you know if your domain name is taken or not and can guide in finding a domain name for your site.
Effective blog management is key for the success of any blog, new or old. As part of managing your blog, you should always make sure that your domain name is well managed.
How do you achieve this?
Simple. Just make sure that your domain name subscription is on auto-renew. That way, you will have a piece of mind knowing that your site will not go down because of failed renewal. If not, you can ensure that you have email reminders from the hosting company to remind you about your domain name renewal before the expiry date.
All said I would be happy to hear that you started a blog/website and I will be delighted to read and share your content. Just make sure that you tag me and let me know about it.
Before you leave, however, I would like to remind you that picking the right web hosting company for your blog might be a real headache. It can even make you give up on your dream to blog altogether. In this case, I would like to ease the burden and recommend Hostgator to you.
Why Hostgator?
If you buy any of the packages that HostGator has to offer, you will get a tone of goodies that accompany your purchase. Included in the package, you will get:
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
- Free SSL certificate
- 45-day money-back guarantee
- 24/7/365 world-class support
- Free website transfers
Sometime back, I wrote an article about What are SSL certificates. Be sure to check it out to know more.
“Disclosure: I earn a commission from Hostgator if you use my referral link or coupon code to make a purchase. Thanks for your support.”
This is a nice content Juma!
Thanks!