Choosing a right domain name for blog is a deciding factor between your online success or failure. Most of the beginner Internet Marketer finds this process a bit difficult because of the fact that they don’t know the golden rules of finding a keyword rich domain name.
A domain name acts like a business name or company name and it is your identity on the internet. So choose such names that perfectly suits your business or niche.
Characteristic Of a Good Domain Name
Whenever, you are searching for a domain name then always keep in mind below mentioned golden rules:
1. Keyword Rich – That means, if you are running a business that related to kids clothes then cheapkidsclothes.com would be a good choice.
May be there are more variation to this topic. Just use your mind and creativity and comes with a name that perfectly suits your needs. In a moment, i would love to tell you about the process which i use to find a good domain name for my projects.
2. Geo-Targeted – Let say, if you are running a business that serves a specific locality or state then choose a domain name that have name of your locality or state in it. For example, If you are in a business of real estate in Newyork then newyorkrealestate.com is an awesome name. Generally, geo-targeted domains works very well only if you have a business that serves only a specfic location.
3. Short & Memorable – Domain names that are short and easy to type have a great chance to become a brand name later. People like domains that are one word and memorable.
I have already mentioned in one of my articles that ‘Insure.com’ domain name was sold at 16 million dollars because of the fact that it is short and have a financial term in it.
4. Domain Extension Importance – It is a fact that .COM extension is most favorite extension for any business owner that is trying to setup their business online.
Just take a look at world’s biggest brand names and you will find that all have .COM extension of their business. EX: google, yahoo, microsoft, amazon, ebay, walmart, facebook, twitter etc. If somehow, you didn’t find .COM domain then goes for .NET and .ORG as last choice or as secondary option.
5. Avoid Copyright & Hyphens – Don’t ever select a domain name that is a name of a brand or service. For example, don’t buy a domain name like mcdonaldsburgers.com or vice versa because in this way you will invite trouble and this brand or company can sue you.
Domain names that have hyphens in it not like by the people. People love domain names that are easy to type and memorable. Search engines also give less imortance to domain names that have hyphens in it. cheapfriendshipbracelet.com is better than cheap-friendship-bracelet.com.
Ok, now you know the game rules and this is a perfect time to teach you ‘How To Brainstorm Keywords‘ art.
Keyword Research Tools
Literally, there are hundred’s of tools that can help us to find a suitable topic or niche for our business. Rather than telling you the theory, i am thinking about to show a practical demo.
Indeed, you can make website on any topic for which you have passion about it. In this demo, i am using a keyword research tool ‘Google Keyword Planner’ that own by internet giant Google itself.
Nobody knows better than google that what are people searching on daily and monthly basis. Keyword Planner shows stats of your targeted keyword.
For example, if you are a passionate hiker and have a plan to build such a website in which you offers professional tips or stuff related to hiking that can be very helpful to beginner hiking lovers. I am going to show you step by step process to brainstorm ideas related to hiking.
1- First go to Google Keyword Planner
2- Now click on where it is says ‘Search For New Keywords…’
3- I am not going to tell every in and out about this tool because a full-fledged article is needed to describe all the features. In this guide, i want to keep things to the point and short. Leave all options as it they are and type your keyword “hiking” in first box.
4- When you do step 3 above, you will see that google have arranged keywords as an ad group topic. We neglect this and click on the tab where it says ‘keyword ideas’.
5- As you see, google is telling us that the keyword ‘hiking’ is getting 22,200 average monthly searches and advertiser competition is low. Most beginners think competition low means that we have a chance to outrank our competitors very easily. Don’t get yourself caught by following this theory.
Low competition means that advertisers are not taking too much interest in this keyword and that is why they are bidding very low.
A good rule of thumb is that you choose such a keyword that gets more than 3k exact searches per month and have a higher advertiser competition on google. During my search, i have found a keyword that grabbed my attention. Keyword that i like was “hiking pants”.
According to keyword planner, this keyword gets 4,400 searches per month and advertiser competition is also high. For me, this keyword has tremendous potential and it looks like a very profitable niche.
I am also watching some other secondary longtail keywords that perfectly suits my primary topic like best hiking pants for men, best hiking pants for women,winter hiking pants etc. I know, i can make an authority site on this keyword.
Similarly, you can find a suitable keyword by following the above procedure. Start from broad keyword first and then narrow down the topics.
Don’t think about how you will get traffic at this time. There are hundreds of ways to drive traffic to your websites. We are not solely depends on google and other search engines traffic.
Other Cool Sources To Get Keyword Ideas
Amazon Search
eBay Search
eHow.com
wikiHow.com
Yahoo Answers
Ezine Article Directory
dmoz
Clickbank Marketplace
Google Search Hints
Whenever, you found a keyword then always analyze its potential by using Google Keyword Planner. Keyword research is a very indepth topic and i have only shown you very basic stuff. I will definitely write more stuff on this topic in my future articles.
Best Domain Registrars
Once you have brainstormed your keywords then it is a time to register a domain name according to the selected keyword. There are lots of best domain registrars out there but i mainly use Godaddy because of the fact that you can register a domain name there as low as $0.99. Some other domain registrars that i like includes:
Name.com
Namecheap.com
Hover.com
Namesilo.com
Godaddy Is My Favorite! Because you can buy domain for less than $1 anytime! But I prefer Namecheap any time and day. For they are reliable.
Godaddy by far one of best domain registrars till date and control 30% of online market share. Secure payment processing system and easy to use domains managing panel are two admirable features of Godaddy. I mainly like it because of the 3 reasons:
Very Cheap – You can register a domain name as low as $0.99.
Discounts Coupons are available easily. Just type “Godaddy coupons codes” on google and you will find lots of good deals.
Great support and user friendly admin panel.
As you know earlier, i had found a keyword “hiking pants” and i wanted to register my domain with this keyword. But when i searched for an exact match domain on Go Daddy, Unfortunately this has been taken.
This means somebody has already registered this domain and in order to get it, i have to contact the owner directly. I don’t have a plan to do this.
If you face such situation then you can add a prefix to your keyword like ‘best’,’buy’,’free’,’pro’,’new’ etc.In my case i have just added a prefix ‘best’ to my main keyword and now it became “best hiking pants”. It sounds awesome to me and the great thing is that exact match domain is available for this keyword.
Even though, i didn’t get hikingpants.com that is my main keyword; but i think besthikingpants will also serve the purpose. I can rank my website for both keywords by just creating awesome content.
Final Thought
If you are serious about your online business then choosing a right domain name is the most important factor to your online success.
Always choose domains that sound logical. If you have a plan to create a micro niche website then always register keyword rich domains.
I would write about this topic more and more in my future articles. If you like this article then feel free to share it with your friends on facebook and twitter. Happy Reading!
