You’ve embraced the reasons to blog, determined your niche and are ready to choose your site’s name. The only problem is that you have no idea where to start.
There are many approaches for how to choose a blog name. Here are some best practices I identified:
Make it integrated
You want the site’s name and the URL to match. This means you may need to try out several versions of the name before you find an available URL.
You also want to make sure the name align’s with your site’s purpose and content. In addition, the site’s tagline should be integrated with the URL, the name and the content. In other words, they all need to make sense together. They should flow.
On a related note, if you choose not to use a tagline, which is an acceptable option, be sure to remove any preset taglines from your site. For example, WordPress blogs tend to have a preset tagline of “Just another WordPress blog.” Remove it.
Establish your brand
Your blog’s name should help establish and reflect your site’s brand. This means it should set a certain tone for the site, which reflects the content you plan to communicate, the type of blog you’re writing and, hopefully, your personality. Think about it, the name is the first piece of content a visitor sees on your site. Is it setting the tone and creating expectations the site can fulfill?
Focus content
Your blog’s name should help you focus the content you post there. If the content you’re considering doesn’t align with your blog’s name, theme, tagline, or overall purpose, it probably is best used somewhere else.
Be easily understood
The name should make sense to other people. Do they get it when you tell them the name of your blog? If you have to explain the name, it’s probably too complex.
Be easily communicated
The name should be easy to say, spell and type. This typically means having a name that’s less than eight characters in length and does not include any special characters like numbers, glyphs or punctuation.
Align with keywords
Again, this is about integrating your site’s components. The name should align with what you’ve chosen as your blog’s keywords, based on the types of things you plan to cover. The best approach to this is to choose three to five keywords that will be reflected in the majority of your blog’s content, then brainstorm on how to use those words in your blog’s name.
Be unique
Your blog’s name shouldn’t be the same as someone else’s. You want a name that is unique and specific to your blog, not generic or overused. I recommend that you avoid clichés.
The best way to determine if a name already has been used is to search for it.
Have longevity
When you launch a blog, you should plan to blog for an extended time. It doesn’t make sense to start blogging temporarily. Your name should reflect this long-term plan. You should ask, will the name last or will it go out of style? This probably means avoiding trendy terms or phrases.
These are some of the best practices I’ve identified for choosing a blog name. The best advice overall seems to be to make sure the name will easily integrate into your blog’s purpose, tagline and content, and that it reflects your personality and your blog’s tone.
What advice do you have for beginning bloggers about choosing a blog name?
