Finding good blog names that encapsulate your interests is the very first decision you should make as a blogger.
Branding and the use of symbols in marketing is so powerful in modern society, that I’d be able to flash a yellow M in front of your eyes for a microsecond and you’d instantly know it represented McDonalds. Your subconscious will throw images of burgers and fries into the forefront of your mind, your mouth might start salivating and perhaps your stomach may grumble.
Why would your body react to such a stimulus in this way? That is the power of branding and association.
Good Blog Names Are Brand Names
Although we may not aspire to be multinational giants, we can learn a thing or two from the big name brands when it comes to our own blogs.
The first piece of advice I can give aspiring bloggers is this,
"Start your new blog like you are starting a new business. First, you need something to sell – your topic. Then, you need a brand name. Figure this out before you start."
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In 2011, Matt Cutts from Google’s web spam team (the guys who tweak the search engine results) said,
"We actually came up with a classifier to say, okay, IRS or Wikipedia or New York Times is over on this side, and the low quality sites are over on this side."Matt Cutts
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If you’re not catching on, Eric Schmidt, then CEO of Google, makes it clearer,
"Brands are the solution, not the problem… brands are how you sort out the cesspool."Eric Schmidt
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To be abundantly clear, Google have said if you want to rank highly in the search results, you must have a unique brand.
Branding Branding Branding!
Let’s Talk Domain Names
If you have read advice from the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) crowd telling you to choose a domain name (your website address, eg inscribd.com) that matches your topic keywords, this advice is OLD. OLD advice is BAD advice.
Now, I don’t think a domain name www.keyword1-keyword2-keyword3.com is a good blog name or brand and Google most likely doesn’t either.
Once you know the name of your blog, you’d need to register a domain name through a registrar like Go Daddy
Reasons Not To Use Keywords In Your Domain
Let’s say you have jumped in and registered a domain dogscatsandalligators.com
You may hit a few problems in your blogging journey and your choice of domain name has shoved you into a corner. What if you don’t want to write about alligators anymore?
Here are 5 quick reasons why it’s better to find good blog names and register a domain with a unique brand over one with keywords.
- You can easily change topics and categories if they’re not gaining traction,
- You don’t have to register a new domain name if you decide to change course,
- Readers and *advertisers* feel your website is more legitimate over ones without a brand name,
- Loyal readers can search for your brand name easily in Google, as opposed to remembering the keywords of your domain,
- Longterm SEO branding.
If your purpose of blogging is to earn some money through advertising, then a brand name is essential.
"You need to earn an advertiser’s respect before you can earn their dollars."
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How To Choose The Right Brand For Your Blog
In the Internet-age, choosing a brand name goes hand-in-hand with choosing a domain name. If you have a general idea of the topics you will be writing about, you can start by searching available domains using Go Daddy’s console.
It will be very unlikely that you will find a domain name available that is a single dictionary word. You’ll need to be creative.
Your final choice of domain name should be unique, easy to say out loud and be SHORT. Long domains are more cumbersome so, the shorter the better!
For more tips on domain choice, which effectively inspires your brand name, read our article 7 Tricks To Grabbing The Best Domain Names
Before you register the domain, type the name (without the .com) into Google and see what comes up. If you get no results, you’ve hit upon a purely unique name. Even if there are some results, make sure the name isn’t associated with anything negative.
Branding is a big deal and choosing your domain name should not be taken lightly. If you think of your blog like a business, you would want to give deep thought to your business name.
Give it a while to sink in before making the big effort of starting your blog. Make sure you are happy with the name and you will be able to write about a range of topics under your brand (even though you really should just focus on a narrow set of topics).
Tell us in the comments, how many times have you decided to start from scratch?
Disclaimer: Links to 3rd party sites included within this article denoted with /go/ in the URL may result in commission being earned if you decide to make a purchase.
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