BestCordlessVacuumCleanersReview2019.com
No. I’m just kidding.
Never name your website like that. Why? Because it looks spammy, and it is targeted to a single product and you brand it with the year.
Those times when picking an EMD (exact matching domain) are long gone. Now the domain name is not a ranking factor anymore. But in my opinion, it is still relevant from a searcher standpoint.
For example: If I’m looking for some information about dogs and I will find an article that has the title I’m looking for but the domain name is something like CatsParadise.com or BestProductsReviews.com there is a big chance that I will not click that.
So how do I name my websites?
I will give you a shortlist of things that I follow every time I pick a name for a new website:
- I use a .com extension for my domain name.
- I pick a brandable name. A name that will look good on a coffee mug on my desk. When I will look at that mug I will say “Yeah, that’s an awesome name”.
- I will try to keep it short as much as possible: 2 or 3 words will be fine.
- I don’t put “the”, “a” in front of your domain name. Don’t use brands, company names and so on. So no TheGoogle.com or BestAmazonReviews.com.
- I usually don’t use numbers. Sometimes I do. For example, I can use 101 (one on one): CatsCare101.com
- I don’t use hyphens. Domain names with hyphens are ugly.
- I will pick a name relevant for my niche but I will also leave enough room to write about other things related to my niche in the future. (If I plan to do that).
I pick a relevant name for my niche
Let’s say I pick as a niche: cat beds and I plan to write just about that at the beginning of my website. If I will pick as a domain name something like CatBeds101.com then I will constrain myself on the types of articles I can write.
I want the domain name to be a little broad. I will choose something like CatWorld.com. In this way, I can write about cat beds, cat toys or any other topic about cats I can think of.
The domain name is brandable and is relevant for the niche I want to write about cat beds and it leaves me enough space to write about other things in the cat niche.
I will not be able to write about dogs, snakes or other pets. For that, I should have picked a name like PetParadise.com. Sure you can do that also but I like to keep my website purpose on track.
What I Do If the Domain I Choose is Not Available
When I search for a new domain name I use a domain name generator like this one: https://instantdomainsearch.com
If the domain name is not available I will pick something else, I don’t buy $2000 domains just because they sound good. You can do that though.
After I find something that is available I go to NameCheap.com and I register the domain.
You can use NameCheap.com or other domain name registrar. It is up to you.
After registering your domain you will need hosting. I’m using Bluehost for some time and for beginner websites it is very good.
I also heard good things about SiteGround. I will test it some day.
I will not tell you how to install WordPress on Bluehost and how to link the domain name to your hosting account. At least for now. Maybe in the future, I will write a tutorial on how to do that. But for now, you can find a lot of tutorials on how to do this.
So I will skip this step and let’s jump to the next step in this guide:
How To Find Keywords For My Niche Websites