You’re not alone; even seasonal marketers think about how to come up with a blog name idea when starting one. It’s an important task when you’re about to create a blog.

You won’t bypass this step.

It is one of the most critical aspects of online marketing that impact the success of your business.

A memorable, catchy domain name lives in the minds of your customers and blog readers. A hard-to-remember blog name won’t help return visitors.

If people can’t easily remember your blog name and type it in the browser address bar, it may be hard for readers to return to your blog.

So, irrespective of your creative blog name, make sure you keep it simple, short, and memorable. Always remember these three rules when you’re trying to come up with a blog name.

Before I dive into the specifics of how to come up with a unique blog name, here are a couple of questions to consider when starting a new blog:

5 Questions to Ask Before You Name a Blog

Answering the questions below will make discovering a suitable blog name easier.

1. What’s Your Blog Purpose?

To develop a blog name, consider the WHY you’re starting the blog.

Is your blog your diary, a business website for the long-term plan, or something you plan to sell soon?

You must consider profitability if you plan to sell the blog when it is of great value. Find blog name ideas that bring more value to the blog when it’s time to sell it.

But if you’re creating a blog to build your business and earn your living, you could name the blog to fit your personality, niche, and branding.

2. Who Are Your Target Audiences?

From experience, your target audience can influence how to name a blog.

When I started this blog, I had no idea what I was doing or getting into. So, I just named the blog from a few names that came to mind without proper research, analysis, and consideration.

Now that I have grown in experience as a digital marketer, I realize the name CyberNaira appeals more to my local audience (Nigerians).

The word “Naira” in the blog is the official currency of Nigeria notes. So, from a blog visitor perspective, you might think the blog topics only target Nigerians.

In practice, the blog content is targeted at a global English-speaking audience. Beginner bloggers struggle to start their blogs on the right path to success.

This is why I plan to move CyberNaira content to a new domain I will launch soon. (I have registered the domain name and will migrate to it very soon.)

More details on that in subsequent blog posts.

3. What’s Your Blog Topic/Niche?

To a large extent, your blog topic or niche will influence your blog name.

For example, WPBeginners is a blog highly focused on WordPress for beginner bloggers to succeed. Search Engine Journal is a blog that focuses on search news around the globe.

From those names, readers can tell what the blogs are all about on their first visit.

The names of the two blogs mentioned here relate to their blog topics.

While keywords in the blog name are not an advantage in SERP, they help readers quickly understand your blog topics.

4. What if You Blog on Different Topics in The Future?

Let me tell you a short story here…

When I started this blog, I used to blog about search engine news, tips, and strategies – a bit of social media marketing, blogging tips, and tutorials.

As time passed, especially when earning from the blog became one of my top priorities, I had to divert to other blog topics and expertise.

Now, I blog about WordPress-related topics, affiliate marketing, product and service reviews, blogging tips, and tutorials.

Though I still talk about SEO news, tips, and strategies on the blog, they’re no longer a big part of the blog topics.

So, think about the future of your blogging career.

Is there any chance you might have a change of topics in the future?

Let’s say you start a blog about dog food today, and your blog name is “Jane Dog Food” dot com.

What if, in the future, you started talking about how to train your dog to run faster? How do you get your dog pregnant? How do you train a cat to use the toilet?

What if you decide to start talking about all domestic animals in general?

Many blogs start with a single topic but dive deep into other related discussions later.

So think through before choosing your unique blog name if you write about other related topics.

5. Easy to Say Over The Phone or Type it into the Address Bar?

If your blog name is hard to understand on the phone or typed into the web browser address bar, it’s obvious you’ve not chosen the perfect one.

A blog name might look great on paper, but if you have to spell it out for people to understand during a conversation, there is confusion.

For example, the popular free photo-sharing site – Flickr – had a problem with users typing the domain name. A large percentage of their users naturally type Flicker when trying to visit the site.

Flickr.com homepage

To direct traffic from people typing Flicker.com, the website ended up purchasing Flicker.com and directing its traffic to Flickr.com.

If you type Flicker.com into your web browser, it will redirect to Flickr.com.

How to Come up With a Blog Name The Smart Way

If you have answered the above questions correctly and are sure of what you’re doing, here are ten ways to develop a blog name you won’t regret later.

1. Use Your Name

One of the simplest ways to name a blog is by using your name.

Using your name could work out if your blog topic concerns your personal experience, life, business, or services.

Using your name as the blog name allows you to talk about various niche topics. Your name is not tied to a specific niche or topic.

My friend Enstine Muki uses his name as the blog name.

This allows him to discuss many blog topics without losing focus or readers.

Enstine Muki dot com blog home page

You can use your name, too, though it depends on if you’re comfortable with that and the future of your blog.

That leads to…

This is not a keyword targeting in the domain name but something similar.

Let’s say you start a blog about fitness; you could choose a domain name that reads fitnesswithjane.com or janefitness.com.

The idea is to include your primary niche keyword/topic in the domain name.

According to Google’s John Muller, a keyword in a domain name is not an advantage to gaining more search engine visibility – but, from a user point of view, it does help to influence the click-through rate in SERP.

An article Headline on the Search engine Journal blog

Look at this Google search result for “affiliate marketing for beginners.”

Despite SmartBlogger being an authority blog among the search results, I may be tempted to click on the link with the term “affiliate” in its domain name.

The word “affiliate” in the domain name is relevant to my search query. So even if a keyword in a domain name does not help search ranking, it helps to drive more clicks from SERP.

Google search result for the term affiliate marketing for beginners

3. Use Abbreviations

Using abbreviations can be better if you need to make a statement with your domain name that results in so many letters.

For example, BMW is the short version or abbreviation of Bavarian Motor Works for the English version. And Bayerische Motoren Werke Bayerische for the German version.

Pronouncing Bayerische Motoren Werke on the telephone might confuse and lead to a spelling error, so the world-renowned car brand opts for the shorter version – BMW.

FB.com is the abbreviation for the world’s most used/popular social media network – Facebook. (I guess you don’t know that?). So, if you can’t type Facebook, type fb.com, and you will be redirected to Facebook.com.

4. Find a Single Word

Look at some world brand companies – they all have a single word in common in their domain name.

Google. Apple. Sony. Xerox. Kodak. Wine. Hotel. Casino. Tesla. Fund.

These companies with one-word domain names make billions of dollars each year. And not just because of their name, but because they’ve put customer satisfaction before anything else.

People buy Apple products not because of the name – Apple – but because Apple products are one of the best you can find in the industry.

As good as it may sound, purchasing a single-word domain name will be very expensive today. The domain name Voice.com was purchased for a staggering $30 million in 2019. Also, Fund.com was purchased for $12 million in 2008.

Check out this Wikipedia page if you’re interested in going through a list of high-profile domain names.

5. Research Your Niche

If you’re starting a niche-specific blog, finding out what’s already working in your industry makes sense. Research your competitors to see how to come up with a blog name that works.

For example, in the SEO space, you’ll discover a trend among the blogs that delivers search engine news vs. technical SEO blogs.

Blogs that deliver search news incorporate the term “search engine” in their domain name, while technical blogs use something unrelated to SEO.

Take Moz, Ahrefs, Neil Patel, Yoast, Hub Spot, Backlinko, etc… for example. These blogs do not have words related to SEO in their blog names. These technical SEO blogs focus on building a brand rather than targeting keywords and domain names.

Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, Search Metrics, etc…these blogs deliver more search news than focusing on technical SEO stuff.

You can discover your perfect blog name from these examples if you’re starting one in the SEO space.

6. Use a Blog Name Generator

One of the easiest ways to come up with a blog name is to use blog name generator tools.

Many websites offer the services for free, so you don’t have to worry about any additional cost. This domain name generator uses smart variations of your seed keyword to give you an idea for your blog name.

It also helps to search whether your perfect blog name is available for registration.

First, use this NameCheap domain name search box to see if your perfect blog name is available.

Find a domain starting at $0.88

powered by Namecheap

Here is a couple of domain name generator websites you can use now.

7. Make a Clear Statement

You can make a clear statement or describe your blog mission within your blog name. This allows your readers to understand what the blog topic is all about quickly.

Here are examples of blogs that clearly define what the blog mission is about from reading its name:

Learn to Code With Me

Learn to code with me website home page

From reading the blog Learn to Code With Me – you can guess what to expect from being part of the community.

Laurence Bradford is a self-taught techie with love for teaching others after gaining valuable digital marketing skills. She is a French web developer who loves to code and teaches.

2018 She quit her full-time job to focus on her dream and learn to code with me.

Listen Money Matters

Listen money matters - blog homepage

Listen Money Matters is a finance website that delivers practical advice on making money through realistic means, not some get-quick-rich scheme.

If you visit the website for the first time, you can grab what it’s all about by reading the blog name. You don’t need to walk around long to know what to expect from reading the blog.

8. Consider Your Language

This is an easier way to come up with a name that resonates with your target audience, mainly if you target the local market.

To stand out from the crowd and gain instant popularity, you can research for or brainstorm on popular slang or words in your local dialect that resonate with your ideal audience.

One thing you have to consider when using this method to name your blog is that it may be challenging to expand into the global market.

Also, consider your country’s top-level domain name if you use this method.

Conclusion: How to Name Your Blog

While naming your blog is an important aspect of online marketing, you don’t have to get stuck trying to find the perfect blog name.

This is because no matter how perfect your blog name is, if the content sucks, people won’t read it.

The quality of your content, how you connect with your audience, and your marketing strategies are crucial in building a blog worth reading and generating consistent income.

And even if you didn’t get it right the first time, you can change to a different domain name later.

Remember the three rules I mentioned above: always keep your blog name simple, short, and memorable.

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11 Comments

  1. Great tips here. Coming up with a catchy and punchy blog name can be really tough. It’s also important that it is clear from the name what your blog is about I think.

    1. Hi, Talya,

      Thanks for reading through and for the valuable contribution.

      Yes, it makes sense to have a blog name that summarizes what the blog is all about. Thanks, once again.

  2. Hi Samsudeen,

    Nice article, I completely agree that a catchy name for a blog helps in the long run. But finding that name is a tough job.

  3. Great tips here. Coming up with a catchy and punchy blog name can be really tough. It’s also important that it is clear from the name what your blog is about I think.

  4. Wanted to start my blog and was stuck on my blog name. Thanks for this great article. Solved my problem.

  5. hello shamsudeen,
    your blog really helpful for my business grow. I appreciate your blog

  6. Hi Samsudeen,

    What a great topic! It is so important to come up with a name that people can remember. The shorter the better and one word is a winner for sure. I wish I knew this many years ago when I named my blog. I used my name and the word “tribe” because back in the day the book “Tribes” by Seth Godin was popular.
    The premise is that whoever comes to my blog can be part of my “tribe” especially when they opt in to my list.

    -Donna

    1. Hi, Donna,

      Good to read from you today after a long time.

      Naming a blog after your name has its own advantage, it makes it unique, promotes a personal brand, and makes it almost impossible to sell (which could also be a disadvantage). If I have to start all over again, I would be more careful and research more before naming my blog.

      Thanks for reading through, Donna.

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