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I recently wrote an article on choosing a niche for your blog. The next step in creating a niche website is to go ahead and buy a domain name, but this brings its own set of problems. So, in this article, I’m going to list some tips on how to choose a domain for your niche website.
Assuming you’ve chosen your niche and are ready to move on to the next step, we’ll continue with this article. If you haven’t chosen a niche yet, then I recommend you to read this article on how to choose a niche for your online business.
Are they all online business blogs? no.
Are all blogs online businesses? uncertain. But for my purposes, they are.
I started my blog/niche site to make money from it.
Alright, here are some tips to help you decide on a solid domain name. You don’t have to follow all the prompts, but you can use some to help you make your choice.
How to Choose a Domain Name for a Niche Website – 13 Tips
1. Keep it simple – don’t overthink it
One of the most important tips when choosing a domain name is not to overthink it. Stick to the tips I’ve laid out in this article, but you don’t have to have the best domain name in the world. If you’ve spent more than a few hours deciding on your domain name, you’re overthinking it.
2. Own your niche name in the domain
Whatever your chosen niche, consider trying to incorporate it into your domain name. This is not 100% necessary at all, and there are many successful niche sites that don’t do this. You can also choose a branded domain name that isn’t even an actual word or refers to something completely different than what you’re promoting. It’s like apples that don’t sell apples.
I prefer the route of personally owning a niche in the domain name, but it’s not required. Check some examples below
3. Or choose a more branded domain name
This is another way, and often different than having a niche within your domain.
The definition of the term branding is not set in stone and is open to debate. However, I will list below some things that can be applied to branded domains. Remember, it never hurts to have a domain name that you can build your brand around and sound like a real company.
Brand domains can be:
- catchy
- memorable
- easy to remember
- pronounceable
- an uncommon or invented word
Some real-life examples of branded domain names are some of the world’s largest technology companies such as Uber, Lyft, Google, Apple, and Amazon. Now you can take a domain name that encompasses your niche and turn it into a brand, which is actually what I did. Do you have to do it one way or another? No.
4. Easy to remember
Whether you go the niche domain route or something more branded, it needs to be easy to remember. This makes it easier for people to find their way back to your site and even tell their friends.
5. Stay away from typos
It’s also about helping people find their way back to your site. Don’t try to be cute or misspell it to make it unique, not like the niche site we’re building. Doing this won’t have any effect on SEO, but will just confuse you.
If you’re in the camping world, an example might be spelling it oddly, such as kampingplanet.com instead of the correct spelling of campingplanet.com.
6. Separate domains from hosts
This is my personal preference, but I like to keep my domain separate from my hosting. Many web hosts also offer domain registration services and even give you a free domain when you sign up, which is great if you want to save money in your first year.
think about it:
You buy web hosting every month from a host you are not familiar with and decide to register your domain there. Domains are registered annually and hosting is usually monthly. You had a bad experience with the host and want to move to another host in a month.
Well, now your domain is stuck with bad hosting unless you transfer it, which can be a bit of a pain, and in order to do that you have to pay another year at the new registrar. The bottom line is that it’s easier to separate them from the start.
I use Namecheap for my domain and they are great for domains. They also offer hosting, but I don’t use them for that.
7. Try using.COM
This is another personal preference and it should not negatively impact your SEO if you decide to get .net or .co for your domain.
It really goes back to being memorable, everyone is used to .com, and they look more professional. If you tell someone your website is The Knitting Planet, and they try to look it up, they will almost always default to .com.
Make them easy and get the .com version. If it’s not available, someone already has an idea for a name for the site, and you should choose something else anyway.
One trick I use is to go to an online thesaurus and type in various words to see what other ideas I can come up with. Then I head to Namecheap and keep trying combinations until I have a .com that I’m happy with.
If you really want to use another TLD, go for .net or even .co, but again I highly recommend sticking with .com. Just make sure there are no established websites using the .com TLD, or you risk infringing their brand.
8. Don’t lock yourself in, leave room for growth
You’re probably starting with a really small niche, and that’s fine. Just make sure that the domain name you choose allows you to enter the relevant field so that you can grow your website. If your niche market is knitting and you choose knittingblanketsonly.com as your domain name, you’re stuck, all you can write about is knitting blankets.
However, if you use my TheKnittingPlanet.com example above, you can talk about every aspect of knitting and still only start writing about knitting blankets.
9. No numbers or hyphens in the field
This just confuses things. This is another thing that doesn’t necessarily affect SEO, but I don’t recommend it. Keep all letters, no numbers or hyphens. If you must make your domain a bit longer, so be it, which brings us to our next tip.
10. Keep your domain name as short as possible
As people snatch up all the good .coms, you’ll find that there are fewer and fewer available, which means new .coms are getting longer and longer. In most cases, it’s best to keep your domain name to 14-15 characters long, before the TLD (.com).
Usually, this ends up being 2-3 words. I try not to use more than 3 words in my domain and look for available domains with 2 words whenever possible. The shorter ones just look better and are easier to remember.
11. Check social media availability
Before you hit the buy button for your domain name, go to Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube, and all the big social media channels to see if a username is available. Just because TheKnittingPlanet.com is available as a domain name doesn’t mean all social media usernames are untapped, which could cause problems.
12. List possible candidates
If you have a niche market in mind, and you’ve read these tips, your wheels should already be turning and you’ve got an idea. Jot them down on paper, or in some type of note-taking app, when you start checking availability.
13. Go to NAMECHEAP and start typing ideas
Open up a tab for Namecheap, and maybe a thesaurus site, and start brainstorming. Add unused ones as available and mark used ones.
I don’t recommend Godaddy as I’m almost sure they’ve bought the domains I’ve googled below just to try and sell them to me at a higher price. This means I will be searching for a very unique domain and it will be available. Then the next day I would go back and all of a sudden it wasn’t available and they wanted me to contact them in order to get a quote. It’s happened more than once, and I’m not the only one.
8 examples of niches and domain names I might choose for them
These are random niches purely for example purposes, I suggest you choose your own niche and field. I did not check the availability of the domains listed under each niche example.
These should help you further understand my process for choosing a domain name. All of the following niches are hobbies and interests.
1. Knitting
Possible fields:
- theknittingplanet.com
- knittingalong.com
- knittingguide.com
2. Camping
Possible fields:
- campingtogether.com
- campersunited.com
- familycamping.com
3. Sailing
Possible fields:
- learningtosail.com
- sailingcentral.com
- sailingpros.com
4. Metal detection
Possible fields:
- treasurehuntingexperts.com
- metaldetectinghub.com
- findingmetalunderground.com
5. Gardening
Possible fields:
- gardenerscorner.com
- mylittlegarden.com
- greenthumblife.com
6. BBQ
Possible fields:
- foodonthegrill.com
- alwaysgrilling.com
- thegrillerscorner.com
7. Home Office Renovation
Possible fields:
- homeofficeliving.com
- homeofficehub.com
- homeofficeworld.com
Summarize
I hope this article helped you understand how to choose a domain name for your niche website, or at least pointed you in the right direction. Take each of these tips into consideration without overthinking them. Choosing a domain name should be one of the easiest parts of starting a niche website.
