How to Choose the Perfect Blog Name!

Starting a blog is a big and exciting step. So of course, you want to make sure you get everything perfect when you start out! The first step is to choose the perfect blog name!

So today, I’ll be going over tips and tricks to picking a good blog name, what happens if you decided to change, along with the pros and cons of popular blog name ideas!

1. TAKE YOUR TIME CHOOSING THE PERFECT BLOG NAME

Here’s the thing. I think you should take some time and really consider what you want to name your blog.

However, don’t take forever!

Your blog name is important because it’s what you’ll be known as. It’s what will come up in search and what represents your brand.

So, it’s understandable that you want to choose the perfect blog name.

But, if the only thing holding you back from finally starting the blog you’ve been dreaming of is the name? Then it’s hurting more than helping.

Because you can always change the name later if you want!

Of course, it is a hassle to do it (Trust me, I’ve done it myself!) But changing the name is better than waiting for the perfect blog name to fall into your lap!

So take some time to decide, but don’t waste months on deciding!

2. MAKE YOUR BLOG NAME EASY TO REMEMBER

You want to make sure your blog name is not only easy to remember but also unique and easy to spell.

Here’s why.

• Make your blog name unique

I know this one may be a bit hard to do because there are already tons and tons of blogs out there, but if your name is too close to someone else’s blog, or is even the exact same, you’re going to run into problems.

You want your blog to be easily found, and if there are a ton of blogs that have similar names to yours, if someone searches you up on Google, you’ll be nowhere to be found!

Your domain name could also be taken as well.

The reason my blog URL is Sarahmarie.blog instead of .com is because someone had bought that domain already!

Thankfully no one seemed to be using it, likely someone bought it in hopes that they could sell it for a higher price (Annoying, I know) but things like that happen!

So, if you make sure to make your blog name unique, you won’t run into a problem like that!

• Make your blog name easy to spell

This one might be self-explanatory, but let me explain anyway.

If someone is trying to get to your website, but they can’t even figure out how to spell it, that’s going to cause some issues!

They may end up on a who-knows-what website, or won’t be able to find it at all! So you want to make it as easy as possible for readers to be able to find you!

Here are a few ideas on how to do that:

-MAKE YOUR BLOG NAME CATCHY

If your blog is named something nice and catchy, people are more likely to remember it. For example something like

• Tasty Treats
• Perfect Pastries
• Magical Momma
• Simply Fashion

Or you could try something with your name or something about you (Being tall, glasses, hair color, etc…)

• Simply Sarah
• Crafty Cara
• Thrifty Taylor
• Cooking with (Your name)

-INCLUDE IMPORTANT KEYWORDS

Your blog name can relate to the niche that you’ve picked, so a good blog name should include a search term or the main topic of your blog.

A good example of a catchy, but searchable blog name would be my friend over at The Crochet Wizard! It’s a cute name, and you can tell she blogs about crochet! Perfect!

-DON’T MAKE IT SUPER NARROW

One thing that always tripped me up when picking a good blog name, was the fear that I’d make it so specific that it’d be impossible to blog about anything else! You want to make it a bit broad, so you can allow room for growth and topic changes!

For example, let’s say you blogged about fashion and your blog name was “The Shoe Hoarder”, It cute and catchy, but it’s a bit narrow!

Now you look like you only blog about shoes! Sure, you could still expand to other fashion topics if you wanted to but another blog name might fit a little better!

-DON’T USE SPECIAL CHARACTERS

Another thing to remember when picking a good blog name is not to use any special characters.

I know it seems a bit funny and you may want to use hyphens to separate words in your URL. But honestly how many websites have you seen that do that? A URL is usually a few words mashed together, no spaces.

Some people also suggest that you stay away from numbers because it looks unprofessional, and I agree to an extent. my last blog was called “CraftingQueen03” and I never had any problems with it, but I also didn’t like the look of it either!

When I advertised it on social media, I generally took the “03” off (But kept it at the end of the link of course!)

3. USING YOUR NAME

Then there’s the huge debate- do you use your real name or not? There are pros and cons to this, which I’ll go over.

CONS

• Your name is not very searchable

Unless you’ve been blogging before and this is your second blog, chances are no one knows who you are just yet. So picking a blog with your name isn’t very searchable.

There are people who have pulled it off, however, such as melyssagriffin.com . I’m not entirely sure if this is her first blog or not, but she has become so known in the blogging community that her name alone is a search term.

When you first start out though, that won’t be the case. So consider that when deciding!

• No privacy

If you choose to use your first and last name in your blog URL, you kinda ruin your own privacy.

So, for example, I choose to only share my first name, Sarah. Do you know how many Sarah’s there are in the world? Tons. I’ve met so many in my life.

People can’t do much with a first name. But you have no idea what people can do with your first and last name laid out for them, especially if you include a photo of yourself!

Of course, I’m sure it wouldn’t be very hard to find my last name since I also share photos of myself. But I’m at least going to make it one step harder for them!

PROS

• It’s super personal (A pro and con)

Creating a blog and a brand usually does very well the more personable you get, and the better you connect with your audience!

So, if you share your name in your blog URL that’s the first step to creating a very personal brand if that is what you’re going for. Like I mentioned above, however, it could be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it!

• The domain is less likely to be taken

This option can honestly differ, depending on how common of a name you have (again, thousands of Sarah’s in the world!). But if you have a very unique name, chances are it won’t be taken when you go to buy your domain, so you won’t have to think very hard!

• You can write about anything you want

With your personal name as a blog name, you open yourself up to write about any topic under the sun! Basically, you have no limits to what you can write about. Which can be another pro and con honestly!

Check out this post here to find out why having a broad niche (or none at all) can actually do more harm than good!

I used to have this blog name as “BusinessWomenThrive” and while I really did like that name, I knew that my brand was going to grow past what I could get out of that name. So, I switched it to what you see now, Sarah Marie (My first and middle name).

Something about telling people I knew that my brand was called “Business Women Thrive” just made me cringe. But now, I am super happy to tell them what my brand is called because it makes sense! It’s just my name. This is obviously a preference and if you want to remain anaomous online, this option may not work for you.

Recommended: How to Pick the Perfect Blogging Niche!

4. IS YOUR BLOG NAME AVAILABLE?

The sad thing about blogging, is a lot of people are doing it! Which means there’s almost nothing original on the internet anymore! So there is a chance that someone could already have the awesome domain name that you’ve just thought of!

So, before you get too attached to the name, make sure that it’s available first! There are a few ways you should do this.

-USE A DOMAIN CHECKER

There are a ton of domain checkers out there, but the one I most recommend is Namecheap. If the name you wanted is taken, NameCheap will give you other alternatives that you can try instead! Score!

-SEARCH AROUND GOOGLE

There may not be a blog with the name you choose, but there are tons of other products out there that might have similar names to what you’ve chosen.

It might be impossible to come up with a name that is 100% original nowadays. But, there may be some products out there you won’t want your blog potentially mixed up or associated with!

If you decide to later change it, consider these things you’ll have to do;

-CHANGING YOUR DOMAIN NAME

Getting the domain name in the first place can sometimes be a hassle, so imagine having to change it!

Plus, if you don’t change it correctly, you could seriously lose some blog traffic! And, trust me, there’s a big process to changing a domain name correctly that you don’t want to go through!

If you’re looking to see if your domain is available, you should check out NameCheap! It’s super easy to do, and free!

-CHANGING SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS

It’s likely that your social media accounts will have your blog name on it. So you’ll either have to change all those names or just start fresh!

Can you imagine starting over after you already have hundreds of followers that you now would need to get back? No thanks!

-FIXING BROKEN LINKS

You’ll have to think about every place that houses a link to your blog. Social media bios, pins, emails that you’ve sent and places you’ll likely never get back to (old tweets, pins or comments). Other people may find those links- but it won’t matter now, because they’re all broken!

Good luck tracking all those links down and changing them!

-YOU’LL BE KNOWN FOR THAT FIRST BLOG NAME

Even though you’ve changed the name on social media, some people who have been following you probably won’t notice. You’ve built up a reputation and trust with your first name.

With a new name, people might not know it’s actually you when they see your post in their timeline!

You’ll be known for that first blog name to everyone who follows you! And people that don’t see your posts that you’ve changed names may never know the difference! Big loss in followers and readers!

There’s a lot of other things to consider when changing your blog name, but these reasons alone are enough to give me a huge headache!

So, in the end, pick a good blog name so that you won’t have to change it in the future. But don’t take too long on it because then you’ll never launch! (Which isn’t good either!)

WATCH: How to Find the Perfect Blog Name and Domain

And there you have it! 4 tips for picking a good blogging name!

What’s the story behind your blog name? How did you come up with it, or how do you plan to come up with it? Let me know in the comments below!