Now that I have identified my audience and done keyword research it is time to pick my authority websites domain name. But first I want to look at what good website names have in common.
Guidelines for Picking a Great Authority Website Domain Name
Easy to Remember – A domain name should be easy to remember and not involve “clever” spelling. I am not going to pick studentlns.com or something similar.
Shorter is Better but not Required – The length of the domain is not as big a deal as making it easy to remember. IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com is a very long domain name but is also an incredibly successful authority website.
No Hyphens – Hyphens open up a lot of opportunities when it comes to available domain names but they are not easy to remember.
Include Your Target Keywords – This is basic SEO and a must, make sure you have your
.COM is best – For micro-niche websites I will pick up .net and .org URLs but for my authority website I only want a .com
Exact Match is Good – Even if I cant find an exact match with a lot of traffic getting an exact match that includes my keyword
Don’t Be Miss-Leading – If there was a great domain available for like applyforstudentloans.com and then my website was about paying off student loans it would cause confusion. Make sure the expectation the URL creates matches the content on the site.
Is a Branded Domain Name Good? – This one I dont have a strong position on, is studentloanninja.com(branded) better than studentloancost.com(not-branded). Right now I prefer going after an exact match non-branded domain name for the SEO benefits.
My 2 Golden Questions To Picking the Right Name/Domain:
After looking at the tips I think they can be summarized into 2 key questions…
- Does it contain my keyword
- If I were to verbally tell someone my domain be easy for them to remember and type in
Steps To Picking My Domain Name
I know the student loan market is extremely competitive so it will be unlikely I will find an exact match domain name that has any search volume.
My Authority Website Will…
“help graduates reduce the cost of their student loans so they don’t hold them back in life”
Blue Ocean / Made To Stick Method for Identifying Under-served Market
So to help me pick my domain name I wanted to get a refresher on what the best practise is online for picking an authority domain name. Below are a summary of the best guidelines that I agree with.
Step 1 – Brainstorm 5 Ideas
Review my seed keyword list and identify 5 domains I would be happy with. I don’t expect any of these to be available but it is a good brainstorming tool.
- Paymystudentloan.com
- RepayStudentLoans.com
- HowToRepayStudentLoans.com
- PayingOffStudentLoans.com
- EliminateStudentLoan.com (this might be misleading)
At this point I can check if any of the 5 are available at NameCheap bulk domain search tool
Search For Available Domains With Namecheap
As expected all these domains I am hoping for are taken…
Good Website Names Are Often Already Taken
Step 2 – Find Domain Names That Are Available
Using LongTailPro this process is very easy and was shown here. However, it is also pretty easy using two free tools…
- Google Adwords Keyword Tool
- Monikor Bulk Domain Search (requires a free account)
I first enter my list of keywords I will be targeting from my SiteMap into the Google Keyword Tool.
How To Use Google Keyword Tool
Then I copy all the keywords I think would make a good website name.
Select Potential Website Names From Keywords List
Copy 50 keywords and paste them into Monikor Search Tool…
Monikors Bulk Domain Search Tool
After a half hour and a few iterations here is what I have…
Available Domain Names
As a comparison, you can use Long Tail Pro (aff link) and in very few steps have a list of available exact match keywords…
- Enter Seed Keywords
- Adjust Settings:
- Fetch Additional Information – Domain Availability – Check Exact Match Domains – .com
- Apply Filters – Has Available Domain
- Hit Generate Keywords
Result is shown below…
Use Long Tail Pro To Identify Exact Match Domains
Try Long Tail Pro free for 10 days – Click Here (aff link)
Based on the LongTailPro results I have added a few more options to my final selection…
- StudentLoanRepaymentOptions.com
- HowToPaybackStudentLoans.com
- HowDoIPayMyStudentLoans.com
- HowLongToPayOffStudentLoans.com
- StudentLoanRepaymentPlans.com
Step 3 – Pick One of The Available Domains
After considering both the search volume of all the exact match domains (which were all low) and the 2 questions I identified above.
I have decided to go with…
PayMyStudentLoans.com
Step 4 – Register Domain
I use NameCheap(aff link) to register all my domain names. I have complete video series on how I set up my Authority Website here.
Tools I Use To Find Good Website Names…
Below is a list of the tools I used to find my domain.
- Google Adwords Keyword Tool
- Monikor Bulk Domain Search (requires a free account)
- Long Tail Pro (aff link) – Free 10 day trial available
- Namecheap (aff link) – where I register all my domains
Great tips on finding a good name. Back when I started building websites online(early 2000′s) there were many available domains but not nearly the same kind of tools to know what a good name would be.
That’s my older timers take on it.
Dunc
I believe the name you picked is really good. Took a while to come up with it but is not misleading and is straight to the point. Good job on that one.
Thanks Miki, yes it did take awhile and I wasnt able to get one with a lot of exact match search traffic but that is to be expected in a competitive niche where I limit myself to .com’s. Thanks for stopping bye.
Jon
Great tips Jon. I base it off of a few factors. For an authority site I want there to be competition on the keyword but not so much comp that I can never get in. I have a site prokneepainrelief.com about knee pain relief that is highly competitive but not ridiculous that I can’t get on the first page. I am on page 2 and climbing. Hope to be on page 1 soon.