While your domain name is the address for your visitors, it is also a huge piece of your brand. While the content or design of your blog may shift and change along the way, your domain name should remain the same throughout the course of your blogs activity. So no pressure, but it’s gotta be perfect!
Your domain name choice may feel obvious right away. If your blog has a short and unique name, you may be able to turn it right into a domain name. Most of the time, this isn’t the case. It’s like finding a good Gmail address, it can be hard to find and you probably will have to get creative!
This post may contain links to affiliate websites, and we may receive an affiliate commission for any purchases made by you on the affiliate website using such links.
This is at no additional cost to you (in fact, in many cases you get a discount).
We do not promote products or services that we have used or tested, and truly believe in.
Keep it Short and Sweet
Shorter domain names can be harder to lock-down due to their popularity and ambiguity. I can tell you, without having to look it up, that food.com is already taken.
Don’t let it discourage you! It may take a couple of searches before you find one that works for you. You want your domain name to be easy to remember, easy to spell, and easy to connect to your blog.
Choose a Simple TLD
Always go with a .com or .CA, whenever possible.
If your target audience is specifically Canadian, choose a .CA domain name. Canadians are 4x more likely to prefer .CA than .com websites for shopping when they have a choice. (Source: cira.ca) Adversely, international visitors will likely not be drawn to your blog with a Canada-specific TLD.
If your audience is not specifically Canadian, choose a .com domain name. This is the easiest TLD for the average visitor to remember. You are free to choose from many different TLDs, but these two are absolutely the top recommended for Canadian bloggers.
Is the Domain Name Available?
With millions of websites live and running today, many domain names are already spoken for. Use a domain checker (like the one below) to search for available domain names before you commit yourself to a domain name.
I Found a Domain Name! Now what?
You can register your domain name with any domain registrar – however, we recommend registering with the same company as your web hosting. Especially for beginners, this simplifies everything. Plus, most web hosting packages offer a free domain name when you purchase web hosting.
If you register your domain name with one registrar, then want to change web hosts later, you can absolutely do that. Some web hosts offer free transfers, others will charge you a transfer fee. Either way, you do not need to transfer the domain name when you’re transferring web hosts – although this could get confusing and a little bit more technical.
