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How to Select a Name and URL for a Blog

Contributor
By Virginia DeBolt
eHow Contributing Writer
(4 Ratings)
Notice that the blog name and URL are planned to work together.
Notice that the blog name and URL are planned to work together.

Starting a new blog? Make your URL and your blog name work for you.

From Quick Guide: Personal Websites Basics
Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Instructions

Things You'll Need:

  • A browser
  • A selected blog provider (Wordpress will be used in these examples, but any blog software will do.)

    Plan Your Blog

  1. Step 1

    Decide on the topic and focus of your blog. Will it be about general topics, a specific topic, a couple of specific topics?

  2. Step 2

    Decide what key terms people looking for information on your blog topic might search for. Come up with several terms.

  3. Step 3

    Use the key terms from Step 2 to generate some tentative ideas for the name and URL of your new blog. For example, if you were writing a blog about pit bulls, some possible titles might be "Pit Bull World" or "All Pit Bull."

  4. Step 4

    You want to coordinate the topic, the title and the URL. There are several important benefits to doing it this way.
    1. The name and URL will be easier for your readers to remember
    2. The name and URL will give important information to the search engines about your blog so more people can find you.

    Using wordpress.com as an example home for your new blog (any blogging software will work--it does not have to be Wordpress), decide how your potential titles would work as the URL for the blog. With Wordpress, the URL's for your site might be pitbullworld.wordpress.com or allpitbull.wordpress.com.

  5. Start Your Blog

  6. Step 1

    Navigate to your blogging software of choice.

  7. Step 2

    Sign up to start a new blog.

  8. Step 3
    With Wordpress, fill in the Blog Domain (the URL) and the Blog Title when you set up the blog.
     
    With Wordpress, fill in the Blog Domain (the URL) and the Blog Title when you set up the blog.

    You'll be asked to create a URL and name for your blog. This looks somewhat different for each blog. The way Wordpress does it is shown in the image.

  9. Step 4

    Try for your favorite choice for name and URL. If that is already taken, try your next choice. Keep working through your list of potential names and URLs until you find an available one.

Tips & Warnings
  • Amass a list of several possible names and URLs. Your first choice isn't always available.
  • Your username is probably not a good choice for your blog title. A username usually doesn't have anything to do with the topic of your blog and isn't helpful to search engines.
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