Have you ever spent hours trying to come up with a catchy website name and THEN to find a good domain name to go with it?
With more then 46 Million active .com domain names registered, it’s harder and harder to find a creative blog name that matches your product, service, or website concept that is not already taken.
I came up with the list of 10 domain name suggestion tools to help you to get that creativity flowing.
None of them is a perfect tool in itself to find a good blog and/or domain name, but combine 2-3 of them together and you should be off to a good start.
BUT before we get to the great domain name tools below, let’s have a little tête–à–tête on the basics of choosing the best domain name for your blog.
By the way, you’ll notice I use ‘domain name‘ and ‘blog name‘ interchangeably since, ideally, they should be one and the same.
How to Choose a Great Domain Name
I know this one will raise some eyebrows, so let me start with an example.
Let’s say you are searching for information on how to increase your blog traffic.
You do a Google search and the top two results for it are as follows:
- “AnaHoffman.com”
- “TrafficGenerationCafe.com”
Which one would you believe provides the best website traffic strategies you are looking for? Which one would you choose over the other?
See my point?
Sure it’s nice to have YourName.com as your domain and blog name: it’s flattering, boosts our egos, and… well, that’s about it.
Unless you are a household name, like Seth Godin or say Chris Brogan, I strongly suggest that you let your domain name reflect the essence of your blog, your main theme.
Don’t get me wrong; I am not saying you shouldn’t own YourName.com. Quite the contrary, I definitely think you should purchase it.
Just don’t use it as your primary domain, that’s all.
And here’s another one from Jason Falls:
He continues to say:
Mashable is a valuable media outlet. It wouldn’t be if it were just PeteCashmore.com.
Social Media Explorer is now not just a blog but a company that is growing. I could feasibly sell it within 5-10 years for far more digits than if I’d made JasonFalls.com my primary brand. In that case, the only person I could probably sell it to is a county commissioner in North Carolina who probably wouldn’t give me more than $100 for it.”
What’s right for YOUR business?
More pointers on how to pick a great blog name:
- Make your blog name as short as possible.
- Don’t use words that are easy to misspell.
- Buy a .com domain name.
- Use your main keywords in it if you can.
- Make your blog name easy to remember – great for direct traffic.
- Stay away from hyphens and numbers.
Fun and catchy domain name is always a plus; although this might be overdoing it by a cinch – www.the-name-i-wanted-was-already-taken-so-i-used-a-lot-of-dashes.com:
Did I mention not to use hyphens?
And by the way, I am sure you are wondering: is this a real website? Yes, it is; and this is what it says on how to not pick the best domain name:
What If You Are Stuck with a Lame Blog Name?
What to do if you already have a domain name, but don’t think it’s working for your blog?
Change it.
Yes, it’s a pain in the neck.
But if you look at the long-term benefits, they usually far outweigh any short-term hassle this move to a new domain name might cause.
I did it when I killed my first blog.
Instead of creating a brand new blog from scratch, I created Traffic Generation Cafe using my first blog as a foundation. Since it already had some traffic and content, it only made sense.
Top 10 Domain Name Suggestion Tools
NameStation
Domain Name Suggestion Features:
- Create all sorts of names with keywords, concepts and categories;
- Uses 18 different ways to generate domain names;
- You can also get paid to suggest great domain names;
- You do need to sign up for a free account to use this domain name suggestion tool.
Name.com
Domain Name Suggestion Features:
- Searches by domain, keyword, or phrase
- Analyzes what you’re trying to communicate with your domain,
- locates alternative words and/or phrases to communicate the same meaning,
- searches for all available domains that can be registered in multiple extensions and languages.
DomainsBot
Domain Name Suggestion Features:
- name spinner,
- expired and expiring domain name search,
- for sale domains,
- whois lookup and registration.
DomainTools
Domain Name Suggestion Features:
- Name spinning;
- Typo finder;
- Bulk check;
- Domain auctions;
- and more.
NameTumbler
Domain Name Suggestion Features:
- Combine your keyword with other parts of speech (adjectives, etc)
- Choose keyword placement;
- Check availability.
BulkTopia
Domain Name Suggestion Features:
- Delivers a crap load of useful information with just one click.
- Get stuff like domain age, Page Rank, number of backlinks and Facebook and Twitter availability.
- Backorder your target domains as well as bid and buy available domains via a handful of the web’s most popular domain name registrars.
DomainIt
Domainr
Domainr is great for finding short domain names – that’s how I came up with a short URL for Traffic Generation Café – tgcafe.it.
Domain Name Suggestion Features:
- Search Domainr to see possible domains from your query, including popular ones like .co, .com and .net.
- Try accented characters and diacritics to see internationalized domains, as well as Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese and Hindi scripts.
- Country domains like .io, .es, and .me.
- Second-level domains like co.uk, org.au, and net.nz.
- Sponsored domains like .asia, .jobs, and .mobi.
- Internationalized domains like ☺.com, 丿乀.com, and ☃.net.
UnitedDomains
This is a different kind of domain name suggestion animal. It allows you to pre-register your next domain name using any of the upcoming new extension releases.
Here’s how domain name pre-registration works:
Once you set up a free account, simply search for domain names that you are interested in. Add those domain names to your cart and UnitedDomains will add them to a list in your account.
There is nothing binding about pre-registrations, so you can change your mind and delete names from your account if you decide you’re no longer interested in them.
When they have full information about the new domains, including pricing and any eligibility requirements for registration, you will be notified by email. UnitedDomains will let you know the details, and you can decide at that point if you would like to go ahead with the registration or decline the offer. Once you’ve confirmed your interest in your pre-registered domains, they will attempt to register those domains at the earliest possible opportunity for you.
Of course, pre-registering for domains doesn’t guarantee that they are yours when they finally come out, but this is your best shot at getting the best domain name with a new hot extension the second it becomes available.
Dot-o-mator
Domain Name Suggestion Features:
- Just enter a word (or words) in the left box, and choose some endings (or enter your own).
- Click to combine them.
- If you see a blog name you like, you can check its availability or save it to your scratchboard.
SquadHelp
Domain Name Suggestion Features:
- Paid tool, but definitely worth mentioning.
- Allows you to start a naming contest to get domain name suggestions for actual people (let them do all the legwork);
- On an average, a $50 contest would give you more than 100 domain name suggestions.
Bonus Domain Suggestion Tool
Francisco Perez posted an excellent video tutorial on how to use one of his favorite domain suggestion tools: LeanDomainSearch.com – this one searches .com domains exclusively.
How To Find Great Available Domain Names For Your Website
How to Pick Good Blog Name & Domain Name: Marketing Takeaway
Well, there you go – now you’ve got all the domain name suggestion tools you need/want to help you to come up with your next great domain name, short URL, or even pre-register your future blog name with a new trendy extension.
And once you do start your incredible new blog, you’ll need help with getting more traffic to it, I bet (unless you like talking into a vacuum that is).
Here are some of the best web traffic resources to help you along:
How to Increase Website Traffic One Perfect Bite at a Time
Increase Website Traffic: The Ultimate Blueprint to More Profitable Web Traffic
202 Bite-Sized Tips To Insanely Increase Your Blog Traffic
How to REALLY Create a Popular Blog From Scratch
If you have any more suggestions to picking a good blog name and domain name, I’d love to hear them.
From Ana with ❤️,
Hi, Anya 🙂
Many generators suggest generic domain names, so I build my own catchy domain name generator:
Suggestmedomain.com
This domain name suggestion tool pairing your search phrase with other 3500+ vocabulary keywords (suffixes, prefixes, brand words and popular domain trends) and then instantly showing you which are currently available to register.
I’d be happy if you include it to your list. I want to hear your opinion.
Hey, Andrew:
First of all, impressed you built your own domain suggestion ‘engine’! 😉
However, when I looked up ‘website traffic’, there was nothing catchy about the results, sorry to say.
Still the same old combo of the keywords and random prefixes / suffixes.
I haven’t been promoting this tool a lot. Traffic slowly grows.
Other bloggers said my generator suggest better, more catchy domain names and wrote about and added a backlink.
I mean if you write a paragraph about it, it become more popular.
Other tools don’t use 3500+ vocabulary words.
While domain name suggestions are cool and people use them to get an idea or even pick domains from suggested domains, I must say that most likely they will rebrand within the first year because they might’ve chosen the wrong domain for their product or service. I am domain broker that offers service at https://dotposh.com most of our work consist to work with clients audience and product vs just ‘sounds good’. I love the generators list, some on that list is something we use as reference as well. I wrote few articles on domain generators and how effective they are.
As far as your points on getting own name ‘domain’ that all depends on how common your name is, like you Ana Hoffman , domain taken as you previously mentioned, but you would be surprised how many times you can get your Name ‘domain name’ for cheap say: $50 because someone some day registered your name and never used it or its trying to squat it. It all comes down to if you are branding your self to be expert in xyz OR you are branding a product. My aquaitance Darren Rowse back in the day did not have problogger it used to be his name when he started giving blog and photography advices, soon enough he saw that he can turn it into empire so he went with problogger. My clients come to our team and No.2 reason is ‘rebranding’ . Hope that make sense. Cool article btw, not just some mombo jumbo links.
Hey, Joe:
Your services make complete sense.
Personally, I’d only use domain generators to spark creativity. However, creativity is one of those fickle brain processes that doesn’t easily show on demand. 😉
Finding the perfect domain name right off the bat saves a LOT of time and effort in the long run!
Hi there,
My name is Kavitha and I’m part of the team at HostGator. I was doing a bit of research when I stumbled upon this post.
I noticed you highlighted some great domain registration tools and was wondering if you have tried HostGator’s Domain Registration tool? Here’s a link: https://register.hostgator.com/
We’d love to be included in your post.
The tool is absolutely free to use and provides suggestions for alternate domain names and TLDs if yours is not available. Not only can you check to see if your dream domain name is available, you can register it and purchase web hosting, too.
Please let me know if you choose to include us. Thank you for your time!
Best,
Kavitha Subbiah
Community Outreach Specialist
Thanks, Kavitha; will take a look.
Have you tried the Traffic Travis domain name suggestion tool? It’s very useful for finding domain names that suit traditional affiliate marketing style sites (as well as EMDs if you’re in to that kind of thing).
I think picking the right domain name is absolutely crucial to success. You want it to convey a message AND be catchy and memorable at the same time.
I haven’t touched Traffic Travis for a while – I work on Mac and of course it’s only available for PC.
Hello Ana Hoffman,
This is really a great and helpful article as nowadays it has become very tough to get a domain according to our choice. These sites will be helpful for anyone who want to buy a site with .com domain for their niche.
Thanks for sharing with us 🙂
Indeed, it’s getting harder and harder to get good domains.
Personally and politely, I don’t agree.
Type in Domains are born each and every moment!
NP; all opinions are welcome.
This is a great resource Ana. I didn’t understand about domain names when I first began blogging and had to learn as I went. I was told that .com is always better than .net etc, but by the time I wanted to buy names the com ones within my niche were all gone.
I like the sites you mentioned that actually help you to choose with the smart suggestions they give. That’s really useful to someone like me who’s not very tech-minded.
It’s amazing how many people jumped on the “domain squatting” wagon… Good thing they are releasing more domain extensions; if you are looking for a new domain, fall of 2013 might be the perfect time to find some great ones, Anne.
It’s pretty clear that you should reserve your real name (or something close) as a domain. That’s getting harder to do these days, but not impossible especially if you consider extensions other than .com. And don’t foreclose on making an offer to someone who is squatting on your name. I picked up a rare domain name for pennies on the dollar when there was an economic downturn and the owner needed cash. You can cook up DBAs at any time — the key is the quality and quantity content, not necessarily that you got every letter or the exact wording. I think you can make any DBA successful.
Good point on “your name” domain names, Joel – look at DannyBrown.me.
Loved your post at Neal’s site.
Ana, what a helpful post!
You make an interesting case for choosing a domain that relates to your business instead of using your name.
I love domains like Imelda Marcos loved shoes and I own many of them. Still, I have a problem deciding which one to actually use.
Experts have told me that I should use my name, though it is difficult to spell, because my name will always be with me no matter which paths my businesses take in the future so I’d have eternal branding. (Actually, I changed my name in 2004 when I remarried so I may not have the same name forever. But shout-out to my husband here—I have no plans for another name change.)
No domain is perfect but I’ll probably stick with what I have: StandUp8Times.com. It refers to a Japanese proverb: fall down 7 times, stand up 8. My business is about how to market freelance and consulting services and specifically targets people who are unemployed, underemployed or simply don’t have enough clients.
People either love it or hate it. But every domain has both plusses and minuses.
-d
I definitely think we should own our name domains, Diana. Unfortunately, I never really thought about it when I started my business, and now some smart alec grabbed it and I don’t seem to be able to get it back.
Those domains could come handy when/if we make it big. But for now, we can still build our name AND build our business – whatever domain name its under.
I happened to like yours; I think your Japanese proverb tagline is very clever.
Ugh! I absolutely loathe the aspect of having to name websites. I get a great idea and then blam, I’m stuck trying to figure out a name for the rest of the week :/
I know what you mean, Wayne. lol
Mmmmm this has got me thinking now… I picked the domain name as my name because that is my photography business name. But no thinking perhaps for the domain name I should try and find a version of my main key words… Food for thought! thank you for this 🙂
Are you building your site for clients to see your portfolio or to rank it on Google to acquire more clients?
If it’s the former, it doesn’t really matter.
Now thinking about it… people like fashion designer or photographers ARE the business; their name is that is. So in your particular case, it might not be the worst idea, Jade.
well for both actually… For showing portfolio but to also get found on first page of google and the end goal number 1 for main key words.
Not necessarily a way to generate domain names but by far one of my favorite domain name checkers is instantdomainsearch.com
I’m typically pretty secretive about my resources but I haven’t been into domaining in quite some time so this may very well benefit those of you looking for domain names. Now, I believe if you register a name through their site it pushes through to an affiliate link instead of a direct link so the site does get some money from that.
Overall though its a nice website for easy instant searches.
Thanks for the resource, Adam!
Thanks for sharing this awesome tips. Like you said in your book, you changed your domain name to trafficgenerationcafe.
I am having a feeling that i should change my domain name from oracleblogger.com to something relating to my niche, what is your advice.
Unfortunately, your website is infected with Malware, so I can’t visit it and give you advice.
Great post Ana, i just created a blog on a name like javabynataraj. Is this good to be on name otherwise can i change it to a specific name. Thanks.
Don’t really know what it means, Murali, so can’t really give you any advice.
Thank you, Ana!
Just in time: in these days I’m struggling to find a good name for the SlideShare product I anticipated you and its domain.
Probably one of these 10 tools will help.
I am sure they will, Mauro; just don’t get caught up in it.
I would suggest adding LongTail Keyword Pro to the list. While it is mainly meant for keyword research, it also has an option to see available domains that match keyword ideas. So if you’re looking for a keyword match domain, it makes the process a lot simpler.
That’s a great way to check to see if a domain is available using a particular word.
I can’t say that I actively use LTP for this purpose, but it can definitely work out.
I find it to be a bit slow with domain availability function. Perhaps it has been updated it since last I used it.
How do you find it?
The domain search is slow, yes. But it’s still faster than doing the keyword research, then trying all the queries on GoDaddy. 🙂
Good point.
I’ll may have to give the feature another try. 😀
Good idea, Kristi! I recently kind of lucked out with a li’l niche I’m looking to explore. My domain name (I won’t spam it out here with respect to Ana and to good form) turned out to be available.. couldn’t believe it… and was an exact match to a keyword suggestion.
In case you and Ana are curious, I’ll keep ya posted on how well that niche domain does. It’s unrelated to entrepreneurship, internet marketing, stock market investing, or frankly anything you’ve seen me write about.
Again, GREAT idea and I can vouch for it. Beaut-i-mous domain name ideas can come from keyword suggestions.
Keep Stepping,
Kurt
Of course, we’d love to know how it goes, Kurt, and don’t ever think you are spamming here by dropping a link in your comments; you’ve earned the right.
Thanks for the suggestion, Kristi.
I’ve never personally used LongTail Keyword Pro, but I’ll take your word for it.
This is a great list to have as am planning another blog in the future. I couldn’t resist, though, checking out lots of them now for possible names.
Thanks, Kriss!
Another great tool is BustaName.
I did take a look at it, Brandon, but it seems like they have some design problems (look like they might need your services, lol), plus that site doesn’t do anything different from the ones I mentioned above.
Hi Ana
I’m always looking for edomain names for clients, but I’ve never tried a suggestion tool.
I’m with you – I always go for keywords over having your name in there.
I try and make them short, catcht and with no difficult to pronounce consonant clusters.
Migjht give one of the tools a try.
I got caught up checking out those websites yesterday; found quite a few great domains, even though I don’t need any at the moment. lol
Hope you make the best of this list, Keith.
Interesting thoughts – especially in light of the recent Google approach to keyword-rich-domains – EMD Update.
I never proposed to use EMDs, Ian. TrafficGenerationCafe.com is keyword-rich, but not an EMD for all intents and purposes.
Also, it seems like keyword-rich domains are still in the game, according to the SEO Ranking Factors study from Netmark.com; you can find it here: https://trafficgenerationcafe.com/weekly-marketing-skinny-june-29-2013/
The EMD Update — “Exact Match Domain”
So the 2 concepts are intertwined I would suggest Ana.
I would also agree with your statement “it seems like keyword-rich domains are still in the game”.
TrafficGeneration.com is an exact match domain since “traffic generation” is a popular search term.
TrafficGenerationCafe.com is not an exact match domain, since only direct traffic (i.e. people who already know about this blog) will be search for “Traffic Generation Café” as a keyword.
Nice post… I am in the process of creating a new blog and debating if I should use my name or pick a catchy name.
Doesn’t look like you had any trouble with your previous one, Tom; I am sure the new one will be a cinch.