How to Choose your Next Domain with Visual Thesaurus
You have an idea for a blog or a website but how do you go about choosing the right domain name with the highest possible impact?
The Rules
When it came to choosing my domain name for this website, there were a few things I was looking for -
- The name had to be short enough to memorize.
- The name didn’t contain any non-dictionary words.
- The name had to be descriptive of the web site content.
- The name didn’t contain any hyphens.
- The .com needed to be available.
The Discovery Process
I know I wanted the word geek in my domain, since it was my intention to gear my blog towards computer geeks as my readers, as well as, categorize my blog with others in my niche.
Other blogs catering to geeks:
- Geek Girl Blogs – http://www.geekgirlblogs.com/
- How-To Geek – http://www.howtogeek.com/
- Geeks With Blogs – http://geekswithblogs.net/
The Missing Link
Now that I’ve decided on part of my domain name, I needed the right word to append to my chosen word: geek, but would also fit within my subscribed set of rules.
There are a few sites that will generate a domain name for you based upon user-specified keywords or categories.
Domain Generator Websites
I started to compile a list of keywords that would best represent the content of this site: ideas, improvement, success, planning, achievement and learning.
Using these keywords along with geek, I looked at the availability of possible domain names. Although the domain generation sites are great resources for checking the availability of a domain name and discovering preliminary results – the results generated didn’t always adhere to my list of rules.
Discovering Visual Thesaurus
Dictionary.com will provide a list of synonyms (for most keyword searches) at the bottom the keyword entry page. I noticed a new visual representation during my keyword searches – which proved to be a valuable tool: The Visual Thesaurus.
The Visual Thesaurus recursively connects your keyword to all related synonyms and allows you to interactively rebuild the synonym tree by choosing different words.
Manipulating the tree is both fun and useful, you can quickly drill-down on relevant keywords without the need to perform additional searches.
Note: Visual Thesaurus only allows you to use the interactivity functionality on a trial basis; however, you are able to drill-down to six levels using the free trial. If you find the tool useful you can subscribe for as low as $2.95/month. Most keyword searches will allow you to view a static representation of the Visual Thesaurus tree at no cost.
Overall, the Visual Thesaurus is a great resource for quickly identifying keywords for your domain name.
After a few passes looking at related words with the Visual Thesaurus, I decided upon repeat as the word to append to geek.
Compile Your Short-List
By using a combination of site content keywords, domain name generators and the Visual Thesaurus, you should have a comprehensive list of possible domain names choices.
Compare each against your list of rules and decide which one will become your next domain.
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Really useful tools, I’ll try to use them. By the way, I’ll also use synonyms finder to improve my writing skills.