Choosing Your Blog Name

Tomiko and I would like to share some insights about naming your blog. Choosing a blog name is important, since it’s going to be the name of your brand. However, it is also important not to be rash about it. Once Tomiko and I decided we’d like to start a blog, I wanted to jump in right away. I’m glad we spent a few weeks brainstorming and testing out names. Here are some of our tips to keep in mind:

Keep your blog name relatively short

You want people to be able to type and search for your blog easily. A short name is easy to remember and quick to type, and takes up less room when you tweet your 140 characters.

Try to make your blog name unique

If someone googles your blog’s name, you want it to be one of the first to show up. If you choose a simple blog name, like ‘Chocolate,’ chances are that a lot of pages about chocolate will show up before your blog.

Make sure there aren’t any tricky spellings

Try not to include weird, strange words that are hard to remember. We included the word ‘Kiku’ in our blog name and domain name even though it’s a Japanese word. It means a lot to us, but it’s also a short word that is easy to spell. Check out our Welcome! page to read the history of the kiku in our family.

Give your blog a name that gives readers an idea of what your blog is about

It’s helpful for your blog name to give your readers a general idea of what your blog is about. However, you don’t want it to be so restrictive that it limits your potential blog post topics. We initially thought about naming our blog ‘KiKu Kitchen’ because we’ve catered under this name before, we love cooking, and alliteration can be fun. Tomiko and I decided against this because we knew we wanted to blog about more than just food – our travelling adventures, our craft projects, and and general life activities. We also thought that the acronym would be way too close to the KKK. Think about issues like these to avoid potential problems in the future.

See how the blog name looks as a URL

String your blog name together and see if any weird words pop up. I read Flash Boys by Michael Lewis and the group of finance and technology professionals wanted to call their new stock exchange “Investors Exchange.” Sounds great! Except when they wanted to make it a website, www.investorsexchange.com’ has a completely different meaning. Not that there’s anything wrong with sex changes, but you want your blog URL to be representative of your chosen blog topic.

Check to see if there are any other blogs or companies with your chosen name

You don’t want to copy anyone or have to compete with identically or similarly named companies in search engines. If someone beat you to your favourite blog name, concede defeat and choose another name.