We’ve talked about how to start a travel blog and how to grow a travel blog, according to the experts. But a travel blog might only be as successful as its name, which tells people what your blog is about. Naming a blog is a crucial step in the process of setting up a blog. With so many travel blogs already established on the web, it’s imperative to make sure you set yours apart with a stand-out name.
7 Tips for Choosing the Best Travel Blog Name
Although you can start building content for your travel blog far before you settle on a name, your name can help shape your content. Follow these tips to secure a blog name that fits the topics you want to write about and your blog’s vibe:
1. Focus on a Niche
Travel blogs usually don’t focus on traveling in general, although you can make yours more generalized. But targeting a niche can also help you target an audience that comes to you for information. Whether you want to write about a broad topic, like international travel, or something more specific, like food travel, your niche is one of the things that makes you different from other travel bloggers.
Once you have a niche in place, it should be easier to come up with a blog name. Think of words that are relevant to your niche. A food travel blogger might use “foodie,” “BBQ,” or “culinary,” for example. Then, consider ways to weave a word or two into your blog’s name.
2. Brainstorm and Research Keywords
What are your niche’s main keywords? Use those keywords to come up with Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords, which are keywords that are related to your primary keyword. These words or phrases might be ones you can incorporate into your blog’s name. Bonus: They’ll also be words people interested in your blog’s niche will search for, which could help your site show up in their results.
3. Make It SEO-Friendly
Your blog name can (and should!) be SEO-friendly, just like your blog posts will be. What’s in an SEO-friendly blog name? A relevant keyword, of course. But a name that’s easy to read and doesn’t compete with bigger, already established blogs in your niche also helps.
For instance, you can use the location you’ll blog about in your name to rank for that keyword, like markinthailand.com. Or, use a word that you found in your keyword research, like backpacking, journey, or tourism.
4. Make Sure It’s Adaptable
Most blogs don’t remain exactly the same as they were five or ten years after they began. Your blog tends to grow with you and your audience, and it may end up shifting gears a bit. If that happens, your name should be able to adapt to your blog.
Making your name too specific could prevent your blog’s growth in the future. Avoid names that feel like they might make your content restrictive.
5. Consider the Extension
In most cases, a .com domain performs better than other domain extensions, like .net or .org. The standard extension, .com, has been around a long time and is, therefore, one of the most easily recognized extensions. More importantly, it could influence your SEO.
According to SEO.com, a .com domain name is likely the one that people will automatically assume is attached to your blog’s name and will be the one they search for. Google finds this important, so it often prioritizes .com domain names when serving relevant search results.
6. Use a Generator for Inspiration
A blog name generator might not spit out the perfect name for your blog. A generator isn’t human, after all. Still, it can certainly develop some ideas that inspire you to think of keyword variations and relevant phrases you may not have considered on your own.
7. Check Availability
Once you’ve settled on a few potential travel blog names you love, it’s time to check if those names are available. Here are a few steps to follow:
- Check that the name isn’t already copyrighted. Search both the United States trademark database and your state’s business names through its Secretary of State website.
- Type the domain name into the address bar to see if it’s already taken. Avoid switching to a different extension just to have the primary name you want. It could be challenging for you to rank against a more established blog with the same name, and you could find yourself in legal trouble if copyrights are involved.
- Start diving into social media to see if the handles you would use for your blog are already used.
Your travel blog’s name can guide your content and audience. Make sure that it aligns with your current and future blog goals. Spend some time using the tips above to make a list of names you love before weeding them out to find your perfect travel blog name.
Now that you’ve decided on the perfect name for your blog, it’s time to start exploring the world and sharing your travel adventures with your audience. Renting out your apartment or home through Airbnb while you’re traveling the world? Install the Airbnb follow button to enable your fellow travelers to save your Airbnb listing, experience, or other pages. It takes just minutes to install, plus, it’s completely free to use!
