Inevitably, bloggers and webpage owners are faced with the crucial decision of what to name their site. While it may seem like a good idea to use your name in your domain name (for name recognition), it is something that should be avoiding for numerous reasons.

Putting your own name in your blog or webpage address will not help with your desired search engine results. Consider how many people know your name throughout your market, or even the world, versus how many people know the name of your product.  This is what you should keep in the forefront of your mind when deciding upon your new site’s url.

Try to focus on a keyword rich domain name which will appeal to your target audience effectively. Rather than just placing your name in the blog address, you will want to brand your business, and in doing so, generate better search engine optimization (SEO) results. By concentrating on SEO and keywords that will capture your audience, you’ll be able to build your blog or site traffic more effectively.

Focusing on SEO keywords in your domain title is a much better way to increase your online visibility as opposed to placing your name in the domain address.

I will add, however, it never hurts to own the url of your own name, but I just would not make it the main url of your business website.

What does an ideal domain name look like?

A well thought out domain name will be descriptive, easy to spell, not include hyphens or dashes, not include numbers (ie House4You.com instead of HousesForYou.com), brandable and with a .com extension.

So, unless you’re name is highly recognizable within your industry (like Madonna or Brad Pitt perhaps), it would not make sense to have it as (or part of) your domain name.

Please note:  If you have had your name as your url for many years already, and it is an established website, then I would not recommend changing it at this time.