The 15 Most Useful Tips For Naming A Food Blog

The name you choose for your food blog is one of the most important decisions that you'll ever make. It's the first thing that people will hear, and it'll be with your site for the rest of its life. The thing is, naming a food blog can be difficult! So, here are some tips to help you find a name that's perfect for your food blog.

If you are just starting your food blogging journey, be sure to check out my articles: How To Be A Food Blogger In 2021 and 5 Of The Best Web Hosting Companies in 2021.

Please note, this post contains affiliate links which means I will receive a small commission on the sale of these items at no cost to you. 

Think About Your Food Blog for a While Before You Name It

There are many things to consider when naming a food blog. The first thing you should do is think about what you want to do with your blog. If you're going to write recipes for people, then your name should reflect that. If you wish to blog about food in general, then name your site accordingly. You should also consider if you plan on starting a business with your blog. If so, the name could reflect that as well.

Research Other Blog Names to Help You Find Something Unique

The best way to come up with a name for your food blog is to look at other sites. You can do this by visiting food blogs and seeing what names they have chosen. This will give you ideas of what you like and don't like, and it will be easier for you to find a unique name. The easy way to do this is going to Google, typing in your niche + food blog. Put in several niches and pay attention to the results. Also, check out more pages than the first results. You're trying to get ideas here, not trying to research to see which blogs are the most popular.

­Keep Your Food Blog Name Short and Simple

A lot of food bloggers choose short, simple names for their blogs. This is probably because they want to make it easier for people to find them. Also, short and simple names are easy to remember. Keep this in mind as you pick a name for your food blog.

Pick Something that Communicates What Your Blog Is All About

Naming a food blog is not the easiest task. Your food blog name should represent your blog well. It should make the reader excited about visiting your site. For example, if your food blog will be all about pasta, it's a good idea to put the word pasta in your blog title and in the domain. Then, it'll be easy for people to remember and find your site in search. To make finding your blog easier, it's a good idea to pick a name related to your blog's niche.

Consider Your Target Audience

It's a good idea to think about the people who will be visiting your blog. If your target audience is older people, then it's a good idea to pick something that isn't too youthful. You don't want to alienate your visitors. Also, think about how you will be finding your target audience. If you have a blog that targets vegans, you'll want your domain name to reflect that it's for vegans. A person should see your domain name and immediately know that your blog is for them. You wouldn't want to name your vegan food blog Grilled Steak Delight because no vegan would ever want to get recipes from a site like that.

Keep in Mind That the Name of Your Blog Is Your Brand

Naming a food blog is a task with long term and far reaching significance. Not only is the name of your blog, well, its name, it's also the name of your brand. You might down the line want to develop your own products such as cookbooks, video courses, or even merchandise such as aprons with your blog's name on them. That is why your blog's name must be marketable.

If you don't think someone would wear an apron or buy a cookbook with the name of your blog on it, you need to choose something different. Your blog's name is your brand, and you want it to be as marketable as possible. Your brand is who you are, and there is no distance between the two. It's something that you can't hide. So, it's important to pick a name that'll be marketable to the right audience.

Valuable Tip: I recommend doing a preliminary search of social media platforms to be sure no one already has your domain’s handle. It was very important when I was considering Trendgredient as my food blog name that the handle @trendgredient was available on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (AKA “The Big Four”). Also, go ahead and sign up for accounts within “The Big Four” once you have established your domain name.

Don't Be Too Niche Specific

Going niche is a must when you have a food blog. The niche, "food," is way too broad, so you need to think about the areas in which you specialize. However, if you become too niche-specific, you might be limiting your potential future growth. What happens if you start a food blog all about your favorite food, spaghetti, but down the line, you realize that there are only so many different posts that you can create about spaghetti. Instead of being so niche-specific, broaden your horizons when naming your food blog. Name your food blog something like The Noodle Guru - something broader than just one type of pasta.

Also, if your blog becomes too niche-specific, you might miss out on other niches that might help you grow your blogging business. You will realize in your blogging career that you do have to cast somewhat of a wide net. How many blog posts can you create about BBQ ribs? Your blog is going to need hundreds of posts for it to take off and be successful. If you don't think you can fill your site full of content about BBQ ribs, then branch out a little and talk about barbecued meats or something else closely related to the niche.

Try Not to Use Slang that the Average Person Knows Nothing About

You can't expect everyone to be an expert in your niche. Someone who is just beginning to learn how to cook may not know all the technical jargon that you know. You want to make sure your name is approachable by all. Slang is a tricky thing in the sense that it can be regional. That's not to say you can't use it in your blog posts; just try your best to keep it out of your domain name unless it's something that almost everyone is familiar with.

Don't Even Think About Any Extension Other Than .com

If you want to be taken seriously, you need to make sure that all of your URLs end in the .com extension. It doesn't matter what kind of blog you have; the .com extension is the only one worth going with. No one will remember your domain if it is anything other than .com. That's the sad truth about domains.

You might feel lured into buying another domain extension because it's either cheap or available. Don't even think about it. The first thing you must realize is that some of these cheaper extensions are super expensive when renewing them. The second thing is, no one will ever remember your domain. If your domain is thespinichguru.club, someone will type in thespinichguru.com just because that's what they're accustomed to. You do the same thing that everyone else does. If you remember a URL, you always put .com at its end and don't think twice if it could be another extension.

There Is One Exception Where It's Okay to Use a Domain That Is Something Other Than .com

That one exception is if you're creating a country-specific blog and you want to use their extension. An example of that would be if you wanted to start a food blog about Russian cooking and target only Russians. If that's the case, buying a domain with a .ru extension makes sense.

You need to be aware that country-specific blogs aren't going to receive much traffic from the outside world. If you want people from other countries to learn about your favorite Russian recipes, a .com domain is the best. If your site isn't in English or targets a specific group of people in a particular country, using the local extension is acceptable. Though, even in this situation, using a .com is still preferred.

Don't Go Overboard Using Domain Name Generators

You can easily get a false sense of hope when using domain name generators to help you come up with a name. The reason for that is, you'll see that there are a lot of the domains they suggest available, but upon closer inspection, many of the suggestions are horrible. It's not that domain name generators are bad, but some of the prefixes and suffixes are so off the wall that they aren't going to do you any good.

Use domain name generators as a means of sparking your creativity to help you come up with unique domain names. Don't take their suggestions as gospel because many of them are far from the ideal domain name for your site. You've got to do an excellent job of the naming process yourself because your domain name is going to be forever.

Accept the Fact That It's Going to Take You Awhile to Name Your Food Blog

Naming a food blog takes time. Let's face it, all the good domains were snagged up ten years ago or longer. Your food blog needs a domain name; this isn't a step that you can avoid. It might take you a few hours or a few days to come up with the right domain. Some people think they can do everything within the time it takes to order a sandwich at McDonald's and grab it through the drive-thru window. That's not always the case when it comes to choosing the right domain.

Don't get frustrated if the first few domains you check to see if they're available are already taken. Just keep on searching until you find the perfect one for you. This is a crucial aspect of building your brand, and it's something that will take time.

Consider Registering Your Domain for More Than One Year

If you think you're going to dedicate yourself to your blog for at least a few years, it's best to register your domain for more than one year. Many bloggers face the problem: they end up forgetting when it's time to renew their domain. Every year you need to renew your domain, or it will expire. If your domain expires, that means someone else can buy it.

The way you prevent a domain from expiring is by registering it for several years at one time. This will cost you more upfront, but it'll save you a lot of headaches in the long run. You don't want your domain to expire because if it does, all of your hard work goes right out the window. After a couple of years of blogging and you know that it's what you want to do, it's a good idea to pay for up to ten years of registration fees at one time if you can afford it. If you register that many years at once, you won't have to worry about your domain name being gobbled up by someone if it expires.

Make Sure You Use an Email That You Read Often When Registering Your Domains

Everyone forgets important stuff, and that's why you want to use an email address that you often read when registering your domains. Why? It's because the registrar will send you notices when your domain is about to expire. If you forget to renew, you'll receive a notification, and then you can renew your domain with a few clicks or taps. If you use an email address that you rarely if never read, you're not going to get notified when your domain is about to expire.

It's a good idea to sign up to the domain registrar with an email address that you use on your phone and is sent alerts when you receive messages. This way, you don't have to worry about missing the email from your registrar when it's time to renew. If it goes straight to your phone, you're more likely to pay attention to it because everyone always goes straight to their smartphone when it buzzes or makes a sound.

It's Probably a Good Idea to Leave Gender Out of Your Domain Name

You might think of yourself as Mr. Tostada or the Hummus Chick, but when naming a food blog, it's best to make your domain as gender-neutral as possible. Why? There may come a time when you want to sell your blog and move on. Right now, you love teaching the world how to make all kinds of delicious hummus, but that might change. Life has a way of making us change directions when we least expect it. It's not out of the realm of possibilities that you'll want to sell your blog down the line in a couple of years.

If you sell your blog and the domain is gender-specific, you might be limiting the people who will buy it. Would a woman really want to be known as Mr. Tostada? Probably not. How big of a concern is this? Well, it's not too big of a concern in the long run, but it's something you might want to consider. You may find yourself in a position where you really don't want to update your blog anymore, and you see that the traffic is declining because you're not making constant updates, and you think it would be best to sell the site instead of allowing it slowly die.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this article has given you some things to think about when naming your food blog. This is the most crucial aspect of your branding, and it's something that you can't take too seriously. You want a domain name that will be your brand forever, so picking an accurate and marketable one is very important.

When it comes time to choose your domain name, don't decide in haste. Take time to make sure the name you choose is going to make sense in the future. It's essential to keep in mind that you want a name that people will remember and doesn't sound like it could belong to anyone else. The whole point of your blog is to make people curious and create more people that might want to check out what you have to say. You want a blog name that will set you apart from the rest of the food blogging world. Your domain name will be the first thing people see when they see it in the search results at Google.

The domain you choose should be as short as possible, a .com, and as gender-neutral as possible if you have any clue that you might sell your blog down the line. If you follow these tips, you'll eventually come up with an effective and catchy name at the same time.

If you're having difficulty naming your food blog, take a break from your computer and allow your mind to stew on it for a while. Sometimes decisions like these are best made when you're doing something else, and a thought will pop into your head. If you find a domain that you like, register it for as many years as you can afford. Since domain registration is inexpensive, you can register for several years without breaking the bank.

Remember, the domain you choose is something that you've got to live with for the life of your blog. If you're in doubt about the quality of the domain, ask a friend or someone online that you respect to evaluate your decision. Suppose you have multiple cooking and food interests. In that case, you should consider getting a somewhat generic domain so that you don't pigeonhole yourself into feeling like you can only blog about one topic.