It may have taken you some time to find the right name for your podcast, and you’ve already asked yourself these questions: how can you cover everything you want to talk about in a formula that’s as witty as your content can be, sufficiently explicit on its subject and able to identify your program immediately? Whether you’ve come up with it through hours of brainstorming or using a podcast name generator, you’re going to have to start all over again to find your domain name to meet a few imperatives.
The domain name you’re looking for is inseparable from your reasons for opting for your own space. Let’s look at the advantages of accompanying your podcast with a website, and list some criteria for an ideal domain name.
Having your own space
Your podcast feed is certainly available on many platforms specializing in this type of content. And these same platforms give you the opportunity to present your program in a few lines. However, you could quickly find yourself limited by this presentation of your activity. A space of your own, a website and a domain name that you’ve registered, will enable you to envisage more possibilities.
Choose and share the content associated with your programs
This ranges from episode notes with useful links to full transcripts of exchanges. But a website will also enable you to tell the story behind your project, or simply introduce yourself. Your site and your domain name will enable you to maintain your relationship with your listeners, with a newsletter for example. Finally, perhaps your podcast activity will lead you to explore other formats, so your website can be versatile and accommodate all these variations on your theme of expertise.
Manage your archived episodes as you see fit
You can make your content available for as long as you like, reserve access to certain content for premium subscribers and classify episodes under different headings without being subject to the sole chronological criteria of the distribution platforms.
Monetize your content
Since you manage the availability of your episodes, you can charge for access or monetize the richness of your available content through advertising or the sale of products in an associated store.
Get a grip on your podcast’s SEO
If you’re at the mercy of reviews left on listening platforms, you’ll be able to reach more of your niche with classic SEO and offer your content to an audience who might not have thought to look for a podcast on the precise subject you’re covering.
For all these reasons, it’s in your best interest to develop your own space to give your users a place where they can be sure to find your content and everything that goes with it.
The right domain name for your podcast
A podcast domain name, like any other domain name, should follow a few rules. The fierce competition in the podcasting world makes these rules even more crucial if you want to stand out from the crowd.”
1. A precise domain name
The name of your podcast is a brand, so try to assert that brand in your domain name too. If your program isn’t yet famous enough to be identified on its own in a domain name, you’ll need to be more explicit. Your domain name should say as much as possible about the content that can be found on your site. Since most of this content is in the form of audio episodes, you may decide to make this clear right from the address bar, by adding “podcast” to your domain name for example, since this is likely to be a word that your followers will type in to find your content on a search engine. Finally, if you see the podcast as a step or format among others on your preferred subject. In that case, you may want to specify precisely that subject in your domain name, whether it’s sports, health or cinema, for example.
2. A domain name that’s easy to remember
The more precise and information-rich your domain name, the longer and more complex it is likely to be to remember. Certain criteria must therefore be respected. A good way to test the effectiveness of a domain name is to say it out loud and estimate how easy it is for your interlocutor to transcribe it into the address bar. If you have to specify that the name contains a hyphen, an underscore, that it’s written in the plural or “all glued together”, you’ll add difficulty to this oral transmission.
You may therefore want to pass on some of this information on the other side of the dot, in the extension. It’s up to you to decide what information this element of your url will provide:
- the fact that you offer an audio program: .radio, .fm, .radio.fm, .radio.am, .audio, .show…
- the fact that you offer a program focusing on a specific theme: .expert, .coach, .forum…
- the theme of your program: chances are your theme will have its own TLD: .info or .news if your podcast is about what’s happening, .movie or .film if your program is about cinema, .health or .fit for staying in shape, or even .lol or .fun if your podcast is supposed to be funny, for ex..
- using a country-specific domain name such as .de or .uk can remove any ambiguity about the language of your program or intended local audience.
3. A unique domain name
This is a particular difficulty in the world of podcasts: many have similar names, and if you’re looking for a clear and explicit name for a podcast, it’s very likely that it’s already been taken by several other programs revolving around the same themes as yours.
Your domain name must therefore be distinctive and avoid confusion with other podcasts or websites. Do some thorough research to make sure that the domain name you’ve chosen isn’t already being used by another brand or podcast. This will avoid any legal problems and help establish your unique online identity.
As you can see, choosing a domain name for your podcast site is no easy task. There are several criteria to consider: availability, relevance, readability, memorability and brand protection, as well as price. Feel free to browse the list of extensions currently on special offer for inspiration.
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