Building this site

Saturday, 3 August 2024

Choosing a domain name

It is said that there is such a thing as domain SEO, however, I don't believe that the domain name itself is particularly important - building a unique brand is probably more beneficial than having the right domain name. If it was important, then that would greatly restrict the names anyone could choose, since bad domain names would not be able to rank well.

That said, the same principles apply (generally) to both choosing domain and brand names:

  1. Length: Keep it short. Twelve characters or less is pretty good.

  2. Simplicity: Keep it sweet. Readable, uncomplicated names inspire confidence. Try to avoid hyphens.

  3. Trustworthy domain extension: .com is the most trustworthy (and memorable), but it isn't always available (or feasible). I went for .blog since, well, you know - it's a blog. +1 for semantics!

Why then did I choose shiftendopt.blog?

I just wanted something that used the letters from SEO. I asked ChatGPT for some suggestions and this was the simplest and most tech adjacent. Is this a good strategy? I guess we will have to see.

The tech behind this website

As mentioned on the About page, I am building this blog using 11ty, a static site generator. I could have used something like WordPress, but I've always found that to be bloated, convoluted and slow.

Moreover, with the greater level of refinement and control that 11ty allows, I can optimise the site with more precision, keeping it lightweight, fast and easy to navigate. These factors are integral to improving SEO ranking.

Note: WordPress has a lot of plugins to help users implement SEO strategies, but since this blog is for my own personal learning and development, I desired greater control. That said, nothing wrong with using WordPress if you want to, and hopefully, the lessons I learn can be applied no matter what the platform.

What next?

Well I've already acquired the domain (thanks porkbun), so what's left is to submit my page to the Google Search Console.

After that it's just a matter of continuing to read, listen to podcasts, and post about what I've been learning. By regularly generating content (as well as implementing other strategies), I should be able to improve the SEO ranking of this website over time.