Let's play "name my website" again!

November 4, 2014 6:47 PM

You guys have given some great suggestions to people for naming their websites and blogs. Can you help me? I'm putting together an online list of eco-friendly places, like permaculture farms and yoga centers, for travelers to visit.

I get asked about this stuff all the time, and I want this information to live somewhere people can find it. Do you like the name NuMundo or Ecotivity better? Other suggestions? I want the name to be short and memorable, and it's important to be that it doesn't seem too 'hippie' or exclusive. I realize I may have failed at this with the names I came up with. The .com or .org domain name needs to be available, and I could maybe spend a few hundred bucks, but not more than that. Thank you HiveMind!

posted by ananci to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

1st tip. Google prospective name, if it has more than zero hits, pick a different name. Both your suggestions fail that test (and ecotivity.org is already taken, it would seem.) Feel free to ignore this advice.
posted by smcameron at 7:10 PM on November 4, 2014

A unique name can be great for brand recognition, but the gets harder and harder to do. Plus, this website doesn't really sound like it's intending to be a giant brand in need of a lasting identity for consumers. It's just a website. On that note, a technique that ranks websites high in search results is to have the search queries in the URL. So if you are looking for flowers, a website that is somethingflowers.com will usually do better than uniquename.com in results on Google, unless it's really popular.

Unfortunately numundo.com seems to be registered to someone else. Ecotivity.com seems available, and it's not a bad name. I tried to look at EcoTraveler.com but that's taken. EcoFun.com looks like it's reserved. EcoExplorer.com is available via after-market selling, it appears. Naming a website is tough -- good luck!
posted by AppleTurnover at 8:02 PM on November 4, 2014

Going on AppleTurnover's advice, ganging generic terms together doesn't seem too hard. Ecoresorttravel.com appears free.
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:17 PM on November 4, 2014

Reading your question, a line from an old folk song crossed my mind: "Green, green, it's green, they say. On the far side of the hill. Green, green, I'm going away. To where the grass is greener still. ..."

So, 'green-they-say.com'?

May fail the not-too-hippy criterion.
posted by jamjam at 8:38 PM on November 4, 2014

If you keep it local to your state, county or country, I suggest adding this in the URL so it becomes more descriptive. Something like ecotrip-nyc.com for example or ecofriendly-maine.org
posted by KMB at 11:14 PM on November 4, 2014

NuEcoTip
VuEcoTip
posted by OrangeDisk at 5:02 AM on November 5, 2014

"The .com or .org domain name needs to be available"

Always go for the .com. Otherwise ecolocator would be available. But again, try not to build a website without owning the .com
posted by yoyo_nyc at 5:33 AM on November 5, 2014

Since you want to be a one stop shop for many different locations, it is important that your name be simple enough to remember. You also want to be google friendly. Using a common the common spelling will help people find you better when their friends recommend you. milkmaidyogachick or shepherdessashanti come to mind. Something that fuses farm with yoga in clear language would be best.
posted by myselfasme at 5:44 AM on November 5, 2014

You do not necessarily need either the .com or the .org. I recently searched a particular phrase and one of my BlogSpot blogs showed up as the very top result. It is not worth it to me to buy a domain name for this site. It doesn't really make money. I sort of update and develop it sporadically as something of a public service. It gets a smidgeon of organic traffic because there is actual interest in or need for the info. I cannot afford to spend any money on it at all and that hasn't mattered at all.

So, if it were me, I'd name it:

Eco-Friendly Places

And, given my budget of zero dollars, it would likely become ecofriendlyplaces.blogspot.com which is, in fact, available.

And if you ever get a more clearly defined idea of what your target audience is, what the website identity is, etc. you can either set up another BlogSpot blog with a different BlogSpot url and delete the old one (or leave it up with a note: "moved to...") or buy a domain name of your choosing and use that as the new url for your BlogSpot website and then go through and edit the existing site to reflect the new name, etc.
posted by Michele in California at 11:33 AM on November 5, 2014

I'm putting together an online list of eco-friendly places...

ecofriendlyplaces.com
posted by Lanark at 2:27 PM on November 5, 2014