What are Domain Names

One of the most vital prerequisites for establishing a successful Internet presence is the domain name. It is what people will perceive first when they discover your site and what they will relate you with. The domain name should be easy to remember, but should also be something that notifies your website's visitors what the web page is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain name typically contains two parts - a Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain Name (SLD). If you have domain.com, for instance, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain Name and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain. There are a few groups of TLDs that you should examine before you pick the domain name you desire. Your selection should rest on the goal of your site and on its target spectators. Let's investigate the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domain Names - these are the most widespread TLDs meant to denote a specific intention - .com (commercial organizations), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (corporations), .info (informational websites), .org (not-for-profit organizations), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific), .name (persons or relatives), .pro (given professions), etc. As you can see, these TLDs cover most fields of life, so you should pick the one that would depict the intention of your web page best. There is no restriction as to who can register such domain names, but some of them contain additional steps to prove that you qualify to own such a domain (.mobi and .pro, for example).

Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domains, are country-specific TLDs. Each country has its own ccTLD. Settling on such a domain name is good if your target group of site visitors is from a particular country. Many visitors would rather buy goods or services from a local web site, and if your goal is Canada, for example, selecting a .ca domain name could increase the visits to your web page.

Domain Redirects

You can register a bunch of TLDs, which can forward your visitors to a given website like domain.com, for example. This would increase the traffic and decrease the risk of somebody pilfering your web site visitors by using the same name with a different Top-Level Domain Name - if you are not availing of a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each and every Top-Level Domain has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, also known as DNS records) specify where the domain name is hosted, in other words they point to the hosting company whose name servers (NSs, also known as DNSs) it is using at the moment. You can swap the NSs of your domain name whenever you wish. You can have your domain name registered with one provider and get the website hosting service itself from another. Thus, if you register your domain and discover decent website hosting plans somewhere else afterwards, you can point your domain name to the current provider's NSs straight away.

Domain Name Server Records (DNS Records)

In general, as long as your domain name utilizes a particular pair of DNSs, all its domain name records will direct to the same web hosting distributor. Some website hosting providers, though, permit you to modify specific DNS records, among them the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which reveals on which hosting server your web page is situated, while the MX records exhibit which server tackles the e-mailbox accounts associated with your domain name. For instance, if you hire a new website designer and he constructs an .ASP web page that will be located on his own Windows hosting server, you may want to change only the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain name. Thus, www.domain.com will point to the Windows server, but your email box accounts or any sub-domain names such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux website hosting account. The .ASP platform is created by Microsoft and calls for a Windows web hosting server, even though a Linux hosting server would be far more dependable.

Cut-Rate Top-Level Domains Distributed by 'Blue Ribbon Hosting'

Only a few web hosting vendors enable you to edit specific domain name records and very often this an additional paid service. With us, you get a vast assortment of TLDs to choose from and you can modify all domain name records or redirect the domains through a forwarding tool at no added cost.