As a beginner, some of you must be clueless on what a domain is, why do we need it, how is it used, how to choose one and where to get one. Because I was definitely clueless. In this very blog, I’ll try to briefly explain the answers to all the below and similar questions and clear your doubts. Sounds good? Let’s get reading then.
- What is a domain name?
- How domain names actually work?
- How is the domain name different from website and web hosting?
- What are the different types of domain names?
- Who is responsible for the domain name system?
- How to choose a domain name?
- How to buy a domain name?
- How to transfer a domain?
What is a Domain Name?
A domain name is the address of your website that people enter in the search bar of their browsers to visit your website. Internet is a matrix of computers connected to each other. For them to easily identify one another, they are assigned an IP Address. An IP address is a series of numbers separated with dots. Example: 172.16.254.1
Now, Computers can easily remember these numbers and identify each other. However, it is difficult for us humans to remember and use these numbers instead of names to connect to the websites. As a solution to this problem, domain names were introduced. A domain name is simply any word or combination of words that makes it easy to remember. Now to visit a website all you have to do is to remember the domain name of it, enter it into the URL bar and voila. For example, technologify.co, facebook.com, twitter.com, etc.
In a layman language, “If your website was a house, then your domain name will be its address.”
How Domain Names Actually Work?
When you enter a domain name and your web browser reads it, it immediately sends a request signal to a network of servers available globally that form the Domain Name System (DNS). Entered domain name is looked up into the database or cache of DNS servers. When the name is found, if it is found then it is returned to the user’s browser.
For example, if your website is hosted on Hostgator, then its DNS information will be like this:
nsxxx2.hostgator.com
nsxxx1.hostgator.com
Your hosting company manages these DNS servers. Your website information will be fetched from the computer where it is being stored by your hosting company.
This computer is called a web server. Special software like Apache or Nginx is installed and in return, they fetch the web page and related information. At last, this information is sent back to the browser.
How is Domain Name Different from a Website and Web Hosting?
A website is made with the files like HTML pages, website builder software, images, etc whereas a domain name is an address to the house where the website lives.
Servers are the computers where any file associated with your website is stored. Hosting companies offer servers as their services.
For a website, both a domain name and web hosting are required. And it’s important to know that they are two separate services, and can be purchased from two different companies. In case you do purchase them separately, just remember to configure your domain name settings and enter the DNS Server information given by the hosting company. DNS Server holds the information on where to send requests for the domain name.
What are the different types of Domain Names?
You can see many extensions to the domain names but the most popular one is .com. Few others are like .org, .net, .tv, .info, .io, .co, and more. However its always better to use .com extension.
Let’s take a more detailed look at the different types of domain names available.
Generic Top-Level Domain – gTLD
A top-level domain (TLD) is generic domain extensions which are listed at the highest level in the hierarchical domain name system. There are thousands of TLDs, but the most popular ones are .com, .org, .net, etc. Other Avoid using lesser knows domains. For example, .biz, .club, .info, .agency, and many more.
Country Code Top Level Domain – ccTLD
Country-code top-level domain or ccTLD are country-specific domain names.
They end with country-code extensions like .uk, .us, .in, .de for the United Kingdom, The United States, India and Germany respectively. If you want to target an audience of a specific country then you can choose these domain extensions.
Sponsored Top-Level Domain – sTLD
Sponsored top-level domain or sTLD is a type of TLDs that has a sponsor representing a specific community served by the domain extension. The communities involved are based on ethnic, geographical, professional, technical or other theme concepts proposed by private agencies or organizations that establish and enforce rules restricting the eligibility of registrants to use the TLD.
For example, .edu for education-related organizations, .gov for the United States government, .mil for the United States military, and more.
Test Top-Level Domain – tTLD
Test top-level domain or tTLD is a type of TLD that is intended for use in the testing of software. It’s never to be installed on the global domain name system of the Internet. Because neither test nor any of its subdomains can be registered, they can be used for testing purposes without fear of conflicts with current or future domain names. Another 10 test domains are: .测试, .परीक्षा, .испытание, .테스트, .טעסט, .測試, .آزمایشی, .பரிட்சை, .δοκιμή, .إختبار, .テスト.
There are other domain name types like,
Second level domains
The second-level domain name comes right before the top-level domain name. This refers to the brand or company or the organisation name. For Eg: “technologify” in technologify.co
Subdomains
With subdomains, you don’t have to purchase another domain. Instead, create a subdomain and point it to a specific directory on the server. In order to keep your contents separate from the main website, you can get a subdomain and keep that content there. For Eg: developers.facebook.com, support.google.com
Free Domains
You get free domains with any website builder, such as, wordpress, shopify, wix, weebly. These are similar to the subdomains as they too use the website name in the personal domain. For Eg: Instead of technology.co it will either be technologify.squarespace.co or technologify.wordpress.co
If you are planning a website for a business or your own unique branding, then purchase your own domain.
Who is Responsible for Domain Name System?
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) manages the domain names system. It is a non-profit organization that creates and implements policies for domain names.
ICANN gives permission to companies called Domain Name Registrars for selling domain names. These domain registrars are allowed to make changes to the domain names registered on your behalf.
Domain name registrars can sell domain names, manage their records, renewals, and transfers to other registrars.
As a domain name owner, you are responsible for telling the registrar where to send requests. You are also responsible for renewing your domain registration.
How to Choose a Domain Name for Your Website?
There are currently more than 340 million registered domains and many more get registered each day.
So the name you are thinking of might already exist or will be registered soon. This does put pressure on the new user to choose an appropriate name and a name to their liking as well.
There are many websites or tools you can find online to help you with the creative company and domain name selection.
Below are few tips to help you choose a domain name for your next website.
- Choose .com no matter what (Okay, not to be dramatic but it is the most popular, easy to remember, and easy to promote kind of extension).
- You can get all creative with your domain name but make sure that it’s not too long and it’s easy to remember
- When I said not too long and easy to remember I also meant for it to be easy to pronounce and a big no to fancy spellings.
- Do not use numbers or hyphens
- Use domain name generators to come up with clever domain name ideas (coz some of us definitely lack those, lol)
How to Buy a Domain Name?
There are many domain registrars which would let you purchase domains from them. It would cost you up to $12 per year. Some popular domain name registrars are:
Purchasing a domain doesn’t guarantee your web hosting. For that, you will need a website hosting account as well.
Many hosting companies offer domain registration services as well so if you want you can purchase both from a single provider or can also go ahead with purchasing a domain from one and hosting from another. Purchasing from the same could be easier to manage.
How to transfer a domain name?
You can transfer your domain name between domain name registrars. Know few things before you do decide to transfer,
Registration or last transfer should have crossed the range of 60 or more days
- The domain name must not be in Redemption or Pending Delete status.
- Should know your domain’s authorization code (also known as EPP code).
- Domain’s ownership details must be valid and privacy protection services must be disabled.
Transferring your domain is not at all necessary as having all the services in the same place makes the management process easier. Process of domain transfer could take up to 4-7 days.