Domain Names 101

Without a domain name, internet sites are specified by an IP address.  What is an IP address?  It is an identifier that is utilized by computers or humans to figure out the location of a server or website.  Nonetheless, for humans, an IP address, (which is expressed in a numerical format), could be challenging to keep in mind.  This is why domain names were invented.  With a domain name, a human can locate a website through more user-friendly words or phrases.  And although numbers might be a component of a domain name, they typically do not make up all of it, like what is seen with an IP address.

In terms of format, domain names have numerous parts.  The 1st part is known as the URL, (which stands for Uniform Resource Locator).  The URL tells the browser what the domain name is going to point to.  This will generally be ‘http’, which means the browser can anticipate to locate a hypertext document.  In layman’s terms this means webpage.  Within the rare cases the URL is not ‘http’ it might be ‘ftp’, which means file transfer protocol.  A webmaster would opt to use ftp if they would like visitors to download files from their server.

The second part of the domain name will likely be “www,” which stands for “World Wide Internet.”  This phrase lets computers and humans know the internet site the domain name is pointing to is indeed from the internet.  It really is followed by the actual domain name, which can be a combination of letters, numbers or phrases.  An excellent domain name will be short, memorable and most importantly, search-engine friendly.  In reality, good webmasters tend to concentrate more on a domain name’s effectiveness with SEO, (or Search Engine Optimization), than they do its creativity.  To do this they ensure to decide on a domain name that has a widely searched keyword.  

The final portion of the domain name has what is known as an extension.  This lets an individual know a little bit far more about a website’s origins.  For example, take .com, probably the most widespread domain name extension.  It stands for ‘commercial’, and was originally intended for organizations in that vein.  Nevertheless, now the extension is employed by virtually anybody searching to produce a website.  And this is for very good reason, since most internet surfers will think about the .com just before they would believe about .org, .biz or .net.  Yet, do not believe the other extensions can’t grow to be memorable either.  Take into account Wikipedia.org which is a wildly popular website despite its .org extension.

Domain name extensions can also specify issues on a geographical level.  An example are country-based extensions like .fr, (which stands for France), or .jp, (which stands for Japan).  They can also be state-based, such as .ca, (which stands for California).  Both can serve as excellent tools for localized Internet advertising.

To get a domain name, an individual can either: 1) get one from their internet hosting organization, supplied they provide that service or 2) get 1 from a separate domain name organization.  Price-wise issues will vary with both options, though normally the cost will range from $6.50 to $35.