What is A Domain?
Your website is like a house and the domain name is its address. For example, junaidtariq.com
Registering a domain name is an essential step before starting a blog or online business in 2022. You’ll need to register your domain name for them to be available for use.
The first step in setting up your website is to find a good domain name. Here are the steps for registration. We’ll also share some tips on registering a domain name for free.
There are trillions of connection points or IP addresses. Each network is assigned a number that looks like this: 192.168.1.2
Your computer remembers the location of your favorite websites and programs, but not long Internet addresses. Imagine if you had to recognize the type of address to visit your favorite website!
To get rid of this problem, domain names are created.
Domain names are symbols such as letters and numbers that help web developers get attention with a website address.
Types Of Domains
If are you going to buy a domain you should know about the different types of domains and why domain are used.
In this article we’ll describe the types of domains and why they are used.
Top-Level Domain
A top-level domain (TLD) is an extension of a domain name. There are different TLDs available online, but .com domains are the most popular with over 54% of all websites using it. Popular extensions can drive high organic traffic since people often write them by default. Other common choices are .net, .io, and .store TLDs.
Naturally, a less popular extension, like .online for example, is generally less expensive than the more popular extensions. There are also a number of cheaper domains that come to mind, such as .site and .tech. These types of extensions are gaining popularity because of the increased number of new websites being created every day.
Country-Code Top-Level Domain
A country-code top-level domain is an extension specific to a certain country. They use two letters based on international country codes.
There are many platforms that can help you find the right country code. One example is the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) database, which will tell you the extensions used by a certain website in Japan: .jp, for instance. The US has .us domains set up for their own sites and so on.
Countries like Japan, Germany, and more have signed as international countries to an agreement called RFC-5536. This means that a country-specific top-level domain, or ccTLD, is required for companies who want to target those regions.
Generic Top-Level Domain
A generic top-level domain doesn’t require a country code. There are no specific criteria to obtain it, but some extensions are sponsored by designated agencies or organizations. You need to be careful not to confuse your visitors with certain domains, as they are associated with certain places or things. Organizations for example use the .org extension.
When it comes to TLDs, some are reserved for specific groups of people. For example, a company might be associated with .com or .net, but if it is not part of a particular category, then it cannot use the TLDs that are reserved for such registrants. On the other hand, if it does not belong to any category or industry, then popular extensions like .com, social media website extensions like .xyz and .icu, or new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) can be registered instead where there’s availability.
More Domain Types
Above, we went over the different domain extensions. Here are the other types of domain structures:
Subdomain
If you have a site that is using a subdomain, that means you’re set up on different servers than the “parent domain.” There’s no need to register a subdomain separately. For example, the www in most URL addresses is a subdomain–showing visitors that your site is part of the world wide web.
One reason to create subdomains is to organize and divide web content into separate sections. For example, Google uses developers.google.com as a place where they can provide information specifically to developers.
Here’s another use of a subdomain: to create separate websites with the same name but in different languages. Wikipedia is an example of this – it has a subdomain for each language, and uses en.wikipedia.org for English and es.wikipedia.org for Spanish.
Second Level Domain
A second-level domain is a type of domain that is below top-level domains in the hierarchy. A second-level domain is the section of the domain name that is located to the left of the last dot, often found on its own line. For example, hostinger is the second-level domain and .com is the top-level domain.
Some domain name registries use a second-level domain to indicate what type of entity is registering the site. For example, academic institutions in the United Kingdom will often register websites under .ac.uk.
Free Domain
Sometimes, website builders will offer free domain names to new users. This is a good opportunity for people who are just getting into this field to get their sites up and running without spending any money.
Why Domains Are Used?
With so many reasons why domains are used, we’ll explore the most important below.
To Get Ownership
Domain ownership is so important that it’s worth considering even if you don’t plan on using it for your own website. It grants you the power to decide where your website points, what information is associated with the domain name account, and who administers it.
To Solidify Your Brand Identity
In order to establish a consistent online brand identity, you’ll also need your company name to be the same on multiple platforms. This can be accomplished through a matching or similar domain name. If one of your website’s pages links to your blog, for example, the visitor would notice that their primary domain is maintained throughout the site and other design elements like typography and color scheme remain consistent.
To Be Memorable
For one thing, easy-to-remember domain names are also easy to type into search bars. This may result in more direct traffic to your website. For example, T-Bones Great American Eatery has a short and sweet domain name: t-bones.com. It’s much easier for visitors to remember than an alternative like t-bonesgreatamericaneatery.com.
To Stand Out Against Competitors
Google made the right choice when it opted for the simple but catchy domain name “Google” instead of something clunky like BackRub. This would have put it at a disadvantage with chancier domains like Yahoo and Bing.
To Build Authority
By choosing the right domain name, you can not only bolster your brand but also predict how your site will act in search engine result pages. Older domains have more authority because they’ve had time to accumulate quality content, backlinks, and internal links.
