Domain Names

What is a Domain Name?

When you buy a Domain Name you are only buying a name for your website and not a ready built site.

Even if you don't have a website you can still buy a domain name. Search engines will give “extra points” to Domain Names which have been registered for a long period of time.

If you have a Domain Name in mind it makes sense to register (buy) it before someone else takes it. When you buy the name it is registered to you, it cannot be used by anyone else and then once you have your website built it is a simple matter to link the name to the site.

A website cannot exist without a Domain Name. Choosing a Domain Name is one of the first steps in establishing a website. However, deciding on the name requires that you understand the basics.

Some websites have unique Domain Names while others share them with other websites.

The Domain Name identifies your website on the Internet and looks something like this www.mywebsite.com.

In addition to seeing websites with addresses like www.mywebsite.com you may have also seen websites with addresses like: http://myname.freewebspace.com or http://myname.yahoo.com

These are shared websites and the true address begins after "myname." Notice that it does not begin with "www", this is always an indication that the website is a sub domain of a larger (parent) site and shares the parent site with other smaller sites.

Using this kind of domain name is common for personal or hobby sites and is usually included in most ISP connection packages along with web hosting space.

If you want a professional web presence then you will want to buy your own unique domain name. This will give you more credibility.

What is the best Domain Name?

There are several choices you will have to make when deciding on your Domain Name. In order to understand these choices you need to understand the basic structure of a domain name.

Firstly a Domain Name consists of three elements separated by dots.

The elements (using www.mywebsite.com) are:

• www - convention for the web host/server
• mywebsite - second level Domain Name
• com –the top level Domain Name

The Domain Name is really: mywebsite.com and not www.mywebsite.com

The top level Domain Name has a lot of responsibility attached to it.

Go for a .com name if you want to appear global or a co.uk name to appear more local.

Companies that sell Domain Names always have a facility that allows you to check on the availability of your chosen name with all of its top level domain names.

The main reason people give for not having a domain name is cost! However, Domain names aren't expensive, low cost Domain Names are available from many sources but remember that it is usually better to choose the same hosting provider for both Web Hosting and the Domain Name.