Domain Names 101
Without a domain name, websites are specified by an IP address. What
is an IP address? It is an identifier that is used by computers or humans
to determine the location of a server or website. However, for humans, an
IP address, (which is expressed in a numerical format), can be difficult
to remember. 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 can be a part of a domain name, they usually do not
make up all of it, like what is seen with an IP address.
In terms
of format, domain names have several parts. The first 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 usually be
'http', which means the browser can expect to locate a hypertext document.
In layman's terms this means webpage. In the rare cases the URL is not
'http' it may 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 be "www,"
which stands for "World Wide Web." This phrase lets computers and humans
know the site the domain name is pointing to is indeed from the Internet.
It is followed by the actual domain name, which can be a combination of
letters, numbers or phrases. A good domain name will be short, memorable
and most importantly, search-engine friendly. In fact, 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
make sure to choose 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 a person know a little bit more about a website's
origins. For example, take .com, the most common domain name extension. It
stands for 'commercial', and was originally intended for organizations in
that vein. However, now the extension is used by virtually anyone looking
to create a website. And this is for good reason, since most web surfers
will think about the .com before they would think about .org, .biz or
.net. Yet, don't think the other extensions can't become memorable either.
Consider Wikipedia.org which is a wildly popular website despite its .org
extension.
Domain name extensions can also specify things on a
geographical level. An example are country-based extensions such as .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 marketing.
To get a
domain name, a person can either: 1) get one from their web hosting
company, provided they offer that service or 2) get one from a separate
domain name company. Price-wise things will vary with both options, though
typically the cost will range from $6.50 to $35.
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Article Source: www.ArticleFog.com.
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