Aug
What are domains? Admittedly, impressive and unique domain names are what every business wants when building a website for themselves. However, choosing a suitable domain name is not easy at all.
No problem! In this article, I will show you how to choose the perfect and qualified domain name. Make sure users will have to remember your brand for a long time.
But first let’s start to understand the concept of the domain, or what is a domain name…
What are domain names?
A domain name (DN) is the address of a website operating on the internet, which when typed directly in the browser to access any website. Simply put, if a website is a house, then the domain name is its address.
It acts as the home address or zip code to locate. Web browsers need a domain name to direct you to a website.
What you need to know about a Domain Name
A Domain Name is equivalent to your website address.
- Domain Name consists of 2 parts: Website name and extensions. For example .com (short for commercial – commercial, is the most common type of domain name) or .net (short for network – network, commonly used for Internet service providers)
- The domain name registration is licensed and supervised by the organization ICANN – which manages all international domain names in the world.
- Domain Name works by forwarding client access to the appropriate server (Web Server).
- tenmien.com is arguably the most common syntax. Up to 46.5% of websites use this Domain Name.
- ccTLD – Country Code Top-level domain. Country domains use country codes and specify geographical areas. For example, .cn s the country domain for Chinese websites; .es is the country domain for Spain; .vn is the country domain of Vietnam; …
- gTLD – Generic Top-level Domain (top-level domain name with extensions of more than 700 types) tends to be designed specifically for specific audiences (e.g. .org for organizations).
- Each domain name has a different registration process. You can use search engines to find available domain names.
- Domain names can be transferred from one provider to another.
- The server (Web Server of the hosting service provider) is where all the content and data of your website are stored.
Parts of a domain name
You have just learned the full concept of Domain Name, so what is Domain Name made up of? Continue reading together!
Domain names include many components, so they are usually separated by a dot (.). It consists of at least 2 parts:
- Top Level Domain (TLD)
- Second Level Domain (SLD)
To the left of the dot is also known as the 2nd level domain name. It can be the subject name (your name), business name, blog, or store name. That is considered the identity of your website.
So what do you think the .com domain name is?
To the right of the dot is the Top-Level Domain Name (aka TLD). For my website, the TLD is “.com”. However, you can also see other TLDs such as .net, .edu (usually used for websites of educational and training organizations) or .org (short for organization – often used for websites of non-profit organizations. profit) or country domain identifiers such as .uk or .de.
Although the top-level Domain Name is essential for a domain name to work. But usually, it’s not as “interesting” as the second-level Domain Name. And it’s sometimes called “parent” domain names.
The cool thing about Domain Names is that you can choose almost any second-level domain name you want. And make sure it goes with “parent” domains like .com, .club, .store, or even .pizza.
What is the main purpose of a domain name?
The main purpose of the domain name is to provide a representative name on the internet environment instead of Internet resources that are mostly numerical addresses, the domain name can be converted to the IP address of the server. via global DNS.
At some point, someone probably said to you, “Hey, you should register your domain name”. And you might answer: “OK…but why?” The truth is that if you have a website, of course, you need to have an address and that address needs to have a name.
Some reasons why you have to register a domain name
Maybe it would be better to get yourself a Domain Name now. It can be your personal name, company name, or other things like your book title, band name, or hobby.
Registering a domain name will help you mark the subject matter of that name and no one can use this Domain Name in the future.
Also, if you want a polished-sounding email address like [email protected] then you need to set the domain name first. Then attach it to your email hosting.
This is a smart move, especially if you’re running a business website. That way, your customers will easily remember info@mybusiness like they remember your domain name itself.
What is DNS?
The Domain Name System (DNS) is the directory of the Internet. Users access information online through domains, such as nytimes.com or espn.com. Web browsers interact via Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. DNS translates domain names to IP addresses so that browsers can download Internet resources.
Each device connected to the Internet has a unique IP address that other machines use to find the device. DNS servers eliminate the need for users to memorize IP addresses like 192.168.1.1 (in IPv4) or more complex alphanumeric IP addresses like 2400:cb00:2048:1::c629:d7a2 ( in IPv6).
The difference between transferring and pointing a domain name
Domain name transfer – transfer domain – is the operation of transferring domain management rights from one provider to another. When transferring domain names sometimes it is necessary to pay the domain name transfer fee at the new registrar. Domain names after the transfer will normally be automatically renewed for one more year.
Point domain (to hosting) – point domain (to a host), is an operation to access the domain name management area at the current registrar to update the records at the current registrar so that the domain name uses some kind of hosting service.
You can understand, usually, when you already have a domain name and just bought hosting at another provider, you will be asked to point the domain name to that hosting. Only when you need to manage hosting and domain management in the same place do you need to transfer domain names.
What is the difference between a hosting and a domain name?
What do you think the domain is? What is hosting? What are hosting and domain?
To have a website you need both domain and hosting. Your domain name gives people a way to find your website. Whereas hosting is the space on the server (remote computer) where all your website content is stored.
Think of domains as the home address of your website and web hosting as the home of your website. You may have an address before you build a house. But to show off all the images on your site, you’ll need a place to put them. Hosting a domain is important for your website.
Guide to choosing the perfect domain name
Choosing a domain for your website is one of the most important decisions in the entire website creation process (besides choosing a good hosting for your website).
It’s even more important if you plan on implementing an offline advertising plan. If you are not interested in branding and building readers, you can choose any domain name.
But let people remember your Domain Name and type it in the address bar of their browser. You should think carefully about choosing a domain name that is most impressive and easy to remember. Moreover, an easy-to-remember domain name also makes your offline advertising strategy much more effective.
In the internet world, your domain name will be the most important branding tool. Maybe your company spends a lot of money on brand research. However, it is a mistake not to research and choose a suitable Domain Name.
Choose a domain name that is easy to spell, easy to pronounce
Remember that users must be able to remember your website’s domain name. Therefore, choose domains that are not too difficult to read and cannot be read more than one way. A good domain name is when you can read it to your friends and they can type it into the browser without your help.
Some good examples are google.com, yahoo.com, cnn.com, facebook.com, etc. Although they are not common words as they are still able to make users read and remember easily.
Here are some examples of bad domains.
For example: web-hosting.com; eidos.com; tanztreff.com; herel.com; schweizr.com. How do you pronounce these words? I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to know exactly how to spell them if I had to type them in my browser.
You may ask why I included web-hosting.com in the list of bad examples. It’s also easy to read. The reason is simple, it’s because of the hyphen. I’ll probably type webhosting.com in my address bar unless you emphasize the hyphen.
Hostingmanual.net is not a bad domain name. However, it is still not the best possible option. I bet some people are looking at the .com version of this domain. However, I think .net is also a good choice because this site is dealing with internet-related content.
Choose a domain name that is easy to remember, easy to distinguish
Surely everyone wants people to visit their website again and again. Me too. So you need to come up with a unique name that will not be mixed with your competitors. It makes it easy for users to distinguish and remember. And it also makes it easy to manage domain names.
In this section, I will provide some guidelines and most of them will help make your Domain Name more impressive and memorable. Dashes as well as random numbers will easily make your Domain Name look complicated and much harder to remember.
Make the domain name positive
Some studies show that people process information better, remembering products faster when they are associated with positive images and associations.
Examples of some of the active domains are google.com, yahoo.com, and Delicious.com.
The relationship between a domain name and website content
That means that your Domain Name and the website’s theme must be connected. A domain name unrelated to the website content will confuse visitors to visit. It also makes it harder to remember and connect with the site’s theme.
However, in some cases, differences in subject matter and Domain Names can also be tolerated, usually when it is sarcastic or humorous.
Choose a domain name as short as possible
I mentioned the importance of having a domain name that is easy to remember, and easy to spell. And the shorter the domain name, the easier it is to remember and spell. So, if you are confused about choosing a Domain Name. Choose the shorter one.
The problem is that most of these short Domain Names with the most common TLDs have been taken. They have a much higher value than regular Domain Names. That’s why Domain Name investors want to get them. So when it comes to domain name registration, I don’t think you will be able to register a meaningful 3-4 word Domain Name for your website.
Domain names with 3 characters seem to be especially popular
This is because a lot of organizations have names made up of 3 letters; like BMW, IBM, NFL,… Since all such Domain Names are already in use; so some people used 3 letters, but add a hyphen between each letter like g-e-t.com.
And this is definitely not a good idea at all. Whatever the reason is, you probably already understand – Dash.
Domain Name systems also have some limitations. As domain name cannot be longer than 63 characters. It consists of alphabetic characters (a-z), numbers (0-9), and hyphens (-). Domain names cannot begin or end with a hyphen. At the same time, the domain name must not use special characters when naming.
Unique domain name is easy to remember
This is not an easy thing to do.
If you have ever searched for an easy-to-remember domain name; you will find that most of them are used. You may have to spend a lot of time researching and finding a perfect Domain Name for your website.
Try to make your domain name unique, and impressive, and the domain name must not be confused with other Domain Names. Especially with Domain Names of competitors.
Many people build a brand by inventing meaningless words that make up a distinct name. This is nothing new in the marketing industry. Large companies such as Exxon, Citi; Xerox created new words for their brand to make them different.
However, these words should be easy to pronounce and easy to remember. You will come up with meaningless words like xdfkjhalj.com. It is a unique name. However, you cannot remember or build a brand from this name.
Make a connection with users
Some domains are created to link to their customers. You can do this by incorporating words like you, my, your, me, you, etc. In this way, visitors feel connected to the website and feel it is for them.
Some specific examples for you such as domains: doityourself.com, bestseotool.net
However, this method is not so common. I can’t remember which websites I’ve visited recently have these words in the Domain Name. So it’s not a rule, just a small suggestion for you.
Be very careful when choosing a domain name
I mentioned that many businesses come up with new words for their brand names. Part of what they do is to make sure that; Their domain name has no negative connotations in other cultures and languages.
A very famous example of this is Chevrolet’s mistake; when they tried to sell the Nova car in Spanish-speaking countries. In Spanish, Nova means “it won’t run”. This is definitely a bad message when you are trying to sell a car in these countries.
Do not rush to choose Domain Name immediately. Study it slowly and observe it from many angles. If you want to use multiple words in your domain name; check it out because there are so many other words that sound the same but are spelled differently.
Your target audience is the last and most important factor when you choose a Domain Name. Make it so that visitors can write and remember your Domain Name.
After you choose the Domain Name you like; Then don’t forget to refer to my article on how to buy cheap and reputable domain names. I think it will be very helpful for you.
Conclusion
What are domains? The article has probably introduced you to an overview of domain names.
It’s hard to find unique and impressive Domain Names. Only a handful of 4-character .com domain names are available at this time. Therefore, doing research is one of the most important steps for anyone looking for a domain name for their website.
One of the best ways to come up with Domain Name ideas is to ask your friends and family for suggestions. Moreover, you can also ask them to check your ideas.
Ask them to spell out the domain name of your choice to see if it passes the spelling requirement. Ask them what type of website and content they expect for such a domain name. You must do this once to choose the domain name you want. Whether you do it right or wrong, it still takes a lot of time.
Follow my instructions, hope they will be really useful for you. Hope you find yourself a perfect domain name soon!
