What is a Domain Name?

"A Better Domain Name Will Lower Your Lifetime Marketing Costs"

(Frank Schilling - American Internet Investor)

I'm sure everyone has heard the word "Domain Name" at one time or the other. But you still trying to figure out what it exactly means. Well, in this blog I'm going to tell you what Domain Name means and what it's all about.

What is a Domain Name?

Domain Names are human-readable addresses for any web server on the internet. Simply put, it is the text that one has to put in the browser to reach a particular website.

A Domain name can be a combination of letters and numbers and is used with an extension at the end of it, such as .com, .net, .org, .in, etc.

What is Domain Name in Hindi?

डोमेन नाम एक नामकरण है जो इंटरनेट में किसी वेबसाइट का एक पहचान होता है जिसकी सहायता से एक User वेबसाइट तक पहुँचता है।

To make it simpler to understand, the internet is a network of various computers across the world connected to each other through a web of cables allowing the flow of communications among them. Each computer is assigned an IP address to identify it over the internet.

However, it is extremely difficult to remember each and every IP address as the numbers kept increasing which created a necessity for something simple and hence, Domain Names were devised.

Why Do I Need a Domain Name?

It's kind of simple, the first step to get a website on the internet is to get a domain name. It is the name that people will use to get to your website.

A domain name provides credibility to your business and puts you on the biggest marketplace i.e. the Internet. It is also your unique identity as every domain is unique and once it is registered, no other website will be able to use it.

How to get a domain name?

Domain names are provided by an organization named ICANN.

ICANN stands for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

However, it is not possible to directly buy Domain names from ICANN, you have to buy a domain name from an approved registrar.

There are many approved registrars such as Bluehost, Google, Hostgator, GoDaddy.com and many more.

Difference between URL and Domain Name

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator and is also known as the web address. Most often, people confuse domain name and URL to be the same thing but as a matter of fact, both these things are different in many aspects.

A URL is a complete web address of a specific page or website on the Internet whereas a Domain name is just the name of the website.

In fact, every URL contains a domain name as its subsection. A URL contains a domain name as well as other information including the protocol, port and path.

For example - "https://www.codingtag.com/what-is-a-domain-name" is a URL to this page where "HTTPS" is the protocol, "codingtag.com" is the domain name and "/what-is-a-domain-name" is the path to this specific page.

Domain Name Extensions

The extension that comes attached with your domain name such as .com, .net, .org and so on are known as TLDs which stands for Top Level Domains.

Here is a list of the most commonly used Domain name extensions:

Click here to book your domain with Bluehost right away.

Click here to book your domain name with Bluehost right away.

A Domain Name is always incomplete without an extension and it doesn't matter which extension you as there are thousands of extensions available. Select the one that best suits your business.

Find more Domain Name Extensions. Click Here

How Does Domain name work?

When a domain name is entered into a browser, the computer sends a request to a global network of servers forming the Domain Name System (DNS). These servers lookup for the name server associated with the entered domain name and forward the request to it.

For Example: If your website is hosted on Bluehost, then the name server information will be: ns1.bluehost.com or ns2.bluehost.com. (Where NS is Name Server). These NS are computers that are being managed by Bluehost (your website hosting company).

Then, your hosting company will forward the request to the computer (otherwise known as Web Server) storing your website. The webserver will fetch the web page and respond to the browser. The browser will show the website.

This whole process takes place within a span of milliseconds.

How to choose a Domain Name?

A study conducted in 2021 showed that there were nearly 366.8 million Domain names registered worldwide. And with an addition of approximately 3 million more being added to this number every month, you can imagine how many registered Domain names there would be by now.

But does that mean that all the good names are already taken?

It does put a lot of pressure on trying to find a good Domain name for your website. Every Domain name is unique in its own way. Use the following points when deciding to pick a Domain name:

• Be as creative as you can
• Avoid long and complicated names
• Make it easy to remember, pronounce, and spell
• Keep the letter count from 9 to 12 in the domain name
• Avoid using numbers and hyphens

Every name is unique in its own way. Some of the most famous and popular Domain names are the ones that are unique and remember Original Creativity is something that cannot be copied.

How to Buy a Domain Name?

There are many domain registrars available on the internet, you can book a domain name from any of these registrars. However, it is suggested to book a domain name from one of the top registration companies such as Bluehost.

A domain name with a common TLD such as .com can cost as low as $12.99 per year. All you have to do is run a domain name search. If it is available, purchase it and complete its registration.

Some of the most popular sites for buying a Domain name are BlueHost, GoDaddy, Hostinger, HostGator, etc. It's recommended that you go and try a few of these sites to see which one gives you a better offer, as most of them also have discount coupons.

What is a Sub Domain?

A Sub Domain is literally what the name suggests. It's an offspring of your main Domain. Upon buying and registering your Domain, you automatically have permission to create subdomains for it. These are commonly used by Websites to create smaller sites, under the main website.

For example - A business named ABC can have their main Domain name as ABC.com and for their store, they can use the Sub Domain, such as store.ABC.com. The more diversities, the more Sub Domains can be created.

Cancelling and/or Selling of Domain

Cancelling of a Domain name is allowed by certain domain registrars. However, many people just prefer to let the subscription expire and not opt for renewal. At the time of purchasing, remember to check on the "Auto-Renewal" clause. But once cancelled that Domain name becomes again available in the market for others to buy.

It's all in the name. And this holds very true in the case of Domain names. The more popular your name is the more value it holds. There have been numerous instances where a bigger business has gone out and purchased smaller business Domain names (mostly in the same field of business), once they see it getting popular. You just need to figure out if it's in your best interest to either continue with your Domain name and business or sell it for a handsome profit.

There are also instances where people have come upon a good Domain name, which was sought after by someone else or was sought after by some big business houses and purchased it. And thereafter sold it for a profit.

At last, when you are done with booking a domain for your business, you should visit who.is to check if the domain is really registered under your name or not and always ensure that you got the confirmation mail from the registrar that your domain name is booked.

There are other aspects from a domain name that are related to a website such as hosting and SSL which we will be discussing in our next blogs. So, don't forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest updates.