Reader Domain Names – What Are They?
Domain Names – What Are They?
What are domain names? Well domain names are simply a human friendly version of a website address. Without a Domain name, you would be stuck with a load of numbers such as, [66.102.9.99], which is simply Google’s IP address. Not great for marketing purposes is it!
Your domain name is important, it is the first contact point people see of your website. If they like what they see there is a greater incentive to click through to your URL. When your site appears in the search engine listings, as a link on another sites or on your business card, your domain name will indicate what people can expect from your web site.
It’s very common for newbies (we all started out as newbies) to confuse, domain name and web hosting, but these are two very different things.
A domain name is an identification label that defines a realm of administrative control on the Internet, based on the Domain Name System (DNS).
More simply, it’s the name that identifies an Web site, i.e. kingsolutions.com’ is the domain name for King Solutions web site.
Domain name registrants are frequently referred to as domain owners, although domain name registration does not actually confer any legal ownership of the domain name, only an exclusive right of usage for the period contracted.
So we use Domain names to identify sites. When choosing your Domain name you should select a term people will use to search for your site. Most obviously, this could be your brand or personal name. Think about how you search on Google yourself.
For example. What would you expect a domain name such as, "wild-canaries.com" to be about? Birds? Soccer? The jungle? If you web site was about dogs and in particular, dalmations then a domain name such as, "dalmation-world.com" would be more appropriate.
That last example was a bit silly, I know, but the point is to try and be specific about your web site if possible. If you have a particular niche you must be specific with your domain name to get the traffic you want.
You can research your domain name choices at any of the registrars listed in my article, ‘Where to Register Domain Names". Most of these registrars provide domain name registration, domain name hosting, free domain name search facilities and some even give you a FREE domain name if you accept their domain name hosting package.
