DomainingOnline.com

Sites that don’t have domain names are specified by their IP address. A site’s IP address is an identification number that’s used by computer (or people) to determine where a particular server or website is located. But for humans, an IP address, which is a string of numbers separated by periods, can be hard to remember. That’s why domain names were invented. It’s much easier to remember several domain names than it is to remember an IP address. If you do include numbers in your domain name, they’ll probably make sense, as in domainnames101.net.

There are several parts to the format of a domain name. The first part of it is the URL, or Uniform Resource Locator. This part of the domain name tells the browser what the domain name is going to actually go to. Normally it will be http, which tells the browser to expect to locate a hypertext document, or as it’s more commonly known, a webpage. If the URL is not http, it might be ftp, which stands for file transfer protocol. If your site will have visitors downloading large files or large numbers of files from your site, you may want to use an ftp address.

The next part of the domain name is usually www, which stands for world wide web. This lets people and machines know the site is actually on the internet. That part is followed by the domain name, which usually consists of letters, numbers, words, or phrases. The best domain names are short, easy to remember, and friendly to search engines. If you have seen the abbreviation SEO, it stands for search engine optimization. It is best to choose a domain name with a widely searched keyword in it.

The last part of the domain name is the extension. This gives a little information about the website’s origins. We’ve all seen “.com” as the most common domain name extension. It’s the one most highly sought after by those wanting to register a domain name. It was originally intended for organizations commercial in nature. But now it’s used for just about everything. That’s because most web surfers think of “.com” first as an extension, rather than “.net” or “.org.” However, the other extensions can become memorable too, like wikipedia.org, which is a very popular website.

Domain name extensions can give some geographical information, although it might not be accurate. There are country based extensions like .fr (for France) or .de (for Germany). There are also state based extensions. None of these extensions need be a hindrance to a good site getting good traffic if marketed well.

To register a domain name, you can do several things. You can get one from a web hosting company if it offers the service, or get one from a standalone domain name company. Prices will usually run you from $5 to $30 per year.

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