How essential can an affordable domain name be?

One of the most crucial preconditions for running a successful online presence is the domain name. It is what people will note first when they stumble upon your site and what they will identify you with. The domain should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that informs your visitors what the web site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

A domain name usually consists of 2 constituents - a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain (SLD). If you have domain.com, for instance, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain Name and "domain" is the SLD. There are a few groups of Top-Level Domain Names that you should contemplate before you choose the domain name you wish. Your selection should depend on the purpose of your web site and on its target audience. Let's analyze the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domains - these are the most popular Top-Level Domain Names intended to indicate a particular function - .com (business enterprises), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (companies), .info (informative resources), .org (non-profit organizations), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific region), .name (persons or relatives), .pro (qualified professionals), etc. As you can see, these Top-Level Domain Names cover most fields of life, so you should pick the one that would denote the intention of your web page best. There is no limitation as to who can register such domain names, but some of them involve extra requirements to show that you qualify to register such a domain (.mobi and .pro, for example).

Country-code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code TLDs, are country-specific Top-Level Domains. Each country has its own ccTLD. Opting for such a domain name is good if your target group of visitors is from a certain country. Many people would elect to buy goods or services from a local website, and if your target is Canada, for example, opting for a .ca domain could increase the visits to your web site.

Domain Name Redirects

You can register several TLDs, which can send your site's visitors to a specific site like domain.com, for instance. This would raise the traffic and decrease the possibility of somebody pilfering your website visitors by registering the same name with another Top-Level Domain - if you are not using a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Every Top-Level Domain Name has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, aka DNS records) demonstrate where the domain name is hosted, i.e. they point to the hosting supplier whose name servers (NSs, also known as DNSs) it is using at present. You can substitute the name servers of your domain name at any time. You can have your domain name registered with one firm and get the website hosting service itself from another. So, if you register your domain name and encounter good website hosting plans someplace else at a later time, you can point your domain name to the present company's NSs right away.

Name Server Records (NS Records)

On the whole, as long as your domain utilizes a particular pair of DNSs, all its name server records will lead to the same site hosting supplier. Some web page hosting companies, however, allow you to edit specific NS records, such as the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an IP address, which details on which server your web page is situated, whereas the MX records indicate which server handles the email accounts related to your domain name. For example, if you engage a new website designer and he constructs an .ASP web site that will be accommodated on his personal Windows web hosting server, you may want to alter solely the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. In this way, www.domain.com will direct to the Windows web hosting server, but your e-mailbox accounts or any sub-domain names such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux website hosting account. The .ASP environment is created by Microsoft and demands a Windows web server, even though a Linux web hosting server would be far more secure.

Moderately Priced Top-Level Domain Names Courtesy of 'Exclusive Hosting'

Only a small number of web hosting providers allow you to modify given domain records and very frequently this an extra paid service. With Exclusive Hosting , you get an enormous assortment of Top-Level Domains to pick from and you can edit all DNS records or redirect the domains through a redirection tool at no added charge. Therefore, 'Exclusive Hosting' would be your best choice when it comes to handling your domain name and to creating a successful presence on the World Wide Web.