How essential can an top domain be?

One of the most crucial requirements for running a successful online presence is the domain. It is what people will observe first when they stumble upon your web page and what they will associate you with. The domain name should be easy to remember, but should also be something that tells your visitors what the site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

A domain usually has two parts - a Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain Name (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the TLD and "domain" is the SLD. There are a few groups of TLDs that you should examine before you select the domain name you want. Your choice should rest on the aim of your web site and on its target visitors. Let's scrutinize the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domain Names - these are the most typical TLDs meant to denote a specific intention - .com (business enterprises), .net (networks), .biz (corporations), .info (informational web pages), .org (organizations), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific), .name (individuals or families), .pro (certain walks of life), and so on. As you can perceive, these TLDs cover most spheres of life, so you should pick the one that would show the objective of your web site best. There is no restriction as to who can register such domains, but some of them contain additional requirements to ascertain that you qualify to keep such a TLD (.mobi and .pro, for example).

Country-code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domain Names, are country-specific domains. Each country has its own ccTLD. Selecting such a domain name is good if your target group of site visitors is from a particular country. Many individuals would elect to purchase commodities or services from a local web page, and if your aim is Canada, for example, registering a .ca domain could increase the visits to your web page.

Domain Redirects

You can register several TLDs, which can redirect your web page's visitors to a specific website like domain.com, for instance. This would raise the traffic and reduce the possibility of somebody stealing your website visitors by using the same Second-Level Domain Name with a different Top-Level Domain Name - if you are not using a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each and every domain name has domain records. The name server records (NS records, a.k.a. DNS records) demonstrate where the domain is hosted, i.e. they point to the web hosting firm whose name servers (NSs, also known as DNSs) it is utilizing at present. You can substitute the DNSs of your domain at all times. You can have your domain name registered with one firm and get the webspace hosting service itself from another. Thus, if you register your domain name and detect decent website hosting plans somewhere else afterwards, you can point your domain to the new company's NSs at once.

Domain Name Server Records (NS Records)

On the whole, as long as your domain uses a given set of NSs, all its DNS records will lead to the same website hosting vendor. Some hosting companies, though, enable you to modify specific NS records, among them the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an IP address, which shows on which web hosting server your web site is hosted, while the MX records indicate which web server handles the e-mailbox accounts related to your domain name. For instance, if you engage a new web page designer and he creates an .ASP web site that will be hosted on his own Windows server, you may desire to edit only the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain name. Thus, www.domain.com will direct to the Windows server, but your e-mail accounts or any sub-domains like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux web space hosting account. The .ASP platform is developed by Microsoft and calls for a Windows web hosting server, although a Linux web hosting server would be far more secure.

Cut-Rate Domain Names Distributed by 'Exclusive Hosting'

Just a small number of web hosting vendors enable you to modify certain DNS records and very often this an additional paid service. With Exclusive Hosting , you get a wide array of Top-Level Domains to pick from and you can modify all NS records or forward the domain names via a redirection tool at no additional cost. Therefore, 'Exclusive Hosting' would be your best pick when it comes to administering your domain name and to establishing a successful presence on the World Wide Web.