How crucial can an affordable domain name be?

One of the most essential requirements for establishing a successful online presence is the domain name. It is what people will spot first when they visit your site and what they will relate you with. The domain should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that tells your visitors what the web site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain as a rule consists of 2 parts - a Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain Name (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain and "domain" is the SLD. There are a few sets of Top-Level Domains that you should contemplate prior to picking the domain name you want. Your pick should be based on the aim of your website and on its target audience. Let's explore the gTLDs, or generic TLDs - these are the most popular Top-Level Domain Names intended to show a specific function - .com (commercial organizations), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (firms), .info (informative resources), .org (organizations of a non-commercial character), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific), .name (individuals or families), .pro (specific walks of life), etc. As you can perceive, these Top-Level Domain Names encompass most spheres of life, so you should choose the one that would illustrate the aim of your web page best. There is no limitation as to who can register such domain names, but some of them involve extra steps to verify that you qualify to have such a Top-Level Domain (.mobi and .pro, for example).

Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code TLDs, are country-specific domains. Each country has its own ccTLD. Picking such a TLD is good if your target group of site visitors is from a given country. Many people would rather purchase goods or services from a local website, and if your goal is Canada, for instance, choosing a .ca Top-Level Domain Name could increase the visits to your web page.

Domain Redirection

You can register several Top-Level Domain Names, which can forward your website's visitors to a particular site like domain.com, for example. This would increase the traffic and decrease the risk of somebody swiping your website visitors by using the same SLD with another TLD - if you are not availing of a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each Top-Level Domain has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, a.k.a. DNS records) reveal where the domain name is hosted, in other words they point to the hosting firm whose name servers (NSs, a.k.a. DNSs) it is using now. You can replace the DNSs of your domain whenever you want. You can have your domain name registered with one firm and get the webspace hosting service itself from another. So, if you register your domain name and discover good website hosting solutions somewhere else later, you can point your domain name to the new company's NSs straight off.

Domain Name Server Records (DNS Records)

In general, as long as your domain utilizes a specific pair of NSs, all its domain name server records will lead to the same web page hosting vendor. Some site hosting providers, however, enable you to modify given domain name records, among them the A records and the MX records of your domain. The A record is an IP address, which designates on which web hosting server your web site is situated, whereas the MX records demonstrate which web server tackles the mail accounts related to your domain name. For example, if you engage a new web site designer and he develops an .ASP website that will be situated on his own Windows web hosting server, you may want to edit only the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. In this way, www.domain.com will point to the Windows web server, but your mails or any sub-domains like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux web hosting account. The .ASP environment is created by Microsoft and requires a Windows web server, although a Linux web hosting server would be far more dependable.

Moderately Priced Top-Level Domains Supplied by 'Mad about Hosting'

Just a few web hosting vendors permit you to modify specific records and very frequently this an additional paid service. With Mad about Hosting , you have an extensive selection of TLDs to pick from and you can modify all domain name records or forward the domains through a forwarding tool at no extra charge. Therefore, 'Mad about Hosting' would be your finest pick when it comes to administering your domain and to creating a successful presence on the web.