What is a Domain in the terms of Web Technology?

 

 

Do you know what is a domain? A Domain is a ‘Distributed Operating Multi-Access Interactive Network‘. I think this went over your head. In simple words, a domain is the name given to an IP (Internet Protocol) Address for easy remembrance and recalling.

I hope you know what is an IP address? An IP address is a unique address that is assigned to a device on the internet or on the local network. An IP address is usually denoted by 4 sets of numbers with dots in between them.

It is difficult to remember an IP address of a device, that is the reason a domain name is used to represent the Internet Protocol (IP) address.

 

 

A domain name is used due to the following reasons:

• Easy to remember and share.
• There is no need for IP addresses.
• Can mask IP address under the domain name.
• A domain can be accessed from anywhere with ease through internet browsers.
• Possible to give a custom easily pronounceable domain name to an IP address.
• A domain name is required for running a website or a blog.

 

 

There are certain criteria that should be considered before choosing a domain name for your website/blog. They are

• The domain name should be simple and unique.
• The domain name should be related to your website’s niche.
• The domain name should be short and specific as far as possible.
• The domain name should have a meaning. However, this is an optional condition.
• The domain name should be either a single word or a combo of 2 to 3 words.
• The domain name should be keyword-specific if your blog or website focuses on keywords.

Simple and Unique

1. Avoiding complex names is much better when choosing a domain name for your website. Complex names can’t be remembered easily.
2. The domain name should not be similar to any other branded domain name. This again pushes you into legal issues. It should be unique.

Domain Name and Website Niche

1. There should be always a relation between your domain name and your website niche. A niche is nothing but an articles category. If your niche is related to health then the domain name should be related to health only or if your website/blog is composed of technology articles then the domain should be related to technology.
2. In order to achieve better rankings in search engines, the domain name and the website niche should co-relate to each other.

Short and Specific

1. The domain name should be within the range of 6 to 16 alphabets. More than 16 alphabets make the domain name difficult to remember. However, this is not compulsory, but if there is a possibility then this condition should be applied.
2. The domain name should be specific. It should represent your website brand or your portfolio blog. People should recognize your website with your domain name.

Meaningful

1. This is optional that the domain name should have a meaning. There are many websites (with domain names) on the internet which doesn’t have any meaning but still, they appear in search results.
2. If you select a domain name that has meaning then this will be an addition for better search engine rankings of your website or blog.
3. A domain name can be a single word or a combination of two or three words as per the requirement and uniqueness.

Keyword-Specific

1. The domain name should be keyword-specific for better search engine rankings. If your website or blog focuses on a technology niche and all the articles are related to Android then ‘android’ is the main keyword and the domain name should be AndroidArena.com, AndroidWeb.com, etc., like that. This will raise the rankings of your website or blog in search engines.
2. If you want your website to be at the top of the search engines results page then there should be a relation between the domain name of the website and the keyword.

Now you got a brief idea of the domain name and how to choose a good domain name. The question arises now is ‘How to get a domain name for your website?’

 

 

A domain name is registered centrally, and nobody can register the same second name again while the first is active. There is a registry for domain names called ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). All the domain names after registration will be saved in ICANN databases. During domain name registration, the ICANN database is scanned, if it is not already available, then only the domain name will be registered.

There are a lot of authorities and services on the internet that provides the feature of registering domain names. The top domain name registrars among all the others are-

• GoDaddy
• BigRock
• NameCheap
• 1&1
• Freenom

And many more.

We will learn more about ‘How to register a domain name?‘ and ‘List of top domain name registrars‘ in our future posts/articles.

Hope you have learned about a domain name and its necessity, wisely choosing a domain name, and how to get an authentic and unique domain name for your website or blog. What next? you have to select a good web hosting company and register a web hosting account for your website.

 

Thanks for reading…!