What is domain name and How exactly does a domain work?

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What is domain name? This question arises when someone tells you about a website. If you ever ask for building your website, this comes first as an answer to you that ” You must have a domain to build a website”.

Basically, domain along with hosting is necessary to build a website, but domain comes first as your address.

Moreover, to make a career in Digital Marketing, you must have your website. And to have your website, the domain is a must(as I said).

Many beginners face these terms when they come to know about websites. All these may feel so technical to them in their starting career.

Now let’s jump to question, what is Domain name.

Table of Contents

What is Domain Name?

A domain name is nothing but the address of your website. It is the URL that searched in the browser’s address bar to reach someone’s website.

Now, I think you got it very simply that the domain is just an address similar to your home’s address name.

If we come to see practically, the internet is not small to remember everything. The Internet is a vast network of computers connected to each other through a global network of cables.

Due to the internet, each computer can communicate with one or more computers

And for the identification, each computer assigns an IP address. It is a series of numbers with dots just like a phone number. for example, 45.217.89.5

You can see that this typical IP address is not easy to remember. If you talk about one or two, you can even remember, but if more than 100 starts to happen then you can only think how difficult it will be to remember them.

Can you remember the address of your website to which you visit? No.

So, to make them all simple, Domain names are invented.

Now, if you want to visit any of the websites, you can just enter the domain URL in the browser’s address bar and you can visit there. Let’s take an example www.nupurneha.com

How exactly does a domain work?

After knowing what the domain really is, beginners must have the question that how exactly does a domain work!?

Now we are going to learn the working process of the domain and how the IP address helps to reach any website.

Well to know about how does a domain work you have to understand first what is Domain Name Server i.e., DNS or how it works.

The person who uses the internet uses the DNS. They use even without realizing that they are using any such DNS.

DNS servers are necessary because they are equivalent to a phone book like the Internet. They manage a huge database of domain names and translate them into IP addresses to route your request to the site you are trying to access.

This is the same like think about dialing the phone number to connect to the person you are trying to call.

The requirement of DNS because domain names are easy to remember but the computer or machine access website based on IP addresses.

Therefore a domain name system is important, so you will not have to remember the IP addresses of all your favorite sites.

You can visit there instead of typing the domain name of the site you want to visit.

Now I hope you got the idea about DNS and how does it work. Let’s see how the domain works on your website.

First of all, let me tell you the identification of the domain of any website. This means how you can identify the domain of that particular website.

Domain generally consists of two parts- Actual Domain Name and Top Level Domain(TLD).

Let’s take an example–
www.nupurneha.com
Here www is the web server configuration, nupurneha is the actual domain name and .com is the top-level domain.

Below is a graphic that shows the structured picture of domain name:

When you search for the website, you enter a domain name into the browser. Then the required sent to the global network of servers that make up the DNS( Domain Name System).

These servers then look for name servers connected to the domain and forward the request to those name servers.

These name servers are hosted by hosting companies. If your purchase their hosting they send the request to the webserver where your website placed.

Then after add your name servers to your domain name and your website becomes live. Finally, it then sends this data back to the browser.

I hope you understand clearly how exactly does a domain work.

How to choose a domain name?

Here I’m giving you some ideas about a domain name that will help you to choose a domain name for you.

1. The first step of choosing a domain name depends upon your interest. This might be in technology, health and fitness, food-related, sports, news, photography, games, and many more.

2. If you don’t have internet in any particular niche either choose a domain name as your name or do research and take time to think about the brand or services or any such thing which you like you use in your website to help people.

There are some sites that help you in choosing the domain name. For example- Lean Domain Search, doto.com, Maker Names, etc.

3. Choose a domain name that is easy to pronounce as well as remember. If people struggle to spell it or pronounce it correctly, it will affect the memorability of the name and hurt your brand.

4. Pick a domain that is unique. Avoid names that can be confused with existing brands.

If you think you can piggyback on the success of another brand, then you are very wrong. Brand confusion will be the least of your concerns when you get sued.

5. While choosing a domain use appreciate extension. Your TLD defines your awareness. Try choosing an eye-catching extension. This will help you in your brand establishment also.

6. Try avoiding symbols in your domain name. This will not disturb you in the early stages but when you go exploring new fields this will affect your brand.

7. Keep your domain short and simple. Some keep their domains like bestdealsforyouarehere.com.

This is not a good way to choose your domain. So better to choose your brand as short as possible so that the domain can define clearly.

8. Choose a domain that suits your brand and services. You must be careful not to get too literal.

But a clever domain name that suggests to consumers what they can expect to find when they land on your site is a great advantage to any business.

Different types of domain name

There are many types of domain names. Let’s discuss them briefly.

Generally, domain names are available in different extensions. The most used and considers popular is the .com domain.

Also, many domain extensions used such as .in, .tech, .info, .org, .co.in and many more.

1. Top Level Domain (TLD)

TLD is a short form of Top Level Domain. It is basically the last segment of a domain name that is used after the final dot.
Let’s take an example– .com.

There are three types recognized by IANA(Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) of TLD.
They are

gTLD – Generic Top-Level Domains
sTLD – Sponsored Top-Level Domains
ccTLD – Country Code Top-Level Domains

Now let’s see what these types really is:

gTLD – Generic Top-Level Domains

In gTLD the TLD contains which are as follows:
.com
.org
.net
.google
.oracle etc.

sTLD – Sponsored Top-Level Domains

TLD which comes under sTLD is as follows:
.gov – for use by the US government.
.edu – for post-secondary institutions that are accredited by the US Department of Education.
.mil – for use by the US military.
.museum
.post
.travels etc

ccTLD – Country Code Top-Level Domains

ccTLDs are top-level domains that represent specific countries. A partial list of common examples is:

.us – USA
.uk – United Kingdom
.eu – European Union
.de – Germany
.fr – France
.cn – China

2. Second Level Domain

In this, Domain extensions are like this .co.in, .co.org, co.net etc.

Let’s take the example of the United Kingdom (UK).
1) .co.uk – British company use
2) .gov.uk – Use for government institutions
3) .ac.uk – used by academic institutions and universities

How to Check domain availability from any sites?

The requirements before getting your domain name are a must. You should take care what are the needs of taking domain names.

If you talk to me, as a digital marketer I tell you that a domain name is a must to grow your business online. As I said above it is very important for building your website.

And to build your website, you must keep patience. Because there are so many people who just leave the digital marketing career because of some small technical issues.

Before taking a domain name you must have to take care of your niche. Because niche-related domain helps you in SEO work.

Then one thing you have is your debit or credit card paying for the domain name.

After that, you have to go to the website which provides domain names like godaddy.com, namecheap.com, domain.com, etc., and register there.

Here I am going to show you how you can check domain availability in Godaddy.
Let’s see the steps to follow:
Step 1: You have to go to the website of Godaddy( www.godaddy.com ).

Step 2: There you will see the search bar for the domain search. Type there your favorite domain name like nehanupur622.com.

If the domain available then buy it.

There are many paid domain websites. They are as follows:
1. Namecheap.com
2. Domain.com
3. Godaddy.com
4. Buydomains.com
5. Name.com

How to Register a Domain Name for Free?

There are also some websites where you can resistor your domain name for free.
Let’s understand whole the step of registering a domain name for free.

There are so many websites available which provide you domain name(free)+ hosting(paid).

As hosting is compulsory to host your website. Either you have your website or not but when you have your website hosting needs in anyways.

So, therefore, these are the websites that provide a domain name for free.

Best hosting sites for wordpress:

1). Hostgator.com
2). Bluehost.com / Bluehost.in(for india only)
3). Greengeeks.com
4). Hostinger.com
5). Siteground.com
6). A2hosting.com

Now I am going to show how you can resistor your domain from bluehost.com.

Step 1: Go to the website of Bluehost i.e., www.bluehost.com.
There you will the get start button. Click on it.

Step 2: After clicking you come to this page . Here you have to choose your plans to purchase domain name and hosting.

Step 3: If you are a beginner then I recommend you choose a basic plan.

When you choose a basic plan you will the page like this .

Step 4: When you choose, the page there will be a box where you have to write your domain name in that box and make sure that it is relevant to your niche.
Because the .com extension helps you to explore throughout the world, you must choose the .com domain. Then click on the Next button.

Step 5: When you click on the Next button you will appear on the page where you have to fill in all the details like name, address, city, email address, etc.

Step 6: After filling in the information, you have to choose the duration of your plan from 1 year, 2 years, or 3 years.
Then after you can submit the details there.

Step 7: After submission you have to proceed further by payment method.

When you completed these steps you will get mail to your email with all your information feeds.

Then after you will be ready to go for designing your website.

I hope you get it very clearly the steps of registering a domain name.

Continue Reading: What is WordPress and How it is helpful in Digital Marketing?

How to transfer domain name?

Many of you don’t satisfied with your domain and want to transfer them. And the question that arises here is that can it is possible to transfer your domain name or not. Yes, you can transfer your domain name.

Even my domain name was different before nupurneha.com.
I also have transferred my domain name.

To transfer your domain name to another registrant, you can initiate a change of registrant by contacting your current registrar.

Your registrar will then ask for your confirmation via a secure mechanism (which typically will take the form of an email to the registered name holder).

You must provide your confirmation within the number of days set by your registrar (not to exceed 60 days) or your transfer will not proceed.

Once your registrar receives confirmation from you, they will process the transfer and notify you and the new registrant once the transfer is completed.

You can transfer a domain name from any of the domain registrars and it will take time approx 6 to 7 days to complete all the process.

If you get into any trouble, customer service is always there for you.

What is Subdomain?

The piece of additional information that is added before the domain name of your website is considered a subdomain.

This is nothing but a part of the domain that is used to create separate defined blogs or an online store that is apart from your website.

This allows websites to separate and organize content for a specific function.

Let’s see an example:-
blog.nupurneha.com

Here blog.nupurneha.com is my subdomain and nupurneha.com is the domain.

Not only blog you can take anything there like website, digital, online, learn, etc.

Subdomains make it simple for you to organize the various functions of your website, while also making it easier for users to find these different functions.

How domain is different from subdomain?

The main difference between a Domain and a Subdomain is that Domain can exist without a subdomain, but the subdomain without the domain can’t.

Domain: Domain name is your website address on the internet where people reach your website by addressing your name.
It is something that internet users type in the browser’s URL bar to visit your site.

Subdomain: A subdomain is an additional part of your main domain name. Subdomains are created to organize and navigate the various sections of your website. You can create multiple subdomains on your main domain.

Conclusion:

Now I hope you understand the whole concept of domain. How domain is necessary and what the role of it in your website all explained here briefly.

If you are a beginner and want to pursue a career in digital marketing, then you must have a domain and host for it.

Beyond all, I request that you do not rush in choosing your domain name. Take time, think, read articles, take ideas from the internet then choose your perfect domain name.

I have tried my best to give you the knowledge on domain name.

Now if you enjoyed reading my article please comment down below and give your feedback about how it helps you and what changes do I need to do.

Thanks for reading! 🙂