How vital can an affordable domain name be?

One of the most vital preconditions for setting up a successful Internet presence is the domain name. It is what visitors will perceive first when they come across your web site and what they will associate you with. The domain name should be easy to remember, but should also be something that informs your website's visitors what the site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain usually is composed of 2 fragments - a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain Name and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain Name. There are a couple of sets of TLDs that you should consider prior to selecting the domain name you want. Your selection should be based on the goal of your site and on its target visitors. Let's have a glimpse at the gTLDs, or generic TLDs - these are the most widespread Top-Level Domains aimed to designate a specific function - .com (commercial organizations), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (corporations), .info (informative websites), .org (organizations of a non-commercial character), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific region), .name (individuals or relatives), .pro (given professions), etc. As you can see, these TLDs encompass most fields of life, so you should choose the one that would describe the purpose of your website best. There is no restriction as to who can register such domain names, but some of them include extra steps to show that you qualify to keep such a Top-Level Domain Name (.mobi and .pro, for instance).

Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code TLDs, are country-specific domain names. Each country has its own ccTLD. Picking such a domain is good if your target group of site visitors is from a specific country. Many visitors would like to buy goods or services from a local site, and if your target is Canada, for instance, picking a .ca Top-Level Domain could increase the visits to your web site.

Domain Name Redirection

You can register different Top-Level Domains, which can send your visitors to a particular site like domain.com, for instance. This would raise the traffic and reduce the probability of somebody snatching your web site visitors by using the same SLD with a different TLD - if you are not availing of a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Every domain name has domain records. The name server records (NS records, a.k.a. DNS records) specify where the domain is hosted, i.e. they point to the web hosting company whose name servers (NSs, aka DNSs) it is using at the moment. You can modify the NSs of your domain whenever you like. You can have your domain name registered with one provider and get the website hosting service itself from another. In this way, if you register your domain and stumble upon good website hosting services somewhere else afterwards, you can point your domain to the new company's name servers right away.

Name Server Records (DNS Records)

On the whole, as long as your domain uses a specific pair of NSs, all its DNS records will point to the same website hosting company. Some web space hosting providers, though, enable you to modify certain name server records, among them the A records and the MX records of your domain. The A record is an IP address, which demonstrates on which server your web page is situated, while the MX records demonstrate which web server tackles the e-mail address accounts associated with your domain name. For instance, if you take on a new web designer and he creates an .ASP web page that will be accommodated on his personal Windows server, you may want to modify just the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain name. Thus, www.domain.com will direct to the Windows web server, but your mailboxes or any sub-domain names like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux website hosting account. The .ASP platform is created by Microsoft and demands a Windows web hosting server, even though a Linux web server would be way more dependable.

Cheap Domains Offered by 'Free Hostia'

Just a number of web hosting vendors allow you to modify certain domain name server records and quite frequently this an extra paid service. With Free Hostia , you get a large array of TLDs to pick from and you can modify all records or forward the domains via a forwarding tool at no extra cost. Because of that, 'Free Hostia' would be your finest pick when it comes to administering your domain and to establishing a successful presence on the Internet.