Website domain name
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Created: Friday, 11 November 2016 18:52
Once you have an idea of the direction your website is going to go, you can then move to looking at domain names and hosting services. This week, I will go over what is a domain name, purchasing a domain name, and domain registration. There is a lot of technical information behind domain names. I won't go into too much detail about the behind the scenes stuff, but I will supply enough information that will help you navigate and maintain your web service.
A domain name is simply a unique name that allows users to navigate to your website. The domain name is linked to an IP (internet protocol) address, and this relationship can be found in a DNS (domain naming system). Basically, it is easier for people to remember a name than it is to remember an IP address, but computers use the IP address to communicate. The DNS is where the name gets associated with the IP address of a device. An example would be like 216.58.217.78 is one of the IP addresses that link to www.google.com.
Since these names and IP addresses are tied to the owner of these resources, anyone can not just use someone else's domain name. When trying to decide on a domain name, sometimes the name that you want might be in use by someone else. While it is outside the scope of this post, there are ways to acquire the name from the owner, but they typically result in buying or paying the owner for the use of the name. If the name you are looking for is in use, consider using a phrase, hyphen, or alternate spelling to find the name that fits your needs.
Typically, most people gravitate to .com domain names, but there are so many other domains out there. Think of a domain where all of the possible domain names can reside. Since you can't have duplicate names within the same domain, some people will opt to use a name in an alternate domain like .org or .net. Some organization will use the same name across multiple domains (i.e., google.com, google.net, google.biz) to maintain their branding. This prevents anyone from using this name in any capacity. A strategy like this is costly and is generally not necessary for blogs or startups, but might be necessary based on budget and branding strategy.
