How important can an affordable domain name be?

One of the most essential requirements for establishing a successful Internet presence is the domain name. It is what people will discern first when they come across your web site and what they will relate you with. The domain name should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that notifies your site's visitors what the web site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain traditionally is composed of 2 components - a Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain Name (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the TLD and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain Name. There are several categories of TLDs that you should contemplate before you pick the domain name you want. Your decision should depend on the aim of your web page and on its target audience. Let's check out the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domains - these are the most typical TLDs meant to designate a particular purpose - .com (business organizations), .net (networks), .biz (corporations), .info (informative sites), .org (non-profit organizations), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific region), .name (individuals or relatives), .pro (given walks of life), etc. As you can perceive, these TLDs encompass most spheres of life, so you should choose the one that would portray the objective of your web page best. There is no limitation as to who can register such domains, but some of them involve extra steps to prove that you are eligible to register such a Top-Level Domain Name (.mobi and .pro, for example).

Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domains, are country-specific TLDs. Each country has its own ccTLD. Choosing such a Top-Level Domain Name is good if your target group of visitors is from a certain country. Many people would elect to buy commodities or services from a local web page, and if your goal is Canada, for instance, registering a .ca domain could increase the visits to your web site.

Domain Forwarding

You can register several Top-Level Domains, which can send your visitors to a given site like domain.com, for example. This would raise the traffic and lower the risk of someone pilfering your website visitors by registering the same Second-Level Domain with another Top-Level Domain Name - if you are not availing of a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each and every Top-Level Domain has domain records. The name server records (NS records, aka DNS records) indicate where the domain name is hosted, i.e. they point to the web hosting supplier whose name servers (NSs, a.k.a. DNSs) it is using at the moment. You can switch the name servers of your domain at any moment. You can have your domain registered with one firm and get the web hosting service itself from another. Therefore, if you register your domain and stumble upon decent website hosting services someplace else later, you can point your domain name to the new company's NSs immediately.

Domain Name Server Records (DNS Records)

In general, as long as your domain utilizes a given set of DNSs, all its DNS records will lead to the same website hosting distributor. Some website hosting firms, however, allow you to modify given domain records, including the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an IP address, which details on which server your website is hosted, while the MX records demonstrate which web hosting server tackles the e-mail address accounts associated with your domain name. For instance, if you engage a new site designer and he develops an .ASP web page that will be situated on his private Windows web hosting server, you may want to alter only the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. In this way, www.domain.com will point to the Windows web hosting server, but your electronic mail accounts or any sub-domains like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux web site hosting account. The .ASP platform is designed by Microsoft and requires a Windows server, although a Linux web hosting server would be far more secure.

Budget Domains Brought by 'Exclusive Hosting'

Just a small number of web hosting companies enable you to modify certain name server records and very often this an extra paid service. With Exclusive Hosting , you have an enormous array of Top-Level Domains to pick from and you can modify all name server records or redirect the domains via a forwarding tool at no extra charge. Therefore, 'Exclusive Hosting' would be your finest choice when it comes to administering your domain name and to setting up a successful presence on the Internet.