How vital can an affordable domain name be?

One of the most crucial preconditions for building a successful online presence is the domain. It is what visitors will see first when they come across your site and what they will relate you with. The domain name should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that notifies your visitors what the site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain name usually has two fragments - a Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain and "domain" is the SLD. There are a couple of sets of TLDs that you should contemplate prior to selecting the domain name you wish. Your decision should depend on the purpose of your web site and on its target spectators. Let's have a gaze at the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domain Names - these are the most popular Top-Level Domains aimed to designate a given purpose - .com (commercial organizations), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (corporations), .info (informational sites), .org (organizations), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific region), .name (persons or families), .pro (certain professions), etc. As you can perceive, these TLDs encompass most realms of life, so you should go for the one that would illustrate the intention of your website best. There is no restriction as to who can register such Top-Level Domain Names, but some of them involve extra steps to show that you qualify to have such a Top-Level Domain (.mobi and .pro, for instance).

Country-code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code TLDs, are country-specific Top-Level Domains. Each country has its own ccTLD. Selecting such a TLD is good if your target group of web page visitors is from a particular country. Many folks would like to buy goods or services from a local web site, and if your aim is Canada, for instance, registering a .ca domain could boost the visits to your web page.

URL Redirection

You can register different domains, which can redirect your web page's visitors to a specific website like domain.com, for example. This would increase the traffic and decrease the likelihood of someone pilfering your web page visitors by using the same Second-Level Domain Name with a different Top-Level Domain - if you are not utilizing a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Every Top-Level Domain Name has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, aka DNS records) indicate where the domain is hosted, i.e. they point to the hosting distributor whose name servers (NSs, aka DNSs) it is utilizing at the moment. You can substitute the DNSs of your domain name whenever you want. You can have your domain name registered with one provider and get the hosting service itself from another. Hence, if you register your domain name and detect good website hosting plans somewhere else afterwards, you can point your domain to the present company's DNSs instantaneously.

Domain Name Server Records (NS Records)

In general, as long as your domain utilizes a particular pair of NSs, all its name server records will direct to the same web hosting distributor. Some web hosting distributors, however, enable you to edit given domain name records, including the A records and the MX records of your domain. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which discloses on which web hosting server your website is situated, whereas the MX records display which hosting server tackles the e-mailbox accounts associated with your domain name. For instance, if you appoint a new web site designer and he devises an .ASP web site that will be accommodated on his private Windows hosting server, you may want to edit just the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. So, www.domain.com will point to the Windows web hosting server, but your e-mail accounts or any sub-domain names like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux site hosting account. The .ASP environment is built by Microsoft and requests a Windows hosting server, although a Linux web hosting server would be far more reliable.

Inexpensive Top-Level Domains Brought by 'Free Hostia'

Just a few web hosting vendors allow you to modify given domain name server records and very often this an additional paid service. With Free Hostia , you get an immense collection of Top-Level Domain Names to select from and you can edit all records or forward the domain names using a redirection tool at no extra charge. Therefore, 'Free Hostia' would be your best choice when it comes to handling your domain name and to building a successful presence on the Internet.