Let’s say you buy a new phone.
For your friends to be able to reach to you, and contact you on your new phone, you need to give them your “phone number”, which they can use to call you. This “phone number” is “unique address” for your phone, and when someone dials it, they will reach only you.
Similarly, for people to be able to reach you on your new website, they need a “unique address”. The “domain name” serves as a “unique address” which will take people to your website.
What is a domain name?
Which websites do you visit often?
How do you reach to the websites you visit daily?
For visiting Google, YouTube, or TimesOfIndia, you write their “link” in the web browser – www.google.com, www.youtube.com, www.timeofindia.com.
This link is the domain name of these websites.
Let us consider the example of www.google.com to understand what a domain name is.
A website address is mainly a combination of three parts:
- World Wide Web: www is an abbreviation of World Wide Web. It is the very first part of any web address or link and remains the same for each website.
- Domain: This is the name of website. In www.google.com – in the website link you write to visit Google, the portion “google” is the domain name. It is unique for each website address.
- Extension or Top-Level Domains (TLD): Extensions, known as Top-Level Domains (TLDs), come at the end of any web address. In this example, “.com” is the TLD. This TLD represents which category your website belongs to. “.com” is most widely used TLD in the world. “.in” is used mainly for Indian websites, “.net” for technology-related websites, “.org” for organizations, and so on. .
The domain name of any website address is hence the combination of latter two parts – ‘domain’ + ‘extension’. In www.google.com, “google.com” is the domain name.
How to register a domain name?
To register a domain name, you need to select your “domain” and the “extension”.
First, choose your domain. Search for your domain to see if the name you want is actually available. For example, you cannot register “Google” or “YouTube” because they are already taken. Look for a name that best fits your website and is available too.
Also Read: What is Digital Information Security in Healthcare Act (DISHA) in India?
Second, choose your extension. Based on which category your website belongs to, choose the extension you want. For example, if your website is photography based, then “yourname.photography” or “yourname.pics” is the best extension for you. There are more than 300 extensions available and you can choose one based on the category your website belongs to: general, organizations, business, education, technology, food, fashion, media, real state, hobbies, lifestyle, location, personal and others.
Want to know more about how to buy a domain name, watch this video-
Conclusion
A domain name is hence your website’s unique identity and helps people find connect with you on the internet. A right domain name can do wonders for your website, so always choose a name that fits your website best. The next step after getting a domain is creating your website.
Did this article help you understand what a domain name is? If you have any questions that I can answer, please use the comments section below 🙂
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