How important can an top domain name be?

One of the most important prerequisites for establishing a successful online presence is the domain. It is what visitors will perceive first when they discover your website and what they will relate you with. The domain name should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that informs your web site's visitors what the website is about.

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

A domain traditionally has 2 parts - a Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain Name (SLD). If you have domain.com, for instance, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain Name. There are a few categories of TLDs that you should examine before you pick the domain name you wish. Your pick should rest on the purpose of your website and on its target audience. Let's analyze the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domains - these are the most popular TLDs aimed to indicate a particular purpose - .com (commercial entities), .net (networks), .biz (firms), .info (informative resources), .org (organizations of a non-commercial character), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific region), .name (persons or families), .pro (certain professions), etc. As you can perceive, these TLDs cover most spheres of life, so you should go for the one that would portray the intention of your web page best. There is no restriction as to who can register such Top-Level Domain Names, but some of them involve additional steps to show that you qualify to own such a domain name (.mobi and .pro, for example).

Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code TLDs, are country-specific Top-Level Domain Names. Each country has its own ccTLD. Choosing such a Top-Level Domain Name is good if your target group of web page visitors is from a particular country. Many folks would prefer to buy commodities or services from a local site, and if your target is Canada, for instance, choosing a .ca domain could boost the visits to your site.

URL Redirection

You can register different domains, which can send your visitors to a given web site like domain.com, for example. This would boost the traffic and reduce the likelihood of somebody pinching your website visitors by registering the same Second-Level Domain Name with a different Top-Level Domain - if you are not availing of a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each and every Top-Level Domain Name has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, also known as DNS records) reveal where the domain name is hosted, i.e. they point to the web hosting vendor whose name servers (NSs, also known as DNSs) it is using now. You can change the DNSs of your domain name whenever you like. You can have your domain registered with one provider and get the web hosting service itself from another. Thus, if you register your domain and discover decent website hosting packages somewhere else afterwards, you can point your domain to the current company's name servers at once.

Domain Name Server Records (NS Records)

On the whole, as long as your domain uses a specific set of DNSs, all its DNS records will direct to the same web site hosting firm. Some webspace hosting vendors, however, allow you to modify given domain name records, such as the A records and the MX records of your domain. The A record is an IP address, which demonstrates on which web hosting server your web site is hosted, while the MX records specify which hosting server handles the email addresses associated with your domain name. For instance, if you appoint a new web site designer and he constructs an .ASP web site that will be located on his own Windows web hosting server, you may wish to change solely the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain name. Hence, www.domain.com will point to the Windows server, but your mail accounts or any sub-domain names such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux web site hosting account. The .ASP platform is built by Microsoft and requests a Windows web hosting server, although a Linux hosting server would be far more stable.

Low-Priced Domain Names Courtesy of 'Exclusive Hosting'

Only a number of web hosting providers permit you to modify certain records and quite often this an extra paid service. With Exclusive Hosting , you get an immense selection of Top-Level Domains to select from and you can modify all domain name records or forward the domain names using a redirection tool at no added cost. Therefore, 'Exclusive Hosting' would be your finest pick when it comes to administering your domain name and to establishing a successful presence on the web.