How important can an affordable domain name be?

One of the most essential requirements for establishing a successful web presence is the domain name. It is what visitors will discern first when they stumble upon your web site and what they will relate you with. The domain should be easy to remember, but should also be something that tells your web page's visitors what the site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain name typically has two parts - a Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain Name (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain Name and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain Name. There are a couple of categories of Top-Level Domain Names that you should contemplate prior to selecting the domain name you want. Your choice should be based on the intention of your site and on its target visitors. Let's scrutinize the gTLDs, or generic TLDs - these are the most typical TLDs aimed to express a given function - .com (business organizations), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (firms), .info (informational web sites), .org (non-profit organizations), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific), .name (persons or relatives), .pro (certain walks of life), etc. As you can perceive, these Top-Level Domain Names cover most spheres of life, so you should settle on the one that would signify the purpose of your website best. There is no limitation as to who can register such Top-Level Domain Names, but some of them involve extra steps to prove that you are eligible to keep such a domain (.mobi and .pro, for instance).

Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domain Names, are country-specific Top-Level Domain Names. Each country has its own ccTLD. Picking such a TLD is good if your target group of visitors is from a particular country. Many individuals would prefer to purchase goods or services from a local site, and if your goal is Canada, for instance, choosing a .ca Top-Level Domain could increase the visits to your web site.

URL Forwarding

You can register a number of TLDs, which can redirect your website's visitors to a specific website such as domain.com, for instance. This would raise the traffic and lower the chance of somebody snatching your web page visitors by registering the same Second-Level Domain with another Top-Level Domain - if you are not availing of a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Every domain has domain records. The name server records (NS records, aka DNS records) indicate where the domain is hosted, in other words they point to the web hosting distributor whose name servers (NSs, a.k.a. DNSs) it is utilizing now. You can swap the NSs of your domain at any time. You can have your domain name registered with one firm and get the hosting service itself from another. Therefore, if you register your domain name and discover decent website hosting packages somewhere else at a later time, you can point your domain to the new provider's name servers instantly.

Domain Name Server Records (DNS Records)

On the whole, as long as your domain name utilizes a given set of name servers, all its NS records will direct to the same web hosting vendor. Some web hosting companies, however, enable you to modify certain domain records, among them the A records and the MX records of your domain. The A record is an IP address, which reveals on which web hosting server your website is located, whereas the MX records indicate which web server handles the mail address accounts associated with your domain name. For instance, if you hire a new web page designer and he creates an .ASP web page that will be situated on his private Windows server, you may want to edit just the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. Hence, www.domain.com will point to the Windows web server, but your mailbox accounts or any sub-domain names like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux hosting account. The .ASP platform is developed by Microsoft and calls for a Windows web hosting server, even though a Linux hosting server would be way more reliable.

Cut-Rate TLDs Provided by 'Exclusive Hosting'

Just a number of web hosting providers allow you to modify specific records and very often this an additional paid service. With Exclusive Hosting , you get a vast array of Top-Level Domains to pick from and you can modify all NS records or forward the domain names through a forwarding tool at no additional charge. Therefore, 'Exclusive Hosting' would be your finest choice when it comes to administering your domain and to setting up a successful presence on the World Wide Web.