1 of 8

Write now Article Tools

1. What is a domain name?

Even the most non IT-savvy person knows that domain name is a web address. But that is just about what most Internet users know on what is a domain name. Domain name is technically known as Domain Name Server (DNS), a hierachical naming system for websites in the World Wide Web. Basically website addresses are assigned numbers known as the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. DNS act as a server and translate all the sets of numbers into address that can be easier to recognized and remember.

2. What is domain name made up of?

Essentially, a domain name is made up of two segments, the hostname and the label. Host name is the typical main body of the domain name like www.google.com, google will be the hostname while .com is the label or technically known as top-level domain. It is very important to note that there are many other labels like .net, .org and so on. Typically, most people believed that a .com is more trustworthy then of websites with other types of labels like .org or .to.

3. How to register a domain name?

First of all, the hostname on the same top-level domain has to be original or not currently in used. Rights to a domain name can be delegated by registars which are accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an organization responsible for the domain names on the Internet. However, that is not the only body in charged of domain names. Top-level domains (for example .com) are individually oversees by their own registrars and they are responsible for the administration and maintenance of their respective database.

4. Are there any legislation on domain name?

Yes, in United State of America (USA), there are "PROTECT Act" and the "Truth in Domain Names Act" that forbids the use of misleading domain names which link the visitors to undesired websites containing adult contents or to another website that is not relevant to the actual hostname. There are also a group of Internet users knowned as the "Cybersquatters". Primarily, they would usually subscribed and registered a domain name that have high potential in drawing web traffic into another site with different web contents (sometimes adult contents). These visitors were misled into thinking that it belongs to certain entities. Some of these "Cybersquatters" even managed to sold the websites that they have registered to the actual entity for a substantial amount of money. The legislation are in place to forbid such act of "Cybersquatting".

5. How important is domain name to a business?

Like what was highlighted earlier when companies actually bought over the rights of the domain names from "Cybersquatters". Internet users just very commonly believed that the domain name in question is the website of that companies. Traffic and unique visitors to a business website is of paramount importance because more traffic would mean more business. In order to have most traffic, the domain name must be as relevant to their business name or type of trade as possible as this draws a very significant technical difference in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is the process that increased the rank of the webpage appeared when the relevant keywords were being searched by users. The most traffic apart from other promoting processes like social bookmarking and anchor texts linking, search engine is by far, the most powerful of all. So if your domain name already score in the page relevancy, chances are your domain name to your website will have a higher PageRank.

6. Conclusion

I hope the above gives reader a more comprehensive understanding on what is a domain name and how important it is.

Learn more about this author, ARC IDEA CO.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about What is a domain name??
We want to hear your view. Write now!