Web Hosting blog » Domain names

How to chose a domain name

mirko — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 01:19:40 +0000

When you design your website, you need to come up with a domain name for it so that people know how to search for you. A domain name is basically an address that you would type in the URL (or uniform resource locator) bar that is usually located at the top of your browser’s page. Once it is typed in, it should lead you directly to the website that you assigned the domain name to. Here are a few considerations that you should make when thinking up a domain name for your website:

The name of your website is ideally domain name

The general rule is that whatever your website is called, then that is the domain name that you would assign to it. So if you have created a website for a particular organization called Topol’s, then most likely you would choose a URL like www.topol.com or something along those lines. Surprisingly, some people still do not follow this rule, but in general, this rule makes it so much easier to locate certain sites.

Choosing a domain name that is branded or generic

Probably most generic names are already claimed URLs by now, but having a generic name as a domain name is not necessarily the best way to advertise your site. Having a brand name makes more sense because a brand name points to something unique which people will remember more and associate with you. Either way, pick something relevant to what your site is trying to say.

Lengthy or short domain names

Short domain names are usually more memorable than long ones, but having a short domain name that is a mixture of numbers and letters that almost look like a password may not be the best way to name your site. Long names also work if your organization’s name is the actual URL like HYPERLINK “http://www.stitchesthreadsandothers.com” www.stitchesthreadsandothers.com.

So when choosing a domain name, make it simple enough to recall quickly, but unique enough to remember. With these tips, you will have a better idea of how to pick a domain name that will distinctly direct people to your website whenever they do online, wherever they are in the world.

Basic domain name advice

mirko — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 01:03:38 +0000

Picking the right domain name for your website may be a little more difficult than you think, especially now that everyone has caught on to the internet craze and have put up sites of their own. This means that they have also taken a lot of domain names that others wish they had. When picking a domain name, you may have to pay for that name for certain periods of time so it is good to choose carefully. But here are a few clues to how you can pick the right domain name for your needs:

Dot extension

Your domain name should have an extension like .com or .net or .org which generally should reflect what sector of society you hail from. A .com address usually connotes that the website is one for a business. A .org on the other hand may point to an address of an organization with a special interest. Overall, the rules have become more flexible over the years and more people take up the .com addresses faster than others.

Short and sweet

The best way for a domain name to be remembered is to keep it short and unique. Keeping it under a 7 character length is ideal. The maximum you can register is up to 63 characters.

Don’t use names that are trademarked

You have probably heard the horror stories of cybersquatting where people register domain names of famous people or brands and demand that the same people or companies pay them millions to get their domain names back. This has ended up in a lot of lost court battles for the cybersquatter, so better avoid it before getting into trouble.

With this advice, you can pick the domain name that is suited to your website. Just make sure you register it now so that it is not taken by the next person in line. Having a domain name is having a unique address. The more unique and memorable your address is, the better the chances you’ll get more hits on your site.

About domain names

mirko — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:16:07 +0000

The internet is a network consisting of more than a million computers. All of the computers identify themselves to each other by numeric names called IP addresses which is a number that gets as big as 4.3 billion. To make identification and administration of computers that participate in a network easier, domain names are used instead of IP addresses. It should be noted though that domain names are just there for human convenience because in the mechanism of the internet, all computers talk to each other using their IP addresses.

Functions of domain names

Domain names are not just the names of each computer in the network. It is part of a hierarchical system that is used for routing network traffic. This hierarchical system is called the domain name system (DNS) and it can be quickly defined as the internet’s phone book. Given a domain name such as exampe.com, DNS translates this into its IP address which could be 208.77.93.53. Aside from labeling a computer, its domain name is used to abstract changes in IP address on network management. When a time will come when example.com changes its address, its effect is not visible to humans thus shielding us from the complexity of the internet. When example.com is typed into the browser, we do not have to know that it has a new IP address, the domain name system takes care of this for us.

Parts of a domain name

Domain names consist of a top level domain (tld) which is the familiar .com, .org or .net endings. With the rapid expansion of the internet, it became obvious that more top level domains were needed and so country code top level domains were made (cctld) and examples of such include .uk or .cn tlds. The local host name is appended to the tld so if we have server named example, when it connects to the internet, its domain name becomes example.com

Domain names are used in making the job of administering computer networks easier. Computer addresses change frequently and it would add to administrative overhead if such changes involve human intervention. Domain names are part of a hierarchy starting from a top level domain and ends at the computers who serve as web hosts.