How essential can an affordable domain name be?

One of the most essential preconditions for building a successful Internet presence is the domain. It is what people will perceive first when they discover your web page and what they will associate you with. The domain should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that notifies your site's visitors what the web page is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain traditionally has two constituents - 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 and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain. There are a couple of groups of Top-Level Domain Names that you should contemplate prior to selecting the domain name you wish. Your selection should be built upon the purpose of your site and on its target visitors. Let's study the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domain Names - these are the most widespread Top-Level Domains meant to express a particular function - .com (business organizations), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (firms), .info (informative web sites), .org (organizations), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific region), .name (persons or families), .pro (given professions), etc. As you can see, these Top-Level Domains cover most fields of life, so you should choose the one that would portray the intention of your web site best. There is no limitation as to who can register such Top-Level Domains, but some of them include extra requirements to prove that you qualify to keep such a domain name (.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 Domains. Each country has its own ccTLD. Settling on such a Top-Level Domain is good if your target group of web site visitors is from a certain country. Many folks would like to buy goods or services from a local web page, and if your goal is Canada, for instance, registering a .ca Top-Level Domain Name could increase the visits to your web page.

Domain Forwarding

You can register a bunch of TLDs, which can forward your web page's visitors to a specific web site like domain.com, for instance. This would raise the traffic and decrease the chance of somebody pinching your site visitors by registering the same name with a different TLD - if you are not utilizing a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each and every domain has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, a.k.a. DNS records) indicate where the domain is hosted, i.e. they point to the hosting company whose name servers (NSs, also known as DNSs) it is using at the moment. You can substitute the DNSs of your domain at any moment. You can have your domain name registered with one provider and get the webspace hosting service itself from another. Thus, if you register your domain name and encounter decent website hosting services someplace else afterwards, you can point your domain to the current company's DNSs straight off.

Domain Name Server Records (NS Records)

In general, as long as your domain name utilizes a certain set of DNSs, all its domain records will lead to the same webspace hosting company. Some web space hosting companies, though, permit you to edit specific NS records, such as the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which displays on which web hosting server your website is located, whereas the MX records indicate which server handles the e-mail address accounts related to your domain name. For example, if you take on a new site designer and he sets up an .ASP website that will be situated on his personal Windows server, you may want to edit only the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. Hence, www.domain.com will direct to the Windows server, but your email address accounts or any sub-domains like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux web site hosting account. The .ASP environment is developed by Microsoft and calls for a Windows server, even though a Linux server would be far more stable.

Moderately Priced Domain Names Courtesy of 'ekkhost'

Just a small number of web hosting vendors permit you to edit particular NS records and quite often this an additional paid service. With ekkhost , you have a large selection of TLDs to pick from and you can edit all domain name server records or redirect the domains using a redirection tool at no extra charge. Therefore, 'ekkhost' would be your best pick when it comes to administering your domain name and to building a successful presence on the Internet.