How important can an top domain name be?

One of the most crucial prerequisites for building a successful online presence is the domain. It is what people will spot first when they discover your site and what they will relate you with. The domain name should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that notifies your visitors what the web page is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain name usually is composed of two fragments - a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain Name (SLD). If you have domain.com, for instance, ".com" is the TLD and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain. There are a couple of groups of Top-Level Domains that you should consider before you choose the domain you wish. Your choice should be based on the aim of your web site and on its target visitors. Let's have a look at the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domains - these are the most typical Top-Level Domain Names meant to indicate a given intention - .com (business entities), .net (networks), .biz (firms), .info (informative resources), .org (organizations), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific), .name (individuals or relatives), .pro (specific professions), and so on. As you can see, these TLDs cover most realms of life, so you should settle on the one that would indicate the aim of your web page best. There is no limitation as to who can register such domain names, but some of them contain extra steps to ascertain that you are eligible to own such a TLD (.mobi and .pro, for example).

Country-code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domain Names, are country-specific TLDs. Each country has its own ccTLD. Selecting such a Top-Level Domain is good if your target group of site visitors is from a certain country. Many guys would prefer to buy commodities or services from a local website, and if your goal is Canada, for instance, selecting a .ca domain could increase the visits to your site.

Domain Name Redirects

You can register a number of Top-Level Domain Names, which can redirect your web page's visitors to a given web page like domain.com, for instance. This would increase the traffic and decrease the risk of someone snatching your visitors by registering the same SLD with another TLD - if you are not utilizing a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Every Top-Level Domain Name has domain records. The name server records (NS records, aka DNS records) indicate where the domain name is hosted, in other words they point to the web hosting firm whose name servers (NSs, a.k.a. DNSs) it is using now. You can swap the DNSs of your domain name at any time. You can have your domain registered with one firm and get the site hosting service itself from another. Thus, if you register your domain and stumble upon decent website hosting solutions somewhere else afterwards, you can point your domain to the present company's name servers right away.

Domain Name Server Records (NS Records)

In general, as long as your domain uses a specific set of DNSs, all its domain name records will direct to the same hosting firm. Some web space hosting distributors, though, allow you to edit certain DNS records, such as the A records and the MX records of your domain. The A record is an IP address, which reveals on which server your site is hosted, while the MX records reveal which server tackles the e-mail box accounts related to your domain name. For instance, if you engage a new web designer and he creates an .ASP website that will be hosted on his private Windows web server, you may desire to change only the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain name. So, www.domain.com will point to the Windows server, but your email accounts or any sub-domains like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux web space hosting account. The .ASP platform is devised by Microsoft and requires a Windows web hosting server, even though a Linux hosting server would be far more stable.

Reasonably Priced Top-Level Domain Names Furnished by 'main'

Just a small number of web hosting vendors enable you to edit given NS records and quite often this an additional paid service. With main , you have a huge selection of Top-Level Domain Names to choose from and you can edit all NS records or forward the domain names using a forwarding tool at no additional cost. Because of that, 'main' would be your finest choice when it comes to managing your domain name and to establishing a successful presence on the web.