How essential can an affordable domain name be?

One of the most vital prerequisites for building a successful online presence is the domain name. It is what people will discern first when they visit your website and what they will link you with. The domain should be easy to remember, but should also be something that tells your website's visitors what the web site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

A domain name as a rule contains 2 constituents - a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain Name and "domain" is the SLD. There are a few categories of Top-Level Domain Names that you should contemplate before you choose the domain name you wish. Your decision should depend on the goal of your website and on its target audience. Let's take a peek at the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domain Names - these are the most widespread Top-Level Domain Names intended to signify a particular function - .com (commercial enterprises), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (firms), .info (informative web sites), .org (organizations), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific), .name (persons or relatives), .pro (specific professions), and so on. As you can perceive, these Top-Level Domains cover most fields of life, so you should choose the one that would portray the purpose of your website best. There is no restriction as to who can register such domains, but some of them contain extra requirements to ascertain that you are eligible to register such a Top-Level Domain (.mobi and .pro, for example).

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. Selecting such a domain name is good if your target group of web page visitors is from a specific country. Many individuals would sooner buy goods or services from a local site, and if your target is Canada, for instance, choosing a .ca domain name could increase the visits to your site.

URL Redirects

You can register several domain names, which can redirect your site's visitors to a specific site such as domain.com, for instance. This would boost the traffic and decrease the risk of somebody snatching your visitors by using the same SLD with another Top-Level Domain - if you are not using a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Every domain name has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, aka DNS records) show where the domain name is hosted, in other words they point to the web hosting vendor whose name servers (NSs, also known as DNSs) it is using now. You can replace the name servers of your domain name whenever you like. You can have your domain name registered with one provider and get the web page hosting service itself from another. Thus, if you register your domain name and stumble upon decent website hosting plans somewhere else at a later time, you can point your domain name to the new company's DNSs at once.

Name Server Records (NS Records)

In general, as long as your domain name utilizes a certain pair of name servers, all its NS records will point to the same web site hosting company. Some hosting suppliers, though, enable you to edit certain name server records, among them the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an IP address, which specifies on which server your website is hosted, whereas the MX records designate which server tackles the e-mail address accounts related to your domain name. For instance, if you engage a new web site designer and he sets up an .ASP web page that will be located on his own Windows server, you may wish to change just the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. So, www.domain.com will direct to the Windows server, but your mailboxes or any sub-domain names such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux site hosting account. The .ASP environment is created by Microsoft and calls for a Windows web server, even though a Linux web hosting server would be far more secure.

Cheap TLDs Distributed by 'Want Idea'

Only a small number of web hosting providers enable you to edit particular name server records and quite frequently this an additional paid service. With Want Idea , you get a vast assortment of Top-Level Domain Names to select from and you can modify all name server records or redirect the domains through a redirection tool at no additional charge. That is why, 'Want Idea' would be your best choice when it comes to handling your domain name and to setting up a successful presence on the Internet.