How important can an top domain name be?

One of the most vital prerequisites for creating a successful online presence is the domain. It is what visitors will observe first when they come across your website and what they will link you with. The domain should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that informs your visitors what the site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

A domain usually has two parts - a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the TLD and "domain" is the SLD. There are a few sets of TLDs that you should consider prior to picking the domain name you want. Your selection should rest on the intention of your website and on its target audience. Let's have a glimpse at the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domain Names - these are the most typical TLDs meant to express a specific intention - .com (business organizations), .net (networks), .biz (businesses), .info (informational websites), .org (non-profit organizations), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific), .name (individuals or families), .pro (certain walks of life), etc. As you can see, these Top-Level Domains cover most spheres of life, so you should go for the one that would express the aim of your site best. There is no limitation as to who can register such TLDs, but some of them involve additional steps to show that you qualify to possess such a domain name (.mobi and .pro, for example).

Country-code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domain Names, are country-specific domains. Each country has its own ccTLD. Getting such a domain name is good if your target group of web page visitors is from a specific country. Many people would elect to buy goods or services from a local web site, and if your goal is Canada, for instance, picking a .ca domain could increase the visits to your web site.

Domain Name Redirection

You can register a number of Top-Level Domain Names, which can redirect your visitors to a particular web site like domain.com, for example. This would raise the traffic and lower the risk of somebody snatching your website visitors by registering the same Second-Level Domain Name with another Top-Level Domain Name - if you are not using a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Every TLD has domain records. The name server records (NS records, also known as DNS records) specify where the domain is hosted, in other words they point to the web hosting company whose name servers (NSs, a.k.a. DNSs) it is utilizing at present. You can substitute the DNSs of your domain at any time. You can have your domain name registered with one provider and get the webspace hosting service itself from another. Hence, if you register your domain name and find decent website hosting plans somewhere else afterwards, you can point your domain name to the current company's NSs instantaneously.

Name Server Records (DNS Records)

In general, as long as your domain name utilizes a specific set of DNSs, all its domain records will lead to the same hosting vendor. Some site hosting suppliers, however, enable you to edit certain records, among them the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an IP address, which indicates on which web hosting server your website is situated, whereas the MX records designate which web hosting server tackles the e-mail accounts related to your domain name. For example, if you appoint a new web page designer and he devises an .ASP web site that will be accommodated on his own Windows hosting server, you may want to edit solely the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain name. So, www.domain.com will direct to the Windows web server, but your email boxes or any sub-domains such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux web space hosting account. The .ASP environment is invented by Microsoft and demands a Windows web hosting server, although a Linux hosting server would be way more stable.

Affordably Priced TLDs Distributed by '4 Web Host'

Just a small number of web hosting suppliers enable you to modify certain DNS records and quite frequently this an additional paid service. With 4 Web Host , you have a huge array of TLDs to choose from and you can edit all records or redirect the domains using a forwarding tool at no added cost. For that reason, '4 Web Host' would be your finest pick when it comes to administering your domain and to creating a successful presence on the Internet.