How important can an affordable domain name be?

One of the most important prerequisites for establishing a successful online presence is the domain. It is what visitors will discern first when they discover your website and what they will link you with. The domain should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that informs your web site's visitors what the web page is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain typically is composed of two components - a Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain Name (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the TLD and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain Name. There are a couple of categories of Top-Level Domains that you should consider before you select the domain you desire. Your selection should depend on the intention of your web page and on its target audience. Let's have a gaze at the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domain Names - these are the most typical Top-Level Domain Names meant to express a specific function - .com (business establishments), .net (networks), .biz (corporations), .info (informative sites), .org (non-profit organizations), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific), .name (individuals or families), .pro (given professions), and so on. As you can perceive, these Top-Level Domain Names cover most spheres of life, so you should opt for the one that would portray the aim of your web site best. There is no restriction as to who can register such TLDs, but some of them contain extra steps to verify that you qualify to have such a domain name (.mobi and .pro, for example).

Country-code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code TLDs, are country-specific Top-Level Domains. Each country has its own ccTLD. Opting for such a domain is good if your target group of web site visitors is from a given country. Many individuals would elect to buy goods or services from a local web page, and if your target is Canada, for example, picking a .ca Top-Level Domain Name could boost the visits to your web page.

URL Redirection

You can register a bunch of domains, which can redirect your web page's visitors to a certain web site such as domain.com, for example. This would raise the traffic and lower the likelihood of someone stealing your visitors by using the same SLD with another Top-Level Domain Name - if you are not availing of a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Every domain has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, a.k.a. DNS records) specify where the domain is hosted, i.e. they point to the hosting distributor whose name servers (NSs, aka DNSs) it is using at present. You can switch the NSs of your domain at any moment. You can have your domain name registered with one company and get the site hosting service itself from another. In this way, if you register your domain and stumble upon decent website hosting packages somewhere else at a later time, you can point your domain to the current company's name servers instantaneously.

Domain Name Server Records (DNS Records)

In general, as long as your domain uses a specific set of NSs, all its name server records will direct to the same webspace hosting distributor. Some site hosting providers, though, enable you to edit specific domain name server records, among them the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which exhibits on which web hosting server your website is situated, whereas the MX records exhibit which server tackles the mailbox accounts associated with your domain name. For example, if you appoint a new site designer and he constructs an .ASP web site that will be hosted on his personal Windows web server, you may want to alter just the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain name. Thus, www.domain.com will direct to the Windows hosting server, but your email mailboxes or any sub-domains such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux webspace hosting account. The .ASP platform is created by Microsoft and necessitates a Windows server, although a Linux server would be far more reliable.

Cut-Rate Domain Names Delivered by 'AIDA Host'

Just a small number of web hosting distributors allow you to edit certain DNS records and quite frequently this an extra paid service. With AIDA Host , you have a wide array of TLDs to choose from and you can modify all DNS records or forward the domains via a redirection tool at no added charge. That is why, 'AIDA Host' would be your best pick when it comes to handling your domain name and to establishing a successful presence on the web.