When a new blogger enters the blogging world to start his blogging career, he needs to be aware of the basic requirements of blogging. A domain name is the first requirement for blogging. In this article, we are sharing with you all about the domain name i.e. what is a domain name, how it works, and different types of domain names.
Table of Content
- What is a Domain Name?
- The Domain Name System
- Domain Extension
- Types of Domain Name
- Why does it need to choose a domain name?
- Where to buy a domain name?
- Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Domain Name?
A domain name is the name of a website that is used with a domain extension to identify the website. This domain name is used in the place of an IP address.
We all use the Internet every day. Nowadays internet has become a part of us. A lot of our work is done on the Internet.
- Watching videos
- Collecting information
- Finding jobs
- Shopping
- Reading
- Banking and more
We do not get all these things in one place on the internet. We get it from various sources called websites. For shopping, we visit Amazon, Flipkart, Walmart. For collecting information, we visit Wikipedia. All these websites are located at different web addresses on the Internet, we call this an Internet Protocol (IP) address.
Different IP addresses have been given on the Internet for different websites. These IP addresses are in the form of number series, something like 158.205.2.45. The IP addresses are very difficult to remember for an individual. So, for better access to every website, a name has been used, which is associated with different extensions, it is called a domain name.
How does a Domain Name work?
To understand better how a domain name works, let’s take an example:
If you want to buy something, and you have to visit the Amazon website. Therefore, you must type the full IP address in the URL bar of the browser. It is a little difficult in typing the IP address number series. You can’t even remember the number. If you write “amazon.com” in place of IP address, then you can easily identify and reach Amazon’s website.
There are over 1.7 billion websites on the Internet, and you are probably using some of those websites to get different products, information, or different services. The IP address of all websites is also different. It is very difficult for us to remember the IP address of those websites.
With the help of a domain name, you can easily visit a website by typing only the name in the URL bar of the search engine. When we go to Amazon’s website, we get a URL like this:
https://www.amazon.com/
Here “amazon.com” is the domain name of Amazon “https://” is the web protocol sign. To visit the amazon website we just need to type the URL “https://www.amazon.com/” or only “amazon.com” in the URL bar or “Amazon” in the search engine box.
Read here: What is a Blog
The Domain Name System (DNS)
All domain names are controlled by the Domain Name System (DNS). The DNS is like a phone’s address book that saves all-numeric IP addresses in a particular name.
To understand better the DNS let’s take an example:
You have 50 friends in your friend circle and each friend has a mobile number. You saved all 50 mobile numbers on your mobile with their names for identifying every number. When you need to call them, you just go to your mobile directory and search for the name of the specified person, call him. The mobile phone worked as your directory here.
The DNS is just like a mobile directory. It saves every IP address with a particular name called Domain Name. When someone searches a particular website by its domain name on the Internet, it converted to an IP address and takes users to that website.
Now the question is who manages the DNS?
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) manages the Domain Name System. ICANN is a non-profit organization that controls and creates rules for domains. Domain Registrars take permission from the ICANN and sell the domains to the users and controls all records.
Domain Extension
The domain extensions are of the level of the domain, situated at the last part of a domain name. For example, Our website is knoansw.com, where .com is the domain extension.
The domain extension decides the levels of the domain, whether these are higher-level domain or lower-level domain.
How many types of domain are there?
Domains are divided into various types according to their levels. Different extensions are used with different levels of the domains. The extensions decide whether domains are top-level domains or lower-level domains.
Top-Level Domain (TLD)
A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. These are high-value domains.
These types of domains are:
- .com for commercial use
- .gov for Government use
- .org for organization use
- .edu for educational use
- .net for network use
- .mil for military use
Again the top-level domains are divided into various groups.
- Generic top-level domains (gTLD)
- Country-code top-level domains (ccTLD)
- Internationalized country code top-level domains (IDN ccTLD)
- Sponsored top-level domains (sTLD)
Generic top-level domains (gTLD)
These types of domains are used for specific categories. The generic top-level domains consist of extensions like .com, .info, net, .org, .mil, and more.
Country-code top-level domains (ccTLD)
These types of domains are used or reserved for geographical locations like for a country or a specific territory. For example, .in for domains based in India, .uk for domains based in the United Kingdom.
Internationalized country code top-level domains (IDN ccTLD)
These domains assigned to countries, or independent geographic regions in its writing system. Countries like Russia, China, Taiwan have used these types of domains.
Sponsored top-level domains (sTLD)
These type of domains has a sponsor, representing a specific community. Specially sponsored domains used by private organizations, governments, educational institutions, military, and more.
For example,
- .gov used by governments
- .edu used by educational institutions
- .mil used by the military
- .aero used by the aerospace community
- .jobs used by the private job providing company
Second-Level Domains
The domain located on the left side of the top-level domain is called a second-level domain. For example, In knoansw.com, .com is the top-level domain (TLD) and knoansw is the second-level domain (SLD).
Lower Level Domain
The domain located on the left side of the second-level domain. For example, in www.knoansw.com, .com is the top-level domain, knoansw is the second-level domain, www is the third level domain.
Read here: How to choose a perfect blog niche
Why does it need to choose a domain name?
There are various benefits to use a domain.
- It used to identify internet resources
- Helps to easily memorize the website or resources
- It helps to identify the ownership of the internet resources
- It helps the website owner to establish a unique identity by choosing a corresponding name for their business.
Structure of a Domain Name
A domain name consists mostly of 2 parts. A second-level domain like your name, or your business name, and a top-level domain like .com, .net, .info, .org.
For example, knoansw.com is the domain name of our website. knoansw is the second-level domain and .com is the top-level domain. You can consider www.knoansw.com as a domain name. www is the third or lower-level domain including knoansw.com.
Where can I buy a domain name?
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a non-profit organization based in America that manages all domains and the Domain Name System. It gives permission to the Domain registrars to sell domains, to manage the records, renewals, transfers.
There are various Domain Name registrar companies from where you can buy your domain. The popular domain registrars are:
You can also get a free domain name for one year while you buy web hosting for your blog. Bluehost is providing a free domain at the time of purchasing its hosting. You can purchase Bluehost at ₹199/month. You will get a free domain in it.
Frequently Asked Questions
You may also have some doubts after reading this article. So this FAQ section will try to help you to clear your doubts.
There are many domain registrars you can buy a domain name for your blog. But GoDaddy, Namecheap, Domain.com are the best domain registrars to buy a perfect domain name.
Generally, Domain names are not free. If you want a free domain, then there are some hosting providers available in the market, where you can get a free domain at the time of buying the hosting. Bluehost & Hostinger both are providing free domain for one year with their hosting plan.
Yes, A domain name is required for blogging. You need a domain name for the identity of your blog.
The cost of a domain name depends on the value of the domain extensions. Top-level domains are available at a minimum cost of ₹600 to ₹800. There are some hosting providers available in the market, where you buy their hosting and you will get a free domain.
Visit Namecheap to get the best domain name for your blog at a reasonable price.
Domain registrars are the companies that sell domain names, manages all domain records with the permissions of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The best domain registrars are GoDaddy and Namecheap.
No, you can’t. Once you registered your domain name, you can not change your domain name.
When a user searches for any particular website, then with the help of a domain name he can reach his source. The user needs to type the domain name on the search box or URL bar, then the domain name converts to a numeric IP address, find the source, the user visits the website.
There are more than 370 million domain names have been registered.
A domain name is important for various reasons: Used to identify the website or internet resources, It used to memorize the website, Helps to create a unique identity.
The domain name of your website depends on the nature of the website.
.com domain for commercial use
.net for network use
.org for organizations
.edu for educational purposes
The Domain Name System is like a phone’s address book that saves all-numeric IP addresses in a particular name.
Domain name with top level domains like .com, .net, .org, .in, .co are the best for SEO.
If you are looking for any difference between Domain and website then it’s different. But when you are looking for a difference between a domain name and a website name, then both are equal. You have to pick your domain name according to the name of your website.
You must choose your website domain according to your business, organization, or area of interest with a top-level domain extension. If you want to use your website for commercial use then you need to pick .com as your extension. For Example, yourbusinessname.com. Choose according to your nature of work.
No, you can’t use special characters. Its not good for SEO. Keep your Domain Name as simple as you can.
It depends on you. What type of name you want for your domain, but it must be with a top-level domain. You can take your blog name as “yourblogname.com”. If you are living in India, and you want to share your knowledge only in India, then you can take your domain level as “.in”. .in is the Country-code top-level domain.
Yes! When you buy a domain name from any domain registrar then you get it for 1 year, 2 years, or 3-year subscription. You must renew your domain before the subscription period is over. Otherwise, it will expire.
I hope this article will help to understand about Domains and how it works, various types of domains.
