How crucial can an affordable domain be?
One of the most important preconditions for creating a successful web presence is the domain. It is what people will spot first when they discover your site and what they will associate you with. The domain name should be easy to remember, but should also be something that notifies your site's visitors what the site is about.
Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)
A domain name typically has 2 parts - a Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain Name (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain and "domain" is the SLD. There are a couple of groups of Top-Level Domains that you should contemplate prior to choosing the domain you desire. Your decision should be built upon the purpose of your web site and on its target visitors. Let's take a glimpse at the gTLDs, or generic TLDs - these are the most typical TLDs meant to express a given function - .com (business establishments), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (firms), .info (informational web sites), .org (not-for-profit organizations), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific), .name (individuals or families), .pro (certain professions), etc. As you can perceive, these Top-Level Domains cover most fields of life, so you should pick the one that would describe the objective of your website best. There is no restriction as to who can register such Top-Level Domain Names, but some of them contain extra steps to confirm that you qualify to possess such a Top-Level Domain Name (.mobi and .pro, for instance).
Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)
The ccTLDs, or country-code TLDs, are country-specific domain names. Each country has its own ccTLD. Settling on such a domain name is good if your target group of web page visitors is from a particular country. Many individuals would prefer to buy goods or services from a local web site, and if your target is Canada, for instance, picking a .ca TLD could increase the visits to your web page.
Domain Redirection
You can register different Top-Level Domain Names, which can redirect your website's visitors to a particular web site such as domain.com, for instance. This would increase the traffic and lower the possibility of somebody stealing your website visitors by using the same SLD with a different Top-Level Domain Name - if you are not utilizing a trademark.
Name Servers (NSs)
Each domain name has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, a.k.a. DNS records) demonstrate where the domain name is hosted, in other words they point to the hosting company whose name servers (NSs, a.k.a. DNSs) it is utilizing now. You can alter the name servers of your domain at all times. You can have your domain name registered with one firm and get the website hosting service itself from another. Therefore, if you register your domain and come across good website hosting plans somewhere else afterwards, you can point your domain name to the new provider's NSs at once.
Name Server Records (DNS Records)
On the whole, as long as your domain name utilizes a given pair of name servers, all its domain name server records will direct to the same webspace hosting distributor. Some hosting firms, however, enable you to modify given domain name server records, such as the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which exhibits on which server your site is located, whereas the MX records exhibit which web hosting server handles the email aliases associated with your domain name. For instance, if you appoint a new web page designer and he build an .ASP website that will be located on his private Windows web server, you may want to alter solely the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. Thus, www.domain.com will point to the Windows web hosting server, but your e-mailbox accounts or any sub-domains like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux website hosting account. The .ASP environment is created by Microsoft and requires a Windows server, although a Linux web hosting server would be way more secure.
Inexpensive Domains Provided by 'Loyalty Hosting'
Just a number of web hosting suppliers allow you to modify certain domain name server records and very frequently this an additional paid service. With Loyalty Hosting , you get a wide selection of Top-Level Domain Names to choose from and you can modify all records or redirect the domain names through a redirection tool at no extra cost. Therefore, 'Loyalty Hosting' would be your best choice when it comes to handling your domain name and to creating a successful presence on the World Wide Web.