What is a domain name, how does it work, and why should I care?
A domain name is a unique name on the Internet that refers to a specific computer or host of computers. What it does is literally provide a friendly, memorable name to a unique IP Address (that is a unique identifier for a computer on the web). So, let’s say you want to have your business name as a domain name. What you need to do is see if that domain name is available (remember, they are unique across the globe and someone else may already own it). To do that, you go to a domain name registrar like GoDaddy (there are many others like Network Solutions, etc.) and do a domain name search to see if it is available. So, for instance when I purchased my domain “thepaulagcompany.com”, I went to the registrar and did a search to see it was available. Then I chose to purchase that domain which can range from $9.99 and up. Once I did that, it meant that I owned the name thepaulagcompany.com. I didn’t have a website tied to it, I just owned the name. I’ll talk more about hosting and how all that ties together in a future post, but for now lets focus on just domain name and how that flows into a URL.
There are 2 parts to a registered domain name: the name and the extension. For example:
Name: thepaulagcompany
Extension: .com
The possible extensions initially included:
.com (commercial businesses)
.net (internet services)
.edu (educational institutions)
.gov (government)
.org (nonprofit organizations)
These are still the main ones in use. But, with so much usage of the web, popular names started running out and more extensions were added such as:
* television = .tv
* web site = .ws
* business cooperatives = .coop (business cooperatives)
* museum = .museum (cultural or heritage authentic information)
* information = .info (general information)
* personal use = .name (personal use such as your name)
* professionals = .pro (limited to professionals like doctors, accountants, etc.)
* air transport = .aero (air transport industry)
* united states = .us (United States business presence)
For the most part you won’t be overly concerned with most of these additional names with the exception of perhaps .info, .name, or .tv (if you’re in the TV industry… after all one of the most popular sites is for the movie The Secret at thesecret.tv).
Once you own your name, it is like owning a house that doesn’t have an address. You own the idea of a potential house. That’s where URL (Uniform Resource Locator) comes in. A URL is a unique address on the Internet. It is like the unique address to your house: 123 Main Street, Anytown, PA 17685. It is a unique address to a unique house. There is not another one identical anywhere in the world. That is what a URL is in the Internet world. So a URL looks consists of the following:
http://www.thepaulagcompany.com
It consists of a scheme (the http://) of which there are several kinds, but most common for the web are http:// or https:// (secure site).
The domain name thepaulagcompany.com
I’ll talk more about the “www” which is often not needed but can be replaced with other things like subdomains (like a duplex house that is split into two apartments) some other time since it is beyond introductory material and my goal is to keep it simple.
So all those addresses we speak of in ads or on TV are all URLs. Go to “www.something.com” (the http:// is assumed).
Next up — I’ll talk about how the address, this URL I talk about actually leads you to somewhere and makes your website actually display (i.e. exist) on the web.
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