What is a domain?
Ever imagine what domain names are?
Ever thought of how they work?
Then this article is just for you, in this article you are going to learn what a domain name is and why you should have a domain name.
so lets dive in!
Before getting started on building your own website am sure you might have come across the word “Domain”. As a beginner it might sound strange though, and it’s quite good knowing what a domain name is.
Ok lets get started.
What is a domain?
A domain is a name or address assign to your website where internet users can access your website, basically they are used to adentify one or more IP (Internet Protocol) adress. You maybe concerned of what an IP address is, in this case an IP address are numbers use in locating computers, that is, any computer that has access to the internet has a unique IP address use in locating one another, this is what an IP adress look like (68.681.26.1).
Benefits of getting a domain name
By getting a domain name, you are making your website easier and accessable for your users.
It gives a standard address to your website and also it will be easier for your users to visit your site by typing your web address on their browsers.
Lets get a little deep about how domains work.
A domain is an adress sent on a query by internet users to find information about your website and what it has to offer, (i.e when a user type your web address on their browswers) they will be able to navigate all the files stored on your site including contents, also domains are classified in categories, let’s find out their categories.
Domains are classified in two categories
- SLD (Secondary Level Domain) this is the name you give to your website (ie. myblog.com) , that is, the name “myblog” is the SLD (secindary level domain).
- TLD (Top Level Domain) This is the extension of your website adreess (eg. .org, .com, .ng, .net, .biz) All these are the TLD ( Top level domain). Am sure by now you know what domain is and it’s categories, now let’s see how we can get a domain.
How To Choose A Domain Name
In this case getting a domain name is quite easy but the target is to choose the right domain name for your website, to be ingenious about choosing the right domain name, lets consider the best option which most SEO masters find to be one of the important ranking factor for ranking on search engines like Google, Bing, and other search engines, that is, specifying your targeted keyword on your domain name.
For example if you are dealing on music production you can set the domain name as www.bestmusic.com, the word “music” is your targeted keyword not only search engine will rank it but also humans will be able to have more knowledge about your website or what your business is all about.
You can also set your domain name with your custom name or your real name which compatible for most blogger’s (eg. www.mikeblog.com)
There are many other tool’s out there you can use to generate a name for your site.
You can also find alot of tools on the web that can help you generate a name for your website, you can use name generators like, DomainWheel, Nameboy, Instantdomainsearch and many other available tools.
Now you understand the perfect domain that suit your website or product lets move on how to get the domain name.
Ready? alright lets go. !
How TO Get A Domain
You can get a domain name by purchasing one from a domain Registrar, there are thousands of domain registrar out there like godaddy, godaddy is one of the biggest hosting company, and the juicy part about godaddy is that their price are mush lower than other hosting companies, apart from godaddy there are lot of hosting company, these are some of them, Domain.com, Register.com, Domainking.ng, Namecheap.com and mush more.
Now we already know how to get the domain, now let’s move on to the next step.
How mush does a domain cost
Domain are lightly cheap onlike web hosting, a cost of a domain is N3,000- N5,000/year, also some hosting company might give you some discounts up to 20% for the first year, that sound’s really great hur!.
But before offering for a discount make sure you’ve reviewed the renewal price, for some host the actual renewal billings might be very huge.
You can also get cheap domain like the .com.ng .org.ng. .co.uk extensions ranging from N1,000 – N2,000/year depending on your registrar.
All set, finally gotten your domain? let’s proceed in setting it up.
How to set up your domain
Before you can access your website through your domain, you have to set up your DNS (Damain Name System).
To set your domain you have to point your domain to your website, that means you will update the nameservers, this is what a nameserver looks like, (Ns1.domain.com) (Ns2.domain.com) note, every host has its own nameservers, you have to confirm your hosting nameservers before updating them. After the nameservers are placed correctly you are all set in accessing your new site.
Conclusion
Now you can see how a domain name is important, and now you know what domains are, they are the address of your site.
Have anything to say about this article? You can leave a comment below.
