Domain Names Technology

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Uderstanding Domain name

One elementary aspect of a successful website is to have a domain name that will inspire inbound traffic, and not leave your website confused on the internet. For this reason, it is important to understand what a domain name is and its function towards attracting visitors to a website.

What a Domain name

It is a primary URL(Uniform Resource Locator) for a website, that visitors see when they access a webpage. Let say what a visitor types into a browser to have access to a particular website. A domain name can be called a website address, unique to a particular website. Two websites can't have the same domain name but can have the same IP address if using a shared host.

Domains are broken into sections, including

Top -Level Domain(TLD):

The last section of a domain name which starts with a dot(.) on the URL, they are often called extensions. examples .com, .cm, .org, .net.

Second Level Domain (SLD):

The sections that come before the TLD (extension). The SLD is an important section of the domain name given that it carries the website identity and brand. Example steemit, steemitwallet.

Country Code top- Level domains(ccTLDs):

It is the case where a country-specific is added to the TLD, giving an identity to the country of the brand. Examples can be noticed with websites in countries like the United Kingdom, South Africa, etc (co.uk, co.za).

Sponsored Top-Level domain(sTLDs):

This is TLD belonging to specific organizations or institutions. A good example is government (.gov) or military sector(.mil)

To make it more clear, note that a domain name (URL) looks like this www.steemit.com.

• SLD here is steemit.
• TLS here is .com.

How Domain Works

A domain name can be seen as the website address, which gives access to the website online(hosted on the internet). Domain names belong to Domain Name System(DNS) and are administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names.

DNS is a network of server locations that help hold Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for websites in some kind of address book. The DNS helps visitors from memorizing IP addresses. IP addresses can be stressful to memoried instead of the domain name which can be easy to remember. Words can be easy to remember when compared to a series of random meaningless numbers. An IP looks like this 192.168.8.1. It will mean for every website you had to access, you needed to memorize the IP addresses.

Now we will be asking ourselves, how do these numbers become domain names? That is the job of the DNS, any URL type into a web browser, dial the corresponding IP address to that specific domain name server. The DNS matches the numbers to the domain name and translates to the format for human understanding.

On how domains work, I mention servers. I had made a post on hosting, which you can get some hints on hosting and which to get. Web sites are hosted on servers, servers are specialized computers that hold the website data. Data here we are talking web pages and their content. content can be files, media, etc. So for a website to be fully functional, it needs both domain name and server(hosting providers).

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The host provides the storage, while the domain name provides the location.

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To conclude, Domain's name is just as important to a web developer as the type of host. while the domain man is directly linked to the identity and brand of the client, so need to be carefully looked into when picking one. I will be looking to share How to Choose and Purchase a Domain Name.

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