How essential can an top domain be?

One of the most important prerequisites for building a successful online presence is the domain. It is what people will notice first when they come across your web site and what they will relate you with. The domain should be easy to remember, but should also be something that notifies your visitors what the web page is about.

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

A domain usually is composed of 2 fragments - a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain Name and "domain" is the SLD. There are several groups of Top-Level Domains that you should contemplate before you choose the domain you want. Your decision should be built upon the goal of your website and on its target spectators. Let's have a peek at the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domain Names - these are the most popular TLDs aimed to indicate a particular intention - .com (business establishments), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (businesses), .info (informational websites), .org (organizations of a non-commercial character), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific region), .name (individuals or relatives), .pro (particular walks of life), and so on. As you can see, these Top-Level Domains encompass most spheres of life, so you should select the one that would describe the aim of your website best. There is no limitation as to who can register such Top-Level Domain Names, but some of them contain additional procedures to prove that you are eligible to own such a Top-Level Domain (.mobi and .pro, for instance).

Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domain Names, are country-specific Top-Level Domains. Each country has its own ccTLD. Selecting such a domain name is good if your target group of site visitors is from a given country. Many visitors would prefer to buy commodities or services from a local web site, and if your goal is Canada, for instance, registering a .ca Top-Level Domain could increase the visits to your web site.

URL Redirects

You can register different Top-Level Domains, which can redirect your website's visitors to a given site like domain.com, for instance. This would raise the traffic and decrease the possibility of somebody stealing your visitors by using the same Second-Level Domain with a different TLD - if you are not using a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each domain name has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, a.k.a. DNS records) indicate where the domain name is hosted, in other words they point to the hosting vendor whose name servers (NSs, also known as DNSs) it is using at the moment. You can switch the DNSs of your domain name at any time. You can have your domain registered with one firm and get the web site hosting service itself from another. Thus, if you register your domain and come across decent website hosting solutions someplace else at a later time, you can point your domain name to the current provider's name servers instantaneously.

Name Server Records (DNS Records)

In general, as long as your domain name uses a certain set of name servers, all its NS records will direct to the same web site hosting vendor. Some web site hosting providers, however, permit you to modify certain DNS records, including the A records and the MX records of your domain. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which demonstrates on which hosting server your web page is situated, while the MX records demonstrate which hosting server tackles the mail address accounts related to your domain name. For example, if you take on a new web designer and he sets up an .ASP web page that will be hosted on his personal Windows web hosting server, you may want to modify only the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain name. Thus, www.domain.com will point to the Windows server, but your mail address accounts or any sub-domains like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux web site hosting account. The .ASP platform is developed by Microsoft and calls for a Windows web hosting server, even though a Linux hosting server would be way more reliable.

Affordable Domains Brought by 'Exclusive Hosting'

Just a number of web hosting distributors allow you to modify given domain name server records and quite frequently this an extra paid service. With Exclusive Hosting , you have a large selection of Top-Level Domain Names to choose from and you can modify all domain name records or redirect the domains using a forwarding tool at no added cost. For that reason, 'Exclusive Hosting' would be your best pick when it comes to handling your domain name and to creating a successful presence on the web.