All About Domain Names

All About Domain Names

Simply put, a domain name presents a unique 'address' on the Internet much like our own postal addresses, or telephone numbers, and are unique to each of us for a specified amount of time (determined when purchased or renewed). Domain Names are mapped using a global Domain Name System (DNS) which translates a meaningful 'name' into into a numerical (binary) identifier. For example, www.example.com translates to 208.77.188.166.

Domain Names can be two characters or more and can consist only of A-Z, 0-9 and dashes, but a domain name can't start with a dash. Although you will very often see upper and lower-case letters in domain names, normally to highlight words, they are not case sensitive so MicroSoft.com, MICROSOFT.COM and microsoft.com will all take you to the same web site.

The www part of web links, like http://www.yourdomain.com/, became a standard in the early days of the world wide web. The www is not part of your domain name and generally web sites can be accessed with or without it but the vast majority of people still use it as it's now synonymous with web addresses.

Domain Name Registration

Domain names are organised in subordinate levels (subdomains) of the generic top-level Internet domains (gTLDs), such as the prominent domains com, net and org followed by country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs). Below the top-level domains in the DNS hierarchy are the second-level and third-level domain names. Most domains are open for reservation (restrictions apply in some cases) by end-users that wish to have their own unique internet address to run web sites, email addresses or create other publicly accessible Internet resources. The registration of these domain names is usually administered by domain name registries and below them will normally be registrars. Most Domain Names are purchased through Registrars as they are generally seen to provide the 'complete package' with domain name registration, web site hosting and email services. Domains are rarely purchased outright and are instead registered for periods of time which varies depending on the type of domains but is normally from 1 year up to 10 years.

Choosing a Domain Name

Registering your domain name might seem like a simple task but like with car registrations and telephone numbers, there is a good chance someone already has the domain you want. Firstly you need to decide whether you are going to purchase a international domain extension such as com, net or go for a country specific domain. If your web site is targeting a specific country only then ccTLD domains are your best option not only because people will recognise them but also the Search Engines will weigh towards these names in country specific searches. Some companies also use gTLD domains such as com to provide a unified address to their business with server scripts determining the site visitors country and redirecting them to country specific pages or to their ccTLD domain name.

If the domain name you are after is registered then chances are it's either in use or has been purchased for the sole purpose of 'profit' by a domain name speculator. If you do go after it then expect to pay high prices for these domains although ccTLD domain prices should be lower.

For the majority of us we will just need to pick another domain name by perhaps introducing a dash into the name, adding a 's' to one word or by changing the words. For large companies the domain name will generally be the company name or as close as they can get but a lot of domains are purchased based of the 'product' you are selling (i.e. cheaploans, birdcages, africantours etc.,). Search Engines such as Google have picked up on this and the words in your domain name can be as important as the words in your title tags or the content of your pages. It's not going to mean a site with cheaploans in the domain name will automatically be at the top of the search results but it will certainly 'add' to it's score for that search term and may well knock it up a few places.

Expired Domains

Domains expire the day after the expiry date as seen in the WHOIS information. Usually the registered owners will renew before this date but unfortunately sometimes renewals get overlooked. The most common reason this happens is when the registered owners change their contact email address and fail to update these details with their domain registrars who, along with the registries, will generally send our renewal reminders via email.

Redemption Fees

With most domain names (but not all) you have a period after the expiry date when the registered owner can still renew the domain name at the standard renewal rates provided by their registrars. After this initial grace period a lot of the gTLD domains now have a 'redemption period' where normal renewal procedures do not apply and the registry require a much higher fee in order to renew the name. com/net domains for example enter the redemption state if they are not renewed within 35 days or so of expiring. They will stay in this state for a period of about 30 days after which time they will be marked as 'Pending Deletion', and will be deleted within about 5 days.

Domain Name Speculators

Unfortunately people have seen the value of certain domain names so there are now thousands of domain names held by domain name speculators. Single generic words were the first, these can be valuable for type-in traffic and for the dominant position they would have in any field due to their descriptive nature (i.e. poker, sex, travel, loans etc.). Many two and three word domain names are held for the same reasons (i.e. creditcard, bankloans, petfood). Now alarmingly many previously used and recently expired domains are re-registered by speculators with some speculators even being the registries themselves. These domains may have value in the name but can also have added value in their search engine rankings. Buying a recently expired domain and placing relevant advertising (normally Pay-Per-Click) can normally make the speculators huge sums of revenue which easily offsets the small sum required to register the domain name in the first place. Of course an added bonus will be if the previous registered owner let the domain lapse by accident and will now have to pay huge sums of money to buy the domain name back.