{"id":5411,"date":"2020-03-14T15:00:27","date_gmt":"2020-03-14T14:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/?p=5411"},"modified":"2022-12-22T15:31:13","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T14:31:13","slug":"what-is-a-domain-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qodeinteractive.com\/magazine\/what-is-a-domain-name\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is a Domain Name and How to Get One?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Can you imagine how difficult everything would be if we, humans, weren\u2019t so prone to giving names to things? Everything would be a \u201cthis\u201d or a \u201cthat,\u201d and the amount of pointing we\u2019d have to do with our fingers would surely cause an epidemic of sprains and other repetitive use injuries.
\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”28px”][vc_column_text]It would certainly make surfing the internet next to impossible. We\u2019ve been using domain names left and right for decades now, and without them, we wouldn\u2019t be able to tell websites apart. So even if you\u2019re unsure what a domain name is exactly, you know it\u2019s pretty important.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”28px”][vc_column_text]But if you\u2019re thinking about creating a website, you should learn what domain names are. You\u2019ll have to come up with one, after all. You should also know how to register a domain name<\/a>, another crucial item on your \u201dhow to get my website off the ground\u201d checklist. So let\u2019s dig in![\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

What is a Domain Name?<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]For most intents and purposes, you could define the domain name as the name of the website<\/strong>, making it distinct and playing a part in making it findable. How do you usually go to a website if you don\u2019t want to search for it using the world\u2019s most popular search engine? You type the web address \u2014 its location online \u2014 in the address bar.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”28px”][vc_column_text]So to be able to see anything on the web, you need to have its Uniform Resource Locator \u2013 URL. The URL is like an indicator of where something is, and it\u2019s given to everything that appears online, from websites to specific images hosted on the website<\/strong>. Here\u2019s what the URL to Wikipedia\u2019s English version’s main page<\/a> looks like.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”50px”]

\n
\n \"Wikipedia <\/div>\n<\/div>[vc_empty_space height=”38px”][vc_column_text]This is an optimized URL where it\u2019s easy to distinguish its different parts. The one that\u2019s telling you what website you\u2019re on is what we call a domain name<\/strong>, hence its definition as \u201cthe name of the website.\u201d A better way of thinking about a domain name would be to compare it to an address to a building that is your website<\/strong>. That\u2019s the \u201cen.wikipedia.org\u201d part. The \u201c\/wiki\/Main_Page\u201d part refers to a specific room in a specific part of the building.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

What Are the Different Parts of a Domain Name?<\/h2>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Different sources will disagree on which parts of the URL are a domain name. Some would go so far as to include the protocol \u2014 the \u201chttp:\/\/\u201d or, increasingly, \u201chttps:\/\/\u201d that comes at the very start of the URL. Others would say that, for example, only the \u201cwikipedia\u201d part of Wikipedia\u2019s URL is the domain name.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”28px”][vc_column_text]We\u2019ll take the middle ground, and say that the \u201cen.wikipedia.org\u201d is the domain name<\/strong>. It consists of three parts separated by two dots, and we\u2019ll start with the rightmost one.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”50px”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

The Top Level Domain<\/h3>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Also referred to as \u201cdomain extensions,\u201d top-level domains got their name from the position they hold in the hierarchy of the whole naming system. Without them, you wouldn\u2019t be able to complete a domain name in a way that makes it valid<\/strong>.[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”28px”][vc_column_text]There are several different types of top-level domains, including: [\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”23px”]