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About Domain Names
Creating an address for your website on the internet
What is a domain name?Practically speaking, your domain name (web address) is the core of your Internet identity, your online brand. Your customers and friends will remember this name and use it to find your website content, your products or your online services. Since no two parties can ever hold the same domain name simultaneously, your Internet identity is totally unique.
Identifying website addressesTechnically, a domain name is an addressing method used for identifying and locating computers on the Internet. Computers use Internet Protocol (IP) numbers to locate each other on the Internet, people find these numbers hard to remember. Therefore, domain names were created to permit the use of easily remembered words and phrases to identify Internet addresses.For example, the domain name rocketface.com represents the Rocketface® website. When you type rocketface.com into a web browser or send e-mail to someone at rocketface.com, the Domain Name System (DNS) translates rocketface.com into the IP numbers used by the Internet and connects you to the Rocketface® Workshop. This is the nuts and bolts of a domain name.
Selecting a domain nameSelecting a domain name is possibly the first and most important step you should take when beginning to develop a website. The domain name that you choose will be the name that your visitors will use to identify your website in the future. It is like a brand name or nickname that you would like your visitors to remember. There are several things to consider when picking a domain name.
- Pick a name that reflects the nature of your website theme or a name that stands out and captures the eye. (i.e. This second method is called branding) Although there are millions of domain names already in use on the web it is amazing how many unused names are still available.
- Keep your domain name as short as possible. Keep the length of your domain name to 13 characters or less. This helps to make it easy to remember and requires less typing by your visitors. Of course this is one of those rules that is meant to be broken. A free flowing domain name that is easy to remember is really the key to achieving your website goals.
- Be sure that you have full ownership of your domain name. Some hosting services will offer cheap domain name registration but keep the rights to the name themselves. This means that should you wish to change to another hosting service you will have to give up your domain name.
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