How crucial can an affordable domain name be?

One of the most crucial requirements for running a successful web presence is the domain name. It is what people will observe first when they come across your website and what they will link you with. The domain should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that notifies your website's visitors what the website is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain name traditionally contains 2 parts - a Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain (SLD). If you have domain.com, for instance, ".com" is the TLD and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain. There are several sets of Top-Level Domain Names that you should consider before you select the domain you want. Your decision should be built upon the goal of your site and on its target audience. Let's analyze the gTLDs, or generic TLDs - these are the most typical Top-Level Domain Names aimed to designate a particular purpose - .com (business establishments), .net (networks), .biz (firms), .info (informative web pages), .org (not-for-profit organizations), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific), .name (persons or relatives), .pro (certain professions), etc. As you can see, these Top-Level Domain Names encompass most spheres of life, so you should opt for the one that would depict the purpose of your web site best. There is no limitation as to who can register such Top-Level Domains, but some of them include additional requirements to verify that you qualify to register such a Top-Level Domain (.mobi and .pro, for example).

Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domains, are country-specific Top-Level Domains. Each country has its own ccTLD. Selecting such a Top-Level Domain is good if your target group of web site visitors is from a specific country. Many people would prefer to buy goods or services from a local web page, and if your target is Canada, for example, selecting a .ca TLD could boost the visits to your website.

URL Forwarding

You can register a number of domain names, which can forward your web page's visitors to a specific web page like domain.com, for example. This would increase the traffic and decrease the probability of someone snatching your visitors by using the same name with a different TLD - if you are not using a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Every Top-Level Domain has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, also known as DNS records) specify where the domain name is hosted, in other words they point to the web hosting distributor whose name servers (NSs, a.k.a. DNSs) it is using now. You can swap the name servers of your domain name whenever you like. You can have your domain registered with one company and get the website hosting service itself from another. In this way, if you register your domain name and stumble upon decent website hosting services someplace else afterwards, you can point your domain to the current company's name servers straight away.

Domain Name Server Records (DNS Records)

In general, as long as your domain name utilizes a given set of name servers, all its NS records will point to the same web site hosting firm. Some web hosting vendors, however, enable you to edit given NS records, such as the A records and the MX records of your domain. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which reveals on which server your web page is situated, while the MX records exhibit which web hosting server tackles the mail accounts associated with your domain name. For instance, if you hire a new web designer and he constructs an .ASP web site that will be located on his private Windows server, you may wish to modify solely the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain name. Thus, www.domain.com will point to the Windows web hosting server, but your mail accounts or any sub-domains such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux hosting account. The .ASP environment is designed by Microsoft and calls for a Windows server, although a Linux hosting server would be way more secure.

Affordable TLDs Brought by 'BetterSoft Web Hosting'

Just a few web hosting companies permit you to edit given DNS records and quite frequently this an extra paid service. With BetterSoft Web Hosting , you have a large number of Top-Level Domain Names to choose from and you can modify all domain records or forward the domains using a forwarding tool at no additional charge. Because of that, 'BetterSoft Web Hosting' would be your best choice when it comes to administering your domain and to setting up a successful presence on the World Wide Web.