How essential can an affordable domain be?

One of the most important requirements for creating a successful Internet presence is the domain. It is what visitors will perceive first when they chance upon your website and what they will associate you with. The domain should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that notifies your web site's visitors what the site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

A domain usually has two components - a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain Name (SLD). If you have domain.com, for instance, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain. There are several sets of Top-Level Domain Names that you should examine before you select the domain you want. Your decision should rest on the intention of your site and on its target visitors. Let's scrutinize the gTLDs, or generic TLDs - these are the most popular Top-Level Domain Names meant to designate a particular purpose - .com (commercial enterprises), .net (networks), .biz (businesses), .info (informative websites), .org (not-for-profit organizations), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific), .name (persons or relatives), .pro (particular professions), and so on. As you can see, these Top-Level Domain Names encompass most fields of life, so you should opt for the one that would show the objective of your site best. There is no restriction as to who can register such TLDs, but some of them involve extra requirements to ascertain that you are eligible to own such a Top-Level Domain (.mobi and .pro, for example).

Country-code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code TLDs, are country-specific domains. Each country has its own ccTLD. Opting for such a domain name is good if your target group of web site visitors is from a particular country. Many persons would elect to purchase commodities or services from a local web page, and if your aim is Canada, for instance, selecting a .ca domain name could boost the visits to your web page.

URL Redirects

You can register a number of TLDs, which can forward your visitors to a particular site like domain.com, for example. This would increase the traffic and reduce the likelihood of someone pilfering your website visitors by registering the same SLD with another TLD - if you are not using a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each and every Top-Level Domain Name has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, a.k.a. DNS records) show where the domain name is hosted, in other words they point to the hosting supplier whose name servers (NSs, aka DNSs) it is using at present. You can change the name servers of your domain name at any moment. You can have your domain name registered with one company and get the site hosting service itself from another. Hence, if you register your domain name and discover good website hosting packages someplace else afterwards, you can point your domain name to the current provider's DNSs right away.

Domain Name Server Records (NS Records)

In general, as long as your domain utilizes a specific set of NSs, all its domain records will lead to the same hosting vendor. Some web space hosting suppliers, however, permit you to modify specific records, like the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an IP address, which specifies on which server your web page is hosted, whereas the MX records exhibit which web server handles the electronic mail accounts associated with your domain name. For example, if you take on a new site designer and he devises an .ASP web page that will be located on his private Windows web hosting server, you may wish to modify just the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. In this way, www.domain.com will point to the Windows web server, but your e-mailboxes or any sub-domain names such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux web site hosting account. The .ASP environment is designed by Microsoft and demands a Windows server, even though a Linux web server would be far more dependable.

Reasonably Priced Top-Level Domain Names Courtesy of 'AND-GATE'

Just a small number of web hosting vendors allow you to modify certain name server records and very often this an extra paid service. With AND-GATE , you have a huge assortment of Top-Level Domain Names to select from and you can edit all name server records or redirect the domain names via a forwarding tool at no added cost. That is why, 'AND-GATE' would be your finest pick when it comes to handling your domain name and to building a successful presence on the World Wide Web.