Domain Names: A Website’s Own Identity
A domain name, as defined in Wikipedia, is a string of web-based identification codes that directs a user to a particular webpage or website on the Internet. In simpler words, a domain name is the string of words that you type in the browser. It’s the same string of words that correspond to the website or webpage you access.
For example, the domain name of Google is www.google.com — domain names always begin with the letters “www” which stand for World Wide Web. The next code is customizable and left to the website creators to determine their main domain name. It should be noted that these names or domain codes must be unique — no two domain names are allowed to be identical, as it can cause confusion among Internet users.
The last code that ends in “.com” stands for “commercial” — meaning the domain is meant for commercial purposes. A domain that ends in “.org”, on the other hand, stands for organization and it is reserved for government and non-profit associations. A geographical domain code can be added at the end of domain names: for example, “.uk” stands for United Kingdom and it indicates that the domain name was created from that country.
Many domain names are in the Internet, and they come at different prices per month or per year. However, some domains are more expensive than others. The reason for some domains being much pricier is due to the demand for acquiring such domains as some have the potential to generate high traffic due to their recognition. This comes to mind some common words such as “card” or “magazine,” which are very familiar and easy to remember for Internet users.
If some domain names are expensive for purchase, there are also website-creating sites such as WordPress and Weebly, which allow businesses or users to use a free domain name. A business or a user can create a domain name for free, but these names each have an attached domain of the site that offers the free domain. A free domain name goes by this structure: www.(name).weebly.com or www.(name).wordpress.org. When a business or user can afford to remove the trademark domain, the same sites also offer the option to pay a monthly or yearly fee in order to remove the trademark.
Website-building guides recommend creating a unique domain name when creating a website. It has to possess non-generic but relevant keywords that can increase the search rankings of the website during a search listing in Google or Yahoo! Some guides recommend a proper choice of keywords in creating a domain name. The keywords have to be relevant to the product or service the business offers without being too generic or irrelevant during a search query. A generic or irrelevant keyword won’t generate a lot of impressions or have a high search ranking.
Domain names give each website an identity, and each website is recognized by these names. It’s important for a business or user to give a special name, as the name may not be edited.