How valuable is to locate the best domain?

One of the most crucial prerequisites for building a successful Internet presence is the domain. It is what people will notice first when they visit your web site and what they will associate you with. The domain name should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that notifies your website's visitors what the site is about.

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain usually contains 2 components - a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain (SLD). If you have domain.com, for instance, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain Name and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain Name. There are several groups of Top-Level Domains that you should examine prior to selecting the domain name you want. Your pick should be based on the intention of your site and on its target spectators. Let's analyze the gTLDs, or generic TLDs - these are the most common TLDs aimed to express a given function - .com (business establishments), .net (networks), .biz (corporations), .info (informative web pages), .org (non-profit organizations), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific), .name (individuals or relatives), .pro (given professions), etc. As you can see, these Top-Level Domains cover most fields of life, so you should settle on the one that would designate the aim of your web page best. There is no limitation as to who can register such TLDs, but some of them contain extra steps to demonstrate that you qualify to own such a domain (.mobi and .pro, for example).

Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code TLDs, are country-specific Top-Level Domains. Each country has its own ccTLD. Getting such a Top-Level Domain Name is good if your target group of website visitors is from a specific country. Many individuals would rather purchase commodities or services from a local site, and if your aim is Canada, for example, selecting a .ca domain could boost the visits to your website.

URL Forwarding

You can register several Top-Level Domains, which can forward your visitors to a particular site such as domain.com, for instance. This would boost the traffic and reduce the probability of somebody pilfering your web page visitors by registering the same name with a different Top-Level Domain - if you are not availing of a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each Top-Level Domain Name has domain records. The name server records (NS records, aka DNS records) demonstrate where the domain name is hosted, in other words they point to the hosting vendor whose name servers (NSs, also known as DNSs) it is using at the moment. You can substitute the name servers of your domain name at all times. You can have your domain name registered with one company and get the hosting service itself from another. In this way, if you register your domain and discover good website hosting services someplace else at a later time, you can point your domain name to the current company's name servers straight away.

Name Server Records (NS Records)

On the whole, as long as your domain utilizes a particular pair of NSs, all its domain records will lead to the same web hosting provider. Some website hosting vendors, though, allow you to modify specific DNS records, among them the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which designates on which web server your site is located, whereas the MX records exhibit which web server handles the mail accounts associated with your domain name. For example, if you engage a new site designer and he devises an .ASP web site that will be situated on his personal Windows web hosting server, you may desire to alter just the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. Thus, www.domain.com will direct to the Windows hosting server, but your e-mail boxes or any sub-domains such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux web space hosting account. The .ASP platform is built by Microsoft and requires a Windows web hosting server, even though a Linux server would be far more stable.

Budget Top-Level Domains Offered by 'MarbleHost.com'

Only a number of web hosting providers permit you to modify certain records and quite often this an additional paid service. With MarbleHost.com , you get a vast array of Top-Level Domain Names to choose from and you can edit all records or forward the domains through a forwarding tool at no extra cost. Therefore, 'MarbleHost.com' would be your best choice when it comes to handling your domain name and to building a successful presence on the web.