Domain Name Registration

A web address (domain name) is the internet equivalent of your address online. On the internet, your web address acts as both your welcome and an address, giving your customers or friends a place to visit online whenever they want to contact you, find out more about you, or your business, or purchase your products and services.

The Domain Name System

Every web address always contains two or more components separated by periods, called "dots" (for example, the web address apple.com is actually pronounced, apple dot com). The best way to understand the structure of web address is to look at their components from right to left:

The last part of a web address (the letters at the far right) is called the top-level domain. In the case of a1b2c3.com, the top-level domain is .com. The following is a list of top-level domains and the organizations they signify.

.COM
Designed for commercial entities. .com rapidly became the top-level domain for business. Today, anyone can register a web address in the .com domain.

.NET
Designed for organizations directly involved in internet operations, such as network providers and network operation centers. Today, anyone can register in the .net domain.

.ORG
Designed for miscellaneous organizations, including non-profit groups. Today, anyone can register in the .org domain.

.EDU
Four-year, accredited colleges and universities only

.GOV
US Federal Government entities only

.MIL
US military only

Others - because of the limited number of domains available under each of the groups above, there are other extensions available for personal and business use.

Your Web Address

Most people around the world have grown accustomed to, and even expect to see, .com addresses. Picking a good web address and registering it in .com can increase your site's guess traffic - visits from potential customers who don't specifically know your web address but who can still find your internet site by guessing.

But you don't have to be a company to be able to get a web address, if for any reason, you would like to register a domain with a name of your choice, it is the same process. Find out if that name is available, and then register it, after that it is yours, you can sell it if you want, but nobody else can take that name if you pay the yearly registration fee.

Get Your Web Address

It is best to register a domain name with a company that has a good track record of reliable service. In the past, I registered domain names through a company called go daddy. They seemed to be good for a while, but their service really got bad after the company got popular.

It is best to avoid registering domain names with go daddy, they have a reputation of suspending domains without warning. In addition taking websites offline, they take a long time allow the owner of the domain to transfer a suspended domain to another registration company. For more information about why you should not trust registering your domains through go daddy, see this.