What is a domain name and why do you need one?

At the start of the world wide web a very innovative bunch of people started snapping up names of large companies as domain names for future websites, celebrities etc with a view to reselling these domain names at a later date to the big corporate entities that needed them.

From an early point in www history the importance of the name in the domain name was established.A domain name is simply a name that points suffers to the correct location on the internet to locate a particular website.If we take www.google.com as an example we can see that the domain is broken down into 3 seperate parts...www which is where the website can be found.google..which is the actual name of the company..and com which denotes that the company has a world and business based set up.

Choosing the right domain name for your website is not so important if you are just a personal website but if you intend using it for business then the name is tremendously important.It is hard to put a value on a domain name but the importance of the name cant be understated as court cases in the US provide evidence of this.If you are not a corporate body like Mcdonalds or Fords etc, where the name is synonymous with the company anyway, then you would desire a particular name that is associated with you or your products. For example if you are selling glamour calendars then a good associated name might be eyecandy.com (maybe not politically correct but you get the point)... another example may be travelglobal.com if you are a ticket agent or travel agent.If you are a a uk based operation them the .co.uk tag may be more appropriate...so for a site selling sports good in the UK ....sportswear.co.uk may be appropriate..you get the idea...

The end tag of a domain name can be many variations.Most people plump for .com which generally denotes it to be corporate and world wide.There are also .net, .biz, .org,.co.uk,.eu denoting europe and many more. Because people tend to look for .com ending first it is best to have this domain ending tag if only because people make mistakes when searching and could end up on the wrong site.

Once you have decided on the particular domain name you wish to have you must check that it doesnt already exist.The many , many domain registrars out there on the net will do a search for you to see if the name is available.Once you have one which is available you then have to register it.There is a charge by the registrars to do this .Most people obtain their domain names before they have actually built their websites.Charges for registration vary from registrar to registrar but you can get a domain name for as little as £1.99 with the real budget registrars.

When you register a domain name all you are doing is buying the right to use that particular domain for a set period.NO ONE ever owns the actual domain name.Generally the longer the period you choose to register the better value for money you get.So for example it may be better value to register a domain name for 10 years rather then renew it every year. Most domain names are registered for two years.

When your domain name is due to expire then you will be notified usually by e-mail.Make sure you do re register on time and dont miss the notification becasue there are list of people out there just waiting for domain names to expire so that they can register them in their name. A recent case in point was a victim of the 9/11 disaster in the US. One of the victims had a domain name linked to his website and the notification for renewal was never seen because of his death and the fact thet his e-mail box was full because of inactivity.Imagine the distress it caused when his finace noticed that his domain name was now pointing to a porn site. The registration had expired and it was re purchased by another individual.While this is an extreme example it does emphasise the importance of renewing on time.


So...whats in a name? Would a Rose by any other domain name smell as sweet? Ask interflora.co.uk......