How important can an top domain be?

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

Generic Top-Level Domain Names (gTLDs)

A domain name usually contains 2 fragments - a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain Name (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain and "domain" is the Second-Level Domain. There are a few categories of Top-Level Domain Names that you should contemplate prior to picking the domain name you wish. Your pick should be built upon the intention of your web site and on its target viewers. Let's have a peek at the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domains - these are the most widespread TLDs meant to designate a given function - .com (business organizations), .net (networks), .biz (firms), .info (informative web pages), .org (not-for-profit organizations), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia Pacific region), .name (persons or relatives), .pro (certain walks of life), etc. As you can see, these TLDs encompass most realms of life, so you should choose the one that would express the objective of your site best. There is no limitation as to who can register such Top-Level Domain Names, but some of them include additional steps to demonstrate that you are eligible to own such a Top-Level Domain (.mobi and .pro, for instance).

Country-code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domains, are country-specific domain names. Each country has its own ccTLD. Selecting such a Top-Level Domain Name is good if your target group of visitors is from a specific country. Many visitors would want to purchase commodities or services from a local web site, and if your goal is Canada, for instance, getting a .ca TLD could boost the visits to your web page.

URL Forwarding

You can register several TLDs, which can send your site's visitors to a particular web page such as domain.com, for example. This would raise the traffic and decrease the possibility of somebody stealing your web page visitors by registering the same Second-Level Domain with a different Top-Level Domain - if you are not using a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each domain has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, aka DNS records) display where the domain name is hosted, in other words they point to the hosting firm whose name servers (NSs, aka DNSs) it is using now. You can change the DNSs of your domain at any moment. You can have your domain name registered with one firm and get the web space hosting service itself from another. Thus, if you register your domain name and come across decent website hosting plans someplace else at a later time, you can point your domain to the current company's DNSs straight off.

Domain Name Server Records (DNS Records)

In general, as long as your domain utilizes a specific pair of NSs, all its records will point to the same webspace hosting vendor. Some webspace hosting providers, though, permit you to edit certain domain records, among them the A records and the MX records of your domain. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which details on which web server your web page is hosted, whereas the MX records exhibit which web hosting server tackles the electronic mail accounts associated with your domain name. For example, if you appoint a new web site designer and he build an .ASP web site that will be located on his private Windows web hosting server, you may want to alter only the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. Hence, www.domain.com will direct to the Windows web hosting server, but your email mailbox accounts or any sub-domains such as forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your current Linux site hosting account. The .ASP environment is built by Microsoft and calls for a Windows server, although a Linux server would be way more secure.

Low-cost TLDs Offered by 'JamaServer'

Just a small number of web hosting companies enable you to edit specific records and very often this an additional paid service. With JamaServer , you get a large assortment of TLDs to pick from and you can modify all records or forward the domains through a redirection tool at no extra cost. That is why, 'JamaServer' would be your best choice when it comes to managing your domain name and to setting up a successful presence on the Internet.