Domain Name Anatomy 101

By Alexander Dolinin on October 19th, 2006

Of course you know what a domain name is. But can you explain it to your Internet-challenged peers in terms they can understand? This quick guide will help you.

To simplify it greatly, a domain name is a website’s address. Domain names work kind of like an address forwarding service - when people type your domain name into a web browser (ex.: google.com), they areautomatically directed to your website server. Thanks to domain names, we can easily remember google.com, instead of trying to memorize something like 66.102.7.99. And if your website moves to another server, its “public address” - domain name

- remains unchanged.

This translation of server names into human-friendly domain names is done by Domain Name System (DNS) that stores many types of information about domain names. The strings of letters (and/or numbers and hyphens) between the dots in domain names are called labels. Each label can have letters (case insensitive), numbers and hyphens up to 63 characters long. It can not begin or end with a hyphen and must contain at least one letter. Domain name labels refer to domain hierarchy as explained below.

Top-level domain (TLD) name, sometimes referred to as domain name extension, is the part of a domain immediately after the last dot (”.com” in “maps.google.com”). There are many generic (like .com, .net, .org, .edu) and country-specific (like .us, .uk, .ca) top-level domain names, but the “.com” names are usually the best choice for a business.

Second-level domain is the part directly to the left of a domain name extension (”google” in “maps.google.com”). This part, along with a domain name extension, you register as your domain name (like “google.com”).

The part to the left of the second-level domain (”maps” in “maps.google.com”) is called - you guessed it - third-level domain, sometimes called subdomain. This part you can create by yourself at your web host later on. Why? To make a user-friendly address for an area of your website (like maps.google.com), or even build your brand around it (like del.icio.us).

Difference between domain name and URL (Uniform Resource Locator)? URL includes a domain name plus additional technical information. For example, the URL “http://maps.google.com” includes the domain name “maps.google.com” and identifies the HyperText Transfer Protocol “http://” used to access the website.

I hope it all makes sense now.

About author: Alexander Dolinin is a search engine optimization specialist with background in web design, web development and project management. He has been building and promoting websites since 1996.

Author's website: http://www.esherpa.net

Tags: Website Insights, Domain Name.
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