If you want to launch a website then the first thing you got to do is, decide a domain name for your website. This is the name you want to give to your website. It's like the address for your website on the internet. Well, what happened in our real life when someone wants to visit our place? First and foremost he/ she need to know our address, right? The Same thing is happening on the internet as well. To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. A domain name just like an address for your website.
Let's dive into a domain name. What is really a domain name? A domain name is an identification string that identifies a website. Each website has a domain name that serves as an address, which is used to access the website. For example, I have a website which is "https://www.digitalistic.net". Here in this domain name, "http://" is the protocol name; "www" is hostname " digitalistic " is the domain name of this site and ".net" is the domain's extension. So the final address would look like this:
"Protocol//host name. Domain Name. Domain Extension".
An organization name Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) provides any kind of Top-Level domain name. It's a nonprofit organization. ICANN often referred to as “the phone book of the Internet” because it matches domain names with appropriate IP address numbers etc.
Generic top-level domain:
Generic top-level domain(gTLD) extensions are those extensions which do not represent any particular state, country or area. A gTLD is the name of an Internet address that identifies it generically as associated with some domain class, such as .com (commercial), .net (originally intended for Internet service providers, but now used for many purposes), .org (for non-profit organizations, industry groups, and others), .gov (U.S. government agencies), .mil (for the military), .edu (for educational institutions); and .int (for international treaties or databases and not much used). Among all these domain extensions ".com" is the most popular one. This domain extension is mainly for commercial entities, but unrestricted. So anyone or any type of businesses can use this. Other domain extensions such as: .net, .org, .info, .biz are unrestricted as well. These extensions are being used with the domain name (such as hashtagict.com). When you intend to buy a domain name, you have to check whether it is available or not. If you want to buy a particular domain name but it is already sold out to another person then you can't buy it unless the person who bought it last time wants to sell because every domain name has to be unique. In this situation, you have to change your domain name or the extension. Since ".com" is the most popular extension so it is a little bit tough to get a domain name with this extension, in this case, you can choose other available extension. You can use these domains .biz, .one, .co (even it is a ccTLD which refers to Colombia but it is being used a generic lately) if available. There are more domain names available which are approved by ICANN (To view the list, click here) and they are adding more day by day.
Some Generic Top-Level Domains:
.com (commercial)
.net (Network Services)
.info (Information)
.mobi (Mobile Content)
.org (Organization)
.biz (businesses)
.edu (Educational Institute)
Country Code Top-Level Domain:
Country Code Top-level Domain (ccTLD) is one type of Top-Level domain which is only used for a country but this does not mean that only people from that particular region can only access it. Anyone from anywhere can access the website. well, you might think why ccTLD has been created when gTLD is already being using. As we know that a domain name has to be unique. It is impossible to find a website unless it has a unique name. Where are millions of millions website available right now on the internet so it's quite tough to find a unique name, this is why ICANN decided to create Country Code Top-level Domains.
Some Country Code Top-Level Domain:
.au (Australia)
.cn (China)
.ca (Canada)
.fr (France)
.in (India)
.uk (United Kingdom)
.us (United States)
However it does not matter what type of domain extension you use, always try to use paid one. It is better not to use free domain extension like .tk, .cf because search engines do not prefer this extension. So for better SEO, you should always avoid such extension.
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