How crucial can an top domain be?
One of the most essential preconditions for establishing a successful web presence is the domain. It is what people will notice first when they discover your site and what they will associate you with. The domain should be easy to memorize, but should also be something that informs your web page's visitors what the site is about.
Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)
A domain name traditionally consists of two parts - a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the TLD and "domain" is the SLD. There are several groups of Top-Level Domains that you should contemplate before you choose the domain you want. Your decision should be built upon the purpose of your site and on its target visitors. Let's have a glimpse at the gTLDs, or generic Top-Level Domain Names - these are the most widespread TLDs meant to signify a given purpose - .com (business enterprises), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (businesses), .info (informative web sites), .org (organizations of a non-commercial character), .mobi (handheld devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific region), .name (persons or families), .pro (given walks of life), and so on. As you can perceive, these Top-Level Domain Names cover most spheres of life, so you should select the one that would portray the aim of your site best. There is no limitation as to who can register such domain names, but some of them include extra procedures to confirm that you qualify to possess such a domain (.mobi and .pro, for example).
Country-code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs)
The ccTLDs, or country-code Top-Level Domains, are country-specific domain names. Each country has its own ccTLD. Choosing such a domain is good if your target group of website visitors is from a given country. Many folks would like to purchase goods or services from a local website, and if your aim is Canada, for instance, settling on a .ca domain could increase the visits to your web page.
URL Forwarding
You can register different TLDs, which can redirect your web site's visitors to a certain website such as domain.com, for example. This would raise the traffic and lower the risk of somebody swiping your website visitors by registering the same Second-Level Domain Name with another TLD - if you are not using a trademark.
Name Servers (NSs)
Every Top-Level Domain Name has domain name records. The name server records (NS records, a.k.a. DNS records) show where the domain is hosted, in other words they point to the hosting company whose name servers (NSs, aka DNSs) it is utilizing at the moment. You can switch the DNSs of your domain whenever you want. You can have your domain name registered with one firm and get the web hosting service itself from another. Thus, if you register your domain and come across decent website hosting solutions somewhere else afterwards, you can point your domain name to the current provider's NSs straight away.
Name Server Records (DNS Records)
In general, as long as your domain uses a given set of DNSs, all its NS records will direct to the same web space hosting provider. Some web page hosting firms, however, allow you to modify certain DNS records, like the A records and the MX records of your domain name. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which details on which web hosting server your website is situated, whereas the MX records specify which hosting server handles the e-mail accounts associated with your domain name. For example, if you engage a new web page designer and he creates an .ASP website that will be located on his private Windows web server, you may want to change solely the IP address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain name. Thus, www.domain.com will point to the Windows hosting server, but your e-mail boxes or any sub-domains like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux web space hosting account. The .ASP platform is developed by Microsoft and requests a Windows web hosting server, although a Linux server would be way more stable.
Reasonably Priced Domains Provided by 'Exclusive Hosting'
Only a few web hosting providers allow you to edit certain records and very frequently this an extra paid service. With Exclusive Hosting , you get an extensive selection of TLDs to select from and you can modify all records or redirect the domain names through a forwarding tool at no additional cost. That is why, 'Exclusive Hosting' would be your best choice when it comes to administering your domain and to building a successful presence on the World Wide Web.