What are Domains

One of the most crucial prerequisites for establishing a successful online presence is the domain. It is what people will perceive first when they stumble 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 site's visitors what the website is about.

Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

A domain typically consists of 2 parts - a Top-Level Domain (TLD) and a Second-Level Domain (SLD). If you have domain.com, for example, ".com" is the Top-Level Domain and "domain" is the SLD. There are a few sets of Top-Level Domain Names that you should consider before you select the domain you want. Your choice should depend on the goal of your web site and on its target visitors. Let's take a peek at the gTLDs, or generic TLDs - these are the most widespread Top-Level Domain Names aimed to designate a particular intention - .com (business enterprises), .net (network infrastructures), .biz (companies), .info (informational websites), .org (not-for-profit organizations), .mobi (mobile devices), .asia (the Asia-Pacific), .name (persons or relatives), .pro (particular professions), etc. As you can see, these TLDs cover most realms of life, so you should select the one that would denote the purpose of your web site best. There is no restriction as to who can register such domains, but some of them contain extra procedures to show that you are eligible to register such a TLD (.mobi and .pro, for instance).

Country-code Top-Level Domain Names (ccTLDs)

The ccTLDs, or country-code TLDs, are country-specific domain names. Each country has its own ccTLD. Picking such a domain is good if your target group of visitors is from a particular country. Many persons would like to buy commodities or services from a local web page, and if your target is Canada, for example, picking a .ca domain could increase the visits to your site.

Domain Name Redirection

You can register a number of domain names, which can redirect your web page's visitors to a certain web page such as domain.com, for example. This would boost the traffic and lower the risk of someone swiping your web page visitors by registering the same SLD with another TLD - if you are not utilizing a trademark.

Name Servers (NSs)

Each and every domain name has domain records. The name server records (NS records, aka DNS records) specify where the domain is hosted, i.e. they point to the hosting distributor whose name servers (NSs, aka DNSs) it is using now. You can switch the NSs of your domain whenever you wish. You can have your domain registered with one provider and get the website hosting service itself from another. Hence, if you register your domain name and come across decent website hosting services someplace else afterwards, you can point your domain to the present provider's NSs instantaneously.

Domain Server Records (DNS Records)

In general, as long as your domain name utilizes a given pair of NSs, all its NS records will direct to the same website hosting firm. Some hosting suppliers, though, permit you to edit certain DNS records, like the A records and the MX records of your domain. The A record is an Internet Protocol address, which reveals on which server your website is situated, whereas the MX records indicate which hosting server handles the mailbox accounts related to your domain name. For example, if you engage a new web designer and he sets up an .ASP web page that will be situated on his private Windows web hosting server, you may desire to change just the Internet Protocol address (the A record) but not the MX records of your domain. Thus, www.domain.com will point to the Windows web server, but your mailbox accounts or any sub-domains like forum.domain.com or shop.domain.com will still be in your present Linux website hosting account. The .ASP platform is built by Microsoft and requires a Windows hosting server, even though a Linux hosting server would be far more stable.

Cut-Rate Domain Names Furnished by 'Smart Host Kenya'

Only a few web hosting distributors allow you to modify certain DNS records and quite often this an additional paid service. With us, you get a wide collection of Top-Level Domain Names to choose from and you can modify all DNS records or forward the domain names via a redirection tool at no extra charge.