What is a Domain Name?

If you are reading this page on the internet, then you are already using domain names, even if you don’t understand the principles involved. But what is a domain name? A technical term for the ‘address’ of a particular website on the internet, the domain name tells your browser where to look to access the pages you want to see. The domain name for this website, for example, is “ydchosting.com.au” and you arrived at this page from clicking through one webpage to another, moving from one domain name to another, or by typing the exact address into the address bar of your browser.

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, and forms the entire address used to access a particular website, including the domain name. URLs were devised as an easier form of internet navigation over IP Addresses that traditionally identify the host server for a website through a series of numbers. A URL uses easy to remember words and letters to replace the impractical IP Address method. Therefore, a URL for the YDC Hosting website would be ‘http://www.ydchosting.com.au’ and will contain the Hypertext Transfer protocol” (http) allowing you to use words instead of an IP Address, and the domain name itself (www.ydchosting.com.au) identifying the server and the particular files on that server to be accessed.

You may have noticed that some domain names end in fewer dots and letters than others. For example, the domain name mysite.com has fewer components than mysite.com.au.
Dot Com domains (.com) was the first domain style to be introduced, and is considered a Top Level Domain or TLD as it features only one suffix. Top level domains also cover any other domain name form that only has one suffix – for example; .net, .info, .biz, and so on.
Second Level Domains or 2LDs are domain names that contain another level of qualification to this. For example; .com.au is a second level domain style as it contains an additional suffix after the .com.
Second level domains are no less effective or desirable than top level domains. In some cases they can actually be MORE desirable as the additional suffix can help to say something about your business, such as where in the world you are located.

Subdomains are additional sections to the url that further divide the existing domain name. Subdomains take the form www.subdomain.mysite.com.au, placing the new section title before the primary domain name identifier. This is most commonly seen with blogs, as it cleanly partitions off a section of the domain for this purpose. Subdomains do not need to be registered separately from your existing domain name, and can be created as you build your website.