Website domain - Preston Website Design | Domain name

Posted by | December 29, 2018 | Jargon | No Comments
domain

What is a ‘Domain’?

Often referred to as ‘website domain’, ‘domain name’ or ‘domain URL’ – but what is it?  Well, it’s the term given to the address of your website (and is also used for email addresses).

It can be helpful to think of it like the address of your house; it’s registered centrally so the post man knows where to deliver your post whenever your address is cited.  The domain name is the address associated to your website, so when someone enters (or searches) your domain they can be directed to the correct address, and therefore your website.

The domain is unique and can only be registered to one person at a time – after all, just like a postman, if there was a house with the same number, street and post code – how would they know where to deliver the post?  It’s the same for a domain, in order for a user to be directed to the correct website, the domain name needs to be unique.

Your domain must be registered and renewed annually (you can pay for multiple years in advance) – effectively leasing it for the duration you wish to keep your address.  You will have the option to renew this before is is put back on the market for someone else to use.

Domain extensions

Before we talk about domain extensions let me give you an example, www.swodge.co.uk, is our domain name/url.  It is the location of our website – its address.

If we split the address in half then the ‘swodge’ part is like the street address and the extension ‘.co.uk’ is more like the postal area code.  That means swodge.co.uk and swodge.com are different – much like you can have the same street in different locations – the combination of the 2 make this address unique.

There are lots of domain extensions out there; .co.uk, .com, .online, .org, .properties to name but a few.

 

We hope you have found these introductory explanations useful. Don’t forget to check out our other ‘Jargon’ blogs.

However, if you wish to know about some more complex domain related terms HTTP vs HTTPS and sub-domains then feel free to contact me via email, facebook or twitter.

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