Domain name is the address of your website that people type in the browser URL (Uniform Resource Locator) bar to visit your website. A domain name is used for finding and identifying computers on the Internet.

The actual address of a website is a complex numerical IP address (e.g. 191.60.244.1), but thanks to DNS, users are able to enter human-friendly domain names and be routed to the websites they are looking for. This process is known as a DNS lookup.

A domain name can be any combination of letters and numbers, and it can be used in combination of the various domain name extensions, such as .com, .net and more.

1) HTTP / HTTPS protocol for passing information to this website; “S” is for secure and means there is an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate for this domain

2) Subdomain, similar to a folder on your computer; www is a subdomain too

3) Second-level domain; this is what your register when you buy a domain

4) Top-level domain, in this case generic or gTLD for short

When you enter a domain name in your web browser, it first sends a request to a global network of servers that form the Domain Name System (DNS).

These servers then look up for the name servers associated with the domain and forward the request to those name servers.

For example, if your website is hosted on Godaddy (or) Bluehost, etc,. then its name server information will be like this:

ns1.godaddy.com
ns2.godaddy.com
           (or)
ns1.bluehost.com
ns2.bluehost.com

These name servers are computers managed by your hosting company. Your hosting company will forward your request to the computer where your website is stored.

This computer is called a web server. It has special software installed (Apache, Nginx are two popular web server software). The web server now fetches the web page and pieces of information associated with it. Finally, it then sends this data back to the browser.

Domain name registrations are overseen by an organization called ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). ICANN specifies which domain name extensions are available and keeps a centralized database of where the domain names point to.

Domain names are available in many different extensions. The most popular one is .com. There are many other options like .org, .info, .net, .live, .online, .club, .technology, .company, .email, and more. However we always recommend using .com domain extension.

Let’s take a more detailed look at different types of domain names available.

Top Level Domain – TLD :

Top level domain or TLD are generic domain extensions that are listed at the highest level in the domain name system.

A list of the top-level domains by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is maintained at the Root Zone Database.

There are hundreds of TLDs, but the most popular ones are .com, .org, and .net. Other TLDs are lesser known and we don’t recommend using them. For example, .biz, .club, .info, .agency, and many more.

Country Code Top Level Domain – ccTLD :

Country code top-level domain or ccTLD are country specific domain names which end with country code extension like .uk for the United Kingdom, .us for United States, .de for Germany, .in for India, .au for Australia, etc,..

They are used by websites that want to target audiences in a specific country.

Sponsored Top Level Domain – sTLD :

Sponsored top-level domain or sTLD is a category of TLDs that has a sponsor representing a specific community served by the domain extension.

For example, .edu for education-related organizations, .gov for the United States government, states and local governments, .jobs for the Human resource managers,  .asia for the Companies, organisations and individuals in the Asia-Pacific region, .post for the Postal services, .mil for the United States military, and more.