What is Domain Name? by Certified Digital Marketing Agency, Absolute Digital
Updated: Oct 20, 2020
A Domain Name is your website's address on the internet. Commonly confused with Uniform Resource Locator (URL), a domain name is a combination of letters and/or numbers that direct users to your website. A domain name starts with "www." and ends with either ".com", ".sg", ".com.sg", ".org", ".edu", or ".gov" depending on the purpose, location, and ownership of the website.
Whereas the URL is the exact web address of the page. E.g. www.absolutedigital.sg is a domain name and the URL for this page is www.absolutedigital.sg/blog
The purpose of a domain name is for identifying specific webpages on the Internet.
Computers use IP addresses, which are a string of numbers unique to your computer much like your personal Identification Number as an individual. Because it is difficult to remember strings of numbers, domain names were created and adopted to identify entities on the Internet rather than using IP addresses.
Connecting to a Web Hosting
Any domain name must be registered before you can use it because no two domain names can be the same. If someone types in www.yourdomain.com, it will go to your website and no one else's. You may register your domain name at any domain service provider or register with your web hosting provider. The price of a domain name typically runs between $5 to $60 annually which has to be renewed to stay valid and for your website to be live on the internet. This renewal also applies to your website's hosting.
Although your domain name is an essential part of having a website, it is only part of the equation. In order to launch a website, you'll also need a platform to hold your content and a web hosting server to store your files so they can be accessed on the internet. Once you own your domain, you will need to connect it with your web hosting and your website's platform.
How to get a Domain Name?
You must first check the availability of your ideal domain name at one of these websites: https://www.vodien.com/ and https://sg.godaddy.com/offers/domains/godaddy-new
Once you have found your domain name, you need to make a purchase that allows you exclusive ownership for that domain for a year. This rights to the domain have to be renewed annually if you would like to use it.
Once you have the domain name, you can proceed to purchase a web hosting with the same service provider (recommended) or with another. When you own the domain and web hosting, you can now link your new website to these and go live.
Protip: Wait for promotions such as Vodien's $5/year domain name.
Customised Email
One of the benefits of having your own domain name is the ability to create customised email addresses with your domain name such as hello@absolutedigital.sg. For businesses, this can be used as a professional yet personal email contact such as (name)@(company).com or simply for a general enquiry like info@(company).com.
For personal use, having a professional email account such as hello@(yourname).com can mean that you are serious about your own personal branding. Regardless, having your own domain name will give you...
...the ability to create any prefix you choose ending with @(yourdomainname).com.
If you'd like to find out more on how to create a website, or how to rank on page 1 of Google by increasing your Domain Authority (DA), you may reach out to us at hello@absolutedigital.sg or +65 8892 1290.
