Domain Terms Explained

A domain name is a unique address that refers to the location of a website. For example; if your website is located at www.xyz.co.uk then xyz.co.uk is the domain name.

It is not a necessity to have a domain name registered when you sign up for a hosting package as some packages have free domain name registration included.

The term domain name has multiple related meanings, the most common being a name that identifies a computer or computers on the internet. These names appear as a component of a Web site's URL, e.g. xyz.co.uk; this type of domain name is also called a hostname.

Domain Name Registrar:

A domain name registrar is a company accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and/or by a national TLD authority to register Internet domain names.

URL:

A URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, is the location of a file on the Web. When you type the address of a Web page into your browser, you are typing a URL.

IP Address:

Each computer that is connected to the Internet has a clearly identifiable numeric address, the IP address. It comprises four sequences of digits that are separated by periods, e.g. 123.545.87.88.

Static IP addresses enable the same computer to be contacted under the same address at any time (e.g., by a web server).

Dynamic IP addresses are allocated for instance to BT customers dialling up to the Internet. They receive an unoccupied IP address which will not be the same every time.

Top Level Domain (TLD):

A top-level domain, sometimes referred to as a top-level domain name (TLDN), is the last part of an Internet domain name; that is, the letters which follow the final dot of any domain name. For example, in the domain name www.abc.co.uk, the top-level domain is .co.uk.

Sub-Domain:

A sub domain allows you to create separate web addresses from just one domain, for example www.shop.com could become www.shoe.shop.com. Some hosts set a limit for the number of sub domains you can create.

Cyber-squatting:

Cyber-squatting is the unauthorised registration of domain-names featuring a brand name. This is a cheap and simple method to take advantage of another’s off-line brand reputation.

For more information on choosing a suitable domain name please refer to our article - Choosing a Domain Name

Check if your domain name is available:

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