About 20 years ago, the Internet tightly entered our lives, but until now, most users do not quite understand what a domain is and by what criteria it is chosen. The most popular misconception is that a 3rd level domain is low valued and used in extremely rare cases. Is it really indecent to use it, for example, by online stores, and what should guide you in choosing? And also what is the difference between the concepts - domain, domain name, domain zone?
Concept and classification
So, first, a little about definitions. A domain name, or domain, is the symbolic name of a site for its identification on the Internet. For example, yandex.ru is a second level domain name. The domain zone is the ending following the dot, in this example it is .ru, which means the site belongs to the Runet.
Most often, domain zones are divided into groups according to territorial criteria:
- national (if binding to a specific country is needed - .by, .ru, .ua, etc.);
- international (if there is no such link - .com, .info, .biz, etc.).
Another classification involves dividing them by topic:
- .info - for news and information portals;
- .am and .fm - for radio stations;
- .tv - for television channels;
- .biz - for commercial sites;
- .name - for resources associated with a person, etc.
Some use organizational domain zones:
- .net - for Internet companies;
- .com - for business;
- .org - for non-profit enterprises;
- .edu - for educational programs.
These domain zones belong to first level domains. If you add a word in front of the dot, you get a second-level domain (for example, yandex.ru), and if you have another dot and a word in front, then a third-level domain (news.yandex.ru).
How to choose a domain zone?
Of course, first of all, you should decide who the site will be oriented to.
For the Russian-speaking audience, the .ru domain zone is suitable, for the Belorussian audience - .by, for the Ukrainian .ua, etc. If you don’t need a binding to a specific country, it is better to choose the international .com zone. Large companies with an extensive Internet trading structure prefer to have a website with the same name in several domain zones at once. For example, dom.ua is for Ukrainian buyers, dom.ru is for Russian, dom.com is for international payments.
To specify a specific country or region, use the list of domain zones.
Russian domains
The peculiarity of the domestic Internet is the use of not only Latin letters in the address of the site, but also Cyrillic letters - this is the .rf,. Moscow,. Online domain zone (for live broadcasts),. Children (for sites with a children's audience), .org (for public organizations ), .site (for personal portals, blogs, etc.) and some others.
You can often find domain names with involvement in certain cities and regions - spb.ru (St. Petersburg), msk.ru (Moscow), nov.ru (Novgorod region), etc.
How to choose a site name?
Internet resources are becoming more and more, it is becoming more difficult to choose a unique site name. Therefore, options with two or three words through a hyphen are gaining popularity. For example, simple-domain-name.ru. The abbreviation can be used, but provided that it is well known, for example, the National Bank of Belarus - nbrb.by. An incomprehensible abracadabra of several letters is not the most successful option, because the user is unlikely to remember it and will not be able to type in the future from memory.
The main thing is that the domain (domain name), domain zone should be simple for remembering and subsequent playback. Do not use typos - cofe.ru or cofie.ru. Ask your friends by ear to write down the address. If a person was able to correctly enter it during pronunciation, then other users will be able to find you.
If the name of the company is not important for you, try using a Latin keyword (phrase) in the name, for example, computer.ru.
What are third level domains for?
In some situations, it is more appropriate to use third-level domains, for example, when it comes to a blog or portfolio. The domain zone in this case can be .name. An example is ivan.ivanov.name. At the same time, the second-level domain will be available to all other Ivanovs.
But of course, most often they resort to 3rd level domains when they do not want to pay for the site. For example, if this is not a commercial resource, if the administrator thus wants to practice the basics of web programming, if this is a trial version of the site. How to get a domain for free is described below, but for now we’ll analyze what is required to open a second-level domain.
How to get a domain?
So, the name of the site was invented, it remains only to check it for uniqueness and register so that the site can start functioning. To do this, first you go to the WHOIS information service and check if the domain is free.
If the name is unique, go to the website of the accredited registrar Rucenter - nic.ru. Here, registration of a domain zone requires passing the following steps:
- Acquaintance with the rules for the provision of services and the conclusion of an offer agreement in electronic form. If you wish, you can conclude a paper version by arriving at the main office of RU-CENTER or sending the printed version by mail in duplicate (the second one will be returned to you after signing).
- Filling in the form of the site administrator (as an individual, legal entity or individual entrepreneur), submitting documents. This step should be taken with special responsibility, because if you make the slightest mistake, the data do not match, you will not be able to transfer the rights to the domain to another person in the future and you yourself may lose the ability to manage it.
- Creating an order for a domain and related services.
- The formation of value and payment in various ways - in cash, non-cash, Internet payment, etc.
For those who for some reason do not want to pay money for the site or take their first steps in website building, there are free domain zones. What is it and how do they work?
How to get a free domain?
It’s worth mentioning right away that it’s almost impossible to get a 2nd level domain for free. And if you come across such an offer, then most likely in a year you will still have to pay for a place, and a lot.
Much more common are free domains of the 3rd level. How to find them?
One option is to turn to free hosting and site designers - ucoz.com, narod.ru.
The second option is to enter free domains in the search engine to get to English-language resources, where there are more chances to get a high-quality domain. Among the first you will find the site freenom.com, where you can not only register a second-level domain for free in the GA, TC, CF, ML zones, but also bind your DNS and continue to manage your own website for free. There are a lot of similar resources here, for example, registry.cu.cc, codotvu.com, freedomain.co.nr and many others.
New domain zones are gaining great popularity - .cu.cc, .uni.me, .cz.cc, .eu.org .de.cc, .at.cc, .ch.cc and others.
As for domestic services, .pp.ua (private person) offers good conditions for obtaining a free domain. Here you can conveniently place any personal website or personal blog.
The main question related to such domains is how relevant the search engine is to them and is it possible to promote the site to the top on similar platforms? To do this, enter the query site: ch.cc or site: at.cc (for Google) or url = »*. Ch.cc in the search engine you are interested in and see if such domains are indexed in the search.
Summary
Domain, domain name, domain zone - without which no site can function. Summarizing all of the above, we can distinguish 5 key stages of connecting a domain and creating a site:
- The choice of a domain zone according to the most suitable principle for you - territorial or thematic.
- Creating a domain name and checking its uniqueness through a special WHOIS service.
- Conclusion of an agreement to obtain a domain with the Russian center RU-CENTER.
- Connection of additional services.
- Payment in a convenient way.
That's all for getting a paid domain. If you want to do this for free, there are only 2 steps - to find a suitable service that will provide a level 3 domain on terms convenient for you, and create a unique domain name.
The only thing, in this case, there may be a problem with website promotion, because search engines prefer paid second-level domains, which means that your site is unlikely to get on the first lines of a search query.