WHAT IS A DOMAIN NAME?

Your domain name is an integral part of your online presence, it’s what your visitors will use to find you easily. For example, DigitalHQ’s domain name is digitalhq.com.au. Your domain name is unique to you; once you have registered it, nobody else can register the same domain name for as long as you continue to renew it.

Choosing your domain name is very important for a couple of reasons:

  1. Search Engines will pick up on any keywords within your domain name that relate to a visitors search; for example, if a visitor searched for “plumbers” and your domain name was acmeplumbers.com.au the search engine would pick up on the word “plumbers” within your domain name which would help with your page rank.

.com.au

This is the most recognisable domain name for Australian based businesses. You require an ABN for register this type of domain.

.net.au

This is the best alternative domain name for Australian based businesses. You require an ABN to register this type of domain.

.org.au

For Australian charities and non-profit organisations.

.com

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.net

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.org

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What is a domain name?

A domain name is your online address, eg: www.digitalHQ.com.au. It’s what your visitors will type in to get to your website.

Are a domain name and a URL the same thing?

A domain name is often confused with a URL, but they are different things.

URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator and refers to the entire address used to visit a website, including all those colons and slashes. This address includes the domain name.

The URL for the DigitalHQ website would be ‘http://www.digitalhq.com.au’. This contains the ‘hypertext transfer protocol’ (http), telling the browser that you are using a domain name instead of an IP Address. This is followed by the domain name itself (www.digitalhq.com.au or digitalhq.com.au — both are valid). This points to the server where the website is hosted and the particular files on that server to be accessed.

What are top-level and second-level domain names?

Dot Com (.com) was the first domain type to be introduced and is considered a top level domain or TLD. Top level domains include any that contain only one suffix — for example .net, .info, .biz and so on.

Second level domains or 2LDs are domain names containing another level after the .com or .co suffix. For example, .com.au is a second level domain style as it contains an additional suffix after the .com that shows the website originates in Australia.

What are gTLDs and ccTLDs?

A gTLD is a generic top-level domain and includes addresses like .marketing, .estate, .fashion, and .photography. This is an area really booming in popularity lately and there is a huge range to choose from, whatever your industry!

ccTLDs are country code top-level domains which are usually restricted to certain countries. These are domains like .au, .uk and .us.

Domains and email?

Email also relies on domain names to work. Once you have a domain name, it is easy to create your own personalised email address eg. yourname@yourdomain.com.au. This has many advantages for branding and professional communications. Many people register domain names purely to have their own email address instead of relying on Hotmail, Gmail or any other generic service.