Virtually every business these days needs a good online presence to reach their audience these days. Much of the contact between consumers and brands occurs through social networks, e-commerce and websites. And to be able to create your space, it is very important to invest in a domain.
What complicates this task a little is the existence of several types of domain, each one with its particularities. It all depends on the type of business you have and how the site will be used. And, to make the best decision, you need to know these differences.
Follow up and better understand what is and what types of domains exist today.
What is domain?
The domain is the name of your website, which must be unique and unique. This is the name you find in your browser’s search bar. When you type the full name of a website, including its extensions, it searches for the website that matches that address.
There cannot be two identical domains registered, as this would cause the same address to point to two different pages. That’s why you need to register a domain before you can use it. Choosing one of the right domain types for your business is critical to the success of your website. The right name facilitates searches for your site and increases the credibility of your brand.
It is also important not to confuse domain and hosting. These are two different services, but they go hand in hand. While the domain is the registered name of your website, the hosting is the storage service that you use to store all the information on the page and transmit it to the visitors.
What are the types of domains?
If you look at the address of any website, you will see that it has several components, usually separated by a period (.) or a slash (/). Each element has a different meaning when composing the complete address.
Check the domain types and what they mean here.
Domain of Top Level
The Top Level Domain (TLD) represents the highest level of DNS record for your domain, which is the basis for the rest of your browsing. It is also called “domain extension”, being that part that comes at the end. The best known and most used, as you may know, is “.com”, which started as an extension for commercial institutions, but ended up becoming the generic extension of almost any website.
Besides it , there are also other TLDs.
- .edu: educational institutions, such as schools, universities and courses;
- .gov: government institutions and public bodies;
- .mil: domain of military institutions, but restricted to the United States;
- .net: originally intended for general content on the internet, today is the alternative when it is not possible to use a “.com” domain;
- .org: non-profit organizations and NGOs.
Most likely you use a “.com” domain, but you can make use of some of these, depending on your case.
Territorial or Geographic Domain
This is another very common extension, so much so that some don’t even notice it anymore. It is the part of the domain that concerns the territory to which the content links. As you browse, you’ve certainly come across several sites with a “.br” at the end. This indicates that the site is intended for the Brazilian public.
If a site has an international reach, it is not uncommon for it to be accessed with different domain domains. When accessing Google with “.br”, the site comes in Brazilian Portuguese, but when accessing it with “.us” (United States), the site will come in English and with different protocols, for example.
Higher Level Domain Internationalized by Country Code
Not every language uses the alphabet as a form of writing, which modifies the process of identifying Domains. In these cases, a TLD by country code is used, which can use the local symbols of the target site. It is something more important for companies that operate internationally, because only then can they create sites better targeted to these audiences.
Generic Domain
Generic domains are sub-categories of TLDs, each representing a different functionality that the site may have. The choice here depends on your company’s field of activity and how the site will be used. Some of the main types recognized today are:
- .app;
- .global;
- .auto;
- .digital;
- .futbol;
- .promo;
- .yoga;
- .shop;
- .club;
- .site;
- .viajes.
The greatest use of these extensions is to allow the registration of a company name that already has a “.com” domain or “.net” registered. So even if someone has registered the name, you can still have a different domain.
Second Level Domain
The Second Level Domain (SLD) is the name immediately to the left of your TLD, second in the domain hierarchy level. That is, this is the personalized name that you will give your site, by which most users will do their searches and recognize your brand.
There are some criteria for choosing a second level domain more effective. For example:
- name easy to read, write and search;
- avoid a very long URL;
- as distinct from other known domains to avoid confusion.
This is the point that makes the most difference in the success of your site.
Third-level Domain
The Third-level Domain (TLD) is the part of the URL that is directly to the left of the SLD, being the next level in the domain hierarchy. On a conventional website, you have first the “.br” will be your territorial domain, the “.com” will be your second level domain and the website name will be your third level domain. They are also called “sub-domains”, as they can be used to refer to specific sessions of a website.
Understanding the different types of domains and domain extensions is very important when registering your company website. In addition to considering the name of your business, it is also necessary to consider how it will be searched for and when and where it will be most accessed.
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