What are domain names? How do they work? These questions are frequently asked by marketers just starting out.
Those who are just starting out in email marketing may have heard that they need a domain name to create a website.
In this article, we will outline what are domain names? And how do domains work? This guide aims to help you choose the right domain name for your website to boost the visibility of your brand.
Domain names are what appears between the @ in an email address and the .com, .org, .net, etc. (For example, username@domain.com.).
Domain names help your customers locate and remember your business on the internet.
You can use a subdomain to help improve the deliverability of your email marketing campaigns, such as sales.domain.com or marketing.domain.com.
The term e-mail domain refers to the collection of email addresses for one company or organization under the format of username@domain.com. With each member of the company or organization having his or her own username.
If an individual wants to send an email from their Gmail account to a friend who also uses Gmail. They would simply type “@gmail.com” behind their friend’s name in the “To:” field and then click “Send.” This is because @gmail.com is their email address provided by their respective internet service provider [ISP].
If both the sender and the recipient of the email are Hotmail users, you can also send emails from your “@yahoo.com” or “@gmail.com” addresses. This is more common than sending an email from a web address.
In the online marketplace, websites are as important as business cards, and your domain name is integral to showing off your brand. The right domain name lets your potential customers know what you do and what you offer.
What Are Domain Names
For instance, a domain name such as mailvio.com is the Internet address at which users can navigate to your website. Although your customers are typing your domain name into their browser when they visit your site. You can be sure that there is much more behind the scenes.
In order for a website to be accessible on the internet, it has to be hosted on a server. A computer knows exactly how to reach each server by looking at its internet protocol (IP) address. While IP addresses are useful for computers, they are not exactly user-friendly. That’s where domain names come in.
In the Internet world, domain names are a convenient alternative to IP addresses that are difficult to remember.
Domain name systems (DNS) translate domain names into computer-friendly IP addresses when a server receives a request from a customer’s browser. Thus, the search engine will know precisely where it needs to go in order to locate your website.
How Domain Names Boost Deliverability Rate
Setting up and managing your email takes a lot of steps, but picking a domain is a very important one!
Choosing the right setup can make or break your results year after year. In what ways can you ensure that your domain is configured for maximum deliverability and brand recognition?
You should first identify the goals that you have for your domain. In view of business growth or rebranding. Choose a name that explains what the brand offers.
Next, seek advice from an expert. Ask a professional who can affirm your decisions or help you reorient your efforts.
People remember and experience your brand based on the domains you use when sending emails. For example, if your company (named “Hitters”) primarily sells hammers. You would be wise to include the words “hitters” and “hammers” in the domain name that you send your emails from.
Domains vs. Email Addresses
Domains are the e-mail addresses that are used everywhere you write an email, such as sue@domain.com. In some cases, it may also be referred to as a subaddress or an email account.
Although domain names are commonly purchased from internet service providers (ISPs), you can also purchase domain names from companies that sell domain registration services.
It varies depending on whether you want to use your current ISP or sign up for a new one. If you wish to change ISPs, most ISPs will provide instructions on how to transfer your domain name.
Whenever you transfer your domain, make sure to retain any contact information that comes with it. Since this data will not be transferred with the rest of the site.
If your name, David Black, does not exist as an available domain name. Or is reserved for another use, it may not be available for registration.
For non-public domains, you can either find another one. Or ask if your preferred name can be secured so that nobody else can use it.
In order for domain names to become active, they must be registered and paid for.
Domain Name Registration
Once you’ve registered a domain name, you can create a website and host it on any server of your choice.
If you are choosing a domain name for your business, here are some tips to remember.
- Your business name or relevant keywords can be included. Ensure that people are aware of who you are and what you offer. Additionally, keywords increase its search engine ranking.
- Give your location. If you operate only in one specific market, including a location in your domain name can help you rank higher in search results.
- Use only letters, no numbers, dashes, or hyphens. Easy-to-remember names are more likely to spread by word of mouth more rapidly.
- Check to see if you are the owner of the domain and the administrative contact. You can only transfer domain names that you own. Don’t let anyone else gain ownership without your knowledge. Make sure you are the designated contact for the site.
- Every year, you should renew the registration of your domain name. If you fail to renew the registration, your domain name will be available to anyone. If you have already spent years building your business around that domain, then this can be a huge problem for you. Consider paying for multiple years of registration upfront and setting your account to renew automatically if you wish to stay away from this.
Domain Names At The Top Level (TLD)
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) must register each domain name. In the event of registration, it gets a suffix that indicates the TLD it belongs to. These are sometimes called “parent domains.” Some common TLDs are:
- Business users can use .com (google.com)
- .org for organizations (lifebug.org)
- Websites run by the government (whitehouse.gov) end with .gov
- For military websites, use .mil (af.mil)
- The .edu extension for educational institutions (Cambridge.edu)
- To see sites in Canada, type .ca (cbc.ca).
In the United States, most websites use three-letter TLDs. While other parts of the world, such as the EU and Canada, use two-letter TLDs.
Configuration Of Domain Name
The structure of a complete domain name consists of three parts. A machine or hostname (such as “WWW” for “World Wide Web”) is followed by the name of the website, then the top-level domain.
Such as .com or .gov. A dot separates each part of the domain, creating a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) like www.mailvio.com.
A URL (uniform resource locator) and a domain name aren’t the same. The URL, while it does contain the domain name, also contains additional information.
URLs typically contain the internet protocol (HTTP or HTTPS) being used to access the page. You can also use URLs to help browsers find files and folders that are hosted on a website (like https://www.mailvio.com/#features , for example).
Conclusion
As a business, you don’t want your customers to ignore your emails, and they don’t want spam landing in their inboxes either. You will avoid these issues once you understand what are domain names used for.
The email address you used to represent your brand should match the domain name of your website.
This will help you appear professional and stand out among your competitors while increasing your brand value. Also, help potential customers decide that you are the right business to work with. Because your domain name says it all.