What is a domain and why is it needed? We’ll tell you what a domain is and why it’s needed in simple words.

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In one of the lessons I talked about what it is Domain name and how to get it. I told him in passing, just to get at least some idea. But this topic requires a more detailed analysis. This is really important!

A domain is a website address. This is a unique name on the Internet, which, when opened, will open a specific website.

For example, the Internet resource you are currently on has the following address: website

That is, the site is the domain name of our site. By typing it, only our site will open and no other.

How to find out a domain name

To find out the domain name, that is, the address of a particular Internet resource, you need to look at the address bar of the browser when the site is open.

For example, I opened the Yandex website. To find out its domain name, that is, its exact address, you need to look in the address bar. This is what my browser's address bar looks like:

And here is the Yandex address. In my browser it is highlighted in a darker color:

That is, his address is yandex.ru

And here is the domain name of the Google website:

There is always a prefix before the domain name. That is, some kind of introductory part. Most often this is part http:// or www.

In fact, www is an abbreviation. This part of the address is correctly written http://www.

That is, the full address of the Yandex website looks like this: http://www.yandex.ru

In principle, this is the same thing with or without www. We can say that this is the same address, just in two different spellings.

With these different address spellings (“without www” and “with www”), there are certain nuances that professionals in the field of website creation and promotion need to know about. But we won’t go deeper into this.

How to find out the address of a specific page on a website

Since a site is a set of pages, which, in turn, are sorted into sections (categories, headings), each page also has its own address. It is written immediately after the domain name and is separated from it by a slash (/).

IN classical performance Each page URL must have a .html or .htm part at the end, and must consist exclusively of Latin letters. Spaces should be used instead underscore or hyphen, numbers can also be used.

But now this is no longer so relevant, since the Internet in general and search engines in particular understand a wide variety of addresses. Therefore, site pages can have Russian names, and include some characters, and be without any “tail” at all (without html, htm, php or anything else).

In order to find out the address of a specific page on a site, you also need to look at the address bar of your browser when the page is open. For example, this is what you will see if you look at the browser line right now:

The page address is located immediately after the domain name and is separated from it by a slash (/). That is, the address of the page you are currently on is domennoe_imya.html

Since now most sites are “created” on control systems (engines), page addresses are formed by these very systems. And in principle, it is not so important what they are: alphabetic, numeric, different symbols, with or without a tail.

It is also not at all necessary that the address of a particular page reflect its content. This was important before, but now it has practically no meaning.

What are domain names?

A domain name consists of two parts: the name itself and domain zone.

The name itself is a word or several words that the site owner comes up with independently.

For example, our website has the address site . The word neumeka is what I wanted to name the site. That is, I came up with this word and registered such a domain.

A domain zone is a “tail” in the form of a dot with some set of letters. In my case this is a ponytail .ru

There are not just many domain zones, but very, very many. And there are more and more of them. You can talk for a long time about what they are and the principle of their formation. But it’s better not to bother your bright head with this.

What you really need to know is that there are different levels of domains. The easiest way to explain it is this: there are domains with one dot after the name and with several.

With one dot, this is the address of our website:

With several dots - these are addresses that end in .od.am or moy.su and the like.

As a rule, such names are distributed free of charge by other sites (systems). For example, in the lesson “How to make a website for free” I talked about online designers. Let me remind you that these are systems with which you can get your own website completely free of charge and without much difficulty. So these systems give free domain names with several dots.

Typically domain names consist only of Latin letters, without spaces. But there are also exceptions. For example, Cyrillic domain zones: rf, moscow, online, site, rus and others. In this case, the entire site address will be in Russian (except for the http:// prefix).

You can also use numbers and hyphens in your name.

Choosing a name for your site

The first thing to remember: no free domain names. By choosing such a name, you will ruin your site.

The second thing you need is to decide on the domain zone. As I already said, there are a lot of them. Let's look at this in more detail.

Domain zone

There are domain zones that have been in use for a long time. For example, com, net, org.

There are special areas for sites on certain topics. Example: gov (government), mil (military), edu (educational).

Available for sites of certain countries (regions): ru, by, kz and so on.

There are new domain zones for every taste. For example, shop, sport, moscow.

Of course, it's up to you to decide. But when choosing a zone, it makes sense to listen to the advice of professionals:

It is better not to register names of the third level, that is, with two “tails” (ru.com, org.am, etc.).

The exception is the domain zone com.ua - this zone is for Ukrainian sites.

If your site is targeted at residents of a certain country, then it is better to register the name in the national domain zone.

For example, you want to create a website for a company that provides services in Minsk (Republic of Belarus). This means that the name for this site must be chosen with a “tail” .by

If you are creating an international website, without regional affiliation, then it is better to register the domain in the com zone.

For example, you create an information site about smartphones on English language. That is, visitors to this site will not be from Russia, but from other countries. This means you need to choose a name with a tail.com

If you are creating a website in Russian, without regional affiliation, then it is better to register the domain in the ru zone.

For example, our website. Its visitors are Russian-speaking residents different countries. Therefore, it is located in the ru zone

Name for the site

Let's say you have decided on a zone. Now you need to choose a name for the site, that is, some word or several words that will be its address.

In fact, it doesn't matter what it is. The main thing is that it is. It’s like with a phone number: it’s not so important what it is, the main thing is that it is.

But it’s still better if the name is short, easy to remember, without numbers or hyphens, and reflects the essence of the site. But since each name is unique, that is, it can only belong to one site, there are few such short beautiful names left. You have to use your wits.

The principle is as follows: go to the domain name registrar website and select an address.

It doesn’t matter which registrar’s website you go to - there are very, very many of them. The base is the same for all, only the prices and ease of selection differ. Don’t look at the prices, since you will be buying a domain on another site (with the most affordable prices), the main thing is convenience.

For example, you can choose an address for the site here.

Let your imagination run wild. If the selected word is taken, add a few letters to it. In general, try to choose a name that is pleasant to both the ear and the eye.

Imagine how it will be written on a business card. Will a person be able to accurately type it by ear (for example, if the address is dictated over the phone).

Checking the domain name

Let's say you have chosen an address for your website. It suits you, and you are ready to buy it. But you should check this name before purchasing.

The fact is that the Internet has existed for a very long time, and along with it, domain names have existed for just as long. Every day thousands of different sites appear on the Internet and thousands close down.

Each of them has its own name. This name needs to be renewed. That is, the name is not bought forever, but for a certain period, for example, a year.

So, when a site closes and its name is not renewed, after a while it becomes free. As a result, anyone will be able to register it, that is, buy it for their website.

Everything would be fine, but by buying such an address, you can say that you are taking away its past. Search engines Yandex, Google and others know and remember the history of each name. And sometimes this “cargo” can be very difficult to get rid of.

For example, you picked beautiful address, and previously there was a site with prohibited information on it. For search engines such an address is marked as “bad” and they ignore it. By purchasing such a name for your site, it becomes invisible to search engines.

Or, let’s say you have a website dedicated to aquarium fish. You buy a name for it that used to belong to an online store selling TVs. Since search engines remember that TVs used to be sold at this address, you may have difficulty promoting information about fish.

Verification methods

There are several ways to verify a name. You can find out if it was once used and see what site was previously at this address.

Unfortunately, there is no way to know the “score” that search engines gave this site. Even if it looked decent and didn't have anything illegal on it, the address could get a black mark.

Unfortunately, there is no way to check this. Usually such things are learned after purchasing and attaching a new site.

So, method number one: we check whether the name has been registered by someone before.

For addresses in any domain zone. We check on the website whois.domaintools.com.

Type the domain name you want to check (in full) and click on the “Lookup” button.

If there are no entries, then everything is fine. This means that this address never belonged to anyone.

If there is a “Whois History” item with a certain number of records, it means that this address already belonged to someone.

For addresses in the ru, su, rf zone. Such addresses can also be checked using the previous method, but more full information can be obtained from whoishistory.ru.

However, for this you need to register, confirm your registration by e-mail, and log in.

After this, enter the domain that you want to check without a domain zone - you need to select it in a separate window. Check "Exact Match" and then "All WHOIS History" with a dot. After that, select some very old date (year two thousand) in the “Registration date (created)” field - “from”. And in the “to” field is today. Then click on the “Find” button.

If there are no entries, it means that this address has not been used before.

If any record is found, it means that earlier given name has already been registered to someone. You can also see more there detailed information(when, to whom, etc.).

Method number two: we check whether there was a site at this address before.

These are the registrars through which I personally have been ordering and renewing addresses for websites for many years. So far there have been no problems. The only thing is that at the first registrar the cost of the domain upon renewal differs from the primary one. Of course, not to the lesser extent. Beget has the same one.

If you are a beginner and have created a website using my lessons, I recommend buying a name on beget.ru, since it is very easy to attach it to the created website.

I can’t say anything about reliability - I’ve never used their services myself. But this office has been operating for several years and they have good reviews. True, sometimes their website hangs, but this does not affect the quality of services.

Greetings, dear readers. If you are new to website building, you may be wondering what is a website domain and what is it for? If yes, then read this article, in which I will analyze this issue in as much detail as possible.

Domain - what is it?

A domain is the name or address of a website. For example, youtube.com is the domain of the world’s most popular video hosting site. Well, etc. Each site has its own domain, and it is needed so that the site can be accessed by writing certain letters (and sometimes numbers) in address bar.

What else is a domain needed for? Obviously, first of all, so that each site has its own unique name, as well as the Internet user can easily remember the right resource by his domain. It's just convenient.

Default in computer world everything is in numbers. If there were no domain names, then sites would need to be accessed by entering the IP addresses of the servers on which they reside. Imagine how uncomfortable that would be? We would have to keep a separate notebook in which to write down the IP addresses of the sites we need, because without writing them down it would be impossible to remember them. As you can see, domains greatly simplify the task of identifying and uniqueizing websites.

What does a domain name consist of?

Let's look at everything with an example. We have the same domain - youtube.com. What parts does it consist of?

Youtube– actually, the name of the site.
A period is a punctuation mark between parts of a domain. Acts as a separator. There is no need to put a period at the end, I put it only because it is the end of the sentence.
Com– the so-called domain zone. At the moment there are about 750 domain zones. In almost every name, anyone can register a name.

Specifically, com is an international commercial zone. Each country also has its own zone, and large states may have several of them. The most common examples:

Ru – Russia;
Ua - Ukraine;
Kz - Kazakhstan;
By - Belarus;

Domain zones are also divided by topic. For example, .club is a zone for an online club or online magazine, .mobi is a zone for sites designed purely for mobile traffic. Well, etc.

Third level domains or more

Youtube.com is a second-level domain, since its full name contains 2 words. There may also be domains of 3-4 levels or even more. They are usually used for the following purposes (not all of the examples given are true, some were invented by me):

Withdraw separate section website or portal. For example, you have a website and you want to create a forum on it on a separate subdomain. In this case, its address will look something like this: forum.site.ru. There are many services on large portals, so their developers create third-level domains and place them there necessary services. For example:
Metrika.yandex.ru – setting up and viewing your Yandex.metrics counters.
Health.mail.ru is a section of the health portal where you can ask a doctor a question.
Mail.google.com - mail from Google.
Having one second-level domain, you can make an unlimited number of third-level or more domains. All this will be free.
Another reason for the appearance of domains of the third or more levels is the targeting of the site to a specific region. For example:
Auto.msk.ru is some kind of automotive website, relevant only for Muscovites.
Run.spb.ru – website for running enthusiasts from St. Petersburg
Afisha.kiev.ua - advertisement site for Kiev residents I think these examples are enough to understand the essence.
Finally, the last reason is the creation of a website on free constructor. In this case, the addresses look like this:
Site.wix.com - it is clear that the site was created and runs on wix designer ;
Site.ucoz.ru - another platform for websites - ucoz; In fact, a domain can have a 4th or more level, but this is already rare. In total, I think there are 63 levels allowed, but maybe I got it mixed up.

Buying a domain name

I described this procedure in detail in. I’ll end this here.

In general, we have more or less figured out what a domain is and what it is needed for. If there is anything to add to the article, I will definitely do it, but for now I say goodbye to you.

A domain (domain name) is a website address, consisting of a set of characters or numbers, unique to a group of domain names. A group of domain names means special zones like .ru, .com, .org, .net, etc. The domain is displayed in the browser address bar.

If you intend to create a website, it doesn't matter whether personal blog, a portfolio page for a freelancer, an online store, a forum, etc., then first you will need to come up with a name for your project and a domain name. Then you need to place your project on hosting, after which other people will be able to visit your site.

In this article we will figure out how to come up with a name for your future website, what a domain is (domain name), how to choose a domain, how to check it, how to register and set up a domain for your website.

What is a website domain in simple words and why is it needed?

A domain is needed to differentiate sites. Even if the user does not enter the address of your site into the browser, but, for example, gets to your site through the Yandex or Google search engine, then these same search engines somehow need to correctly distinguish between millions of sites and redirect users correctly.

Now let's take a closer look at the address of a website. If you copy the site address from the address bar of your browser, you will see a link something like this:

Let's take it apart piece by piece this domain.

The abbreviation http stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol, "hypertext transfer protocol". If we talk in simple language, then http is like traffic rules on the road, or another way to say it is like a translator between two people speaking different languages. It allows you to connect a user who opens a particular site on his computer and the site itself, which is created according to certain rules.

The HTTP protocol, like a translator, first listens to what one person (the computer user) says to it and then translates it to a second person (the site). As a result, mutual understanding occurs between the first and second person, which is expressed in the fact that the person opens the page he needs and studies necessary information.

There are other protocols, such as HTTPS, which means secure connection. That is, all information will be transmitted in encrypted form. Or SMTP protocol, which is used to send email messages.

What is WWW?

WWW is an acronym that stands for World Wide Web, which means World Wide Web. World Wide Web form millions of Internet web servers located around the world. The web server is computer program, which runs on a computer connected to the network and uses the HTTP protocol to transfer data.

Actually, web servers host files from various websites. By files we mean various pictures, videos, audio, various components of sites and folders in which all this stuff is located. And by HTTP protocol various users around the world manage to connect to such web servers and view the content of the sites.

But the fact is that in the 90s of the last century and the early 00s of this century, web servers were very weak, so it was necessary to place, for example, site files on one computer, mail server for email messages on another, and FTP server For remote access to the files on the third. The names of the servers began with the name of the computers on which they were located, and depending on what the person needed, for example, viewing a website or sending mail, they looked like this: www.site.com, mail.site.com or ftp.site.com . In other words, the WWW part in the site name helped determine what a person needed. IN in this case he needed to look at a website.

But over time, with the development of the Internet, computers, web servers, the emergence of new data transfer protocols, etc., the WWW part was no longer needed. More precisely, the browsers through which we view websites have learned to determine the site address without it. Therefore, now, when we type the name of a site in the address bar, we don’t have to write the www part. and often many sites that we go to, for example, through search engines show the name of the site also without this piece of WWW.

What is a second level domain?

Second level domain name(English second-level domain) - part of the domain name, separated by a dot from the first-level domain immediately following it (Wikipedia).

Why second level? Because the first-level domain in our example is a particle RU, but we’ll talk about it a little lower.

There are also third-level domains and it will look like this: www.client.site. I have a section for clients on this third-level domain. There are also domains of the fourth and fifth levels, but they are extremely rare and are practically not used by anyone.

The second level domain is the name of our website, depicted in this case in English. The fact is that now you can come up with domains in Russian. In my case it would look like moirubl.rf. Perhaps you have already come across sites on the Internet whose domain name was written in Russian and at the end there was a piece of the Russian Federation.

If you are creating a website, then you can come up with any name for your second-level domain, the main thing is that this name is not taken. Below I will show you how to find out whether the domain name you like is available or taken.

What is a first (top) level domain?

Now let’s look at the final part of the link in question, the RU part. This is also a domain, only the first one, or it is also called a domain top level. An ordinary user will not be able to register a first-level domain, but it’s easy to register a second-level domain.

Top (first) level domain(English top-level domain, TLD) - in the hierarchy of the domain name system (DNS) the most high level. Is the starting point (from right to left) from which a domain name on the Internet begins.

According to international agreement, each country was allocated a first-level domain name, indicating that the site belongs to a specific state:

.ru – Russia.
.ua – Ukraine
.uk – Great Britain
.de – Germany
.fr – France
Etc.

There are also first-level domains related to the area of activity of the site, for example:

.gov - for US government organizations.
.com - was originally considered as a domain for commercial organizations, but is now used by all types of organizations, including educational institutions (usually private), individuals, non-profit and semi-commercial organizations.
.edu - intended for educational institutions.
.info – intended for information resources. It can be safely used by both individuals and legal entities.
.biz – for business organizations. Such a domain can register both physical and entity, however, the registration may be challenged in the future if the domain owner does not engage in commercial activities in accordance with the domain charter. Domain.biz was created to alleviate the situation with domain.com, which has become incredibly popular and, as a result, is overcrowded.
.net – The name comes from the word “network”, indicating its original purpose - the registration of organizations engaged in network technologies, such as Internet service providers and other companies associated with system administration etc. But now it is used everywhere and in Russia it has become popular among resources involved in the fight against any diseases, social aspects, for example, gepatitu.net, which means NO to Hepatitis, alkogolju.net, which means NO to Alcohol. However, this is a free domain zone for registration by any person, both individuals and legal entities. Moreover, this top-level domain is one of the most popular after.com
.org – originally intended for use by non-profit organizations that do not meet the criteria of other domains. Also available for registration by anyone. A striking example among sites using this domain zone is wikipedia.org
.pro – this domain is intended in many countries of the world for licensed or certified lawyers, accountants, doctors, engineers. In Russia, many domain name registrars also require you to provide documents confirming your affiliation with the type of activity indicated on your website.
.aero – these domains can only be registered by organizations related to air transportation. In Russia, a striking example that uses this top-level domain is Pobeda Airlines (pobeda.aero).

In which domain zone is it best to choose a domain?

If your site is designed for the Russian-speaking population, then first of all it is recommended to select a second-level domain in the .RU zone. This is important primarily for search engines Yandex, Google and others. They will understand that your site is designed for Runet (Russian-language Internet) and will rank your site better in search results.

For more information about what ranking in search engine results is and how a domain name affects it, watch the video below:

However, it may turn out that the variant of the domain name that you came up with is already taken by someone in the .RU zone. If you really like the domain and want to keep it at any cost, then you can check it in other domain zones, such as .com, .info, .net, .org, .рф.

These domain zones come in second place after zone.ru, if you prioritize between them. In third place are the .biz and .pro zones, and this is primarily due to the fact that these zones should be chosen only if you will be engaged in commercial activities and can confirm that your future site belongs to this activity.

To confirm, you may be asked for a Certificate of Registration of Individual Entrepreneurs, as well as an extract from the tax office about the areas of activity you have chosen, a license for the type of activity, for example, if you are engaged in any kind of construction and your website is dedicated to this topic, documents on relevant education, for example, If your site is dedicated to medical topics, then you may need a Diploma of completion of a medical institution.

But if you plan to create:

Business card website;
Portfolio website;
Personal blog;
Information site;

Then you should focus on the following domain zones: .ru, .com, .info, .net, .org, .рф.

If you are creating a personal page that will contain a few pages, for example, a portfolio, contacts, reviews, then it makes no difference what domain zone your site will be in.

If you are creating an information site or personal blog, in which you plan to regularly write articles and thereby attract a large number of visitors from search engines, then the name in the .RU zone will be a priority. But if all the cool names are taken, then you can find something for yourself in the .com, .info, .net, .org zones.

If you are creating a one-page website where you will sell something and attract people through advertising, then it does not matter in which zone you have a domain.

If you are creating an online store, then you need to first of all focus on the country where the bulk of your customers will be located. For example, for Russia it is zone.ru, and for Ukraine.ua. But if interesting domains are occupied, then it’s not critical if you choose an option in the .com, .biz or .pro zones.

It’s worth mentioning separately about the zone.RF. This domain zone is best chosen for one-page sites and personal business card sites, but not for information sites with a lot of news. Difficulties may arise technical plan related to the encoding of the Cyrillic alphabet and the adaptability of server software to the Latin alphabet, as well as incorrect display addresses of your pages in old browsers and when displayed in search engines.

What is cybersquatting and domaining?

In the process of coming up with a domain name, which we will talk about in more detail below, as well as in the process of checking the ideas you come up with, you will encounter the fact that many interesting names will be taken by other people. But what’s most offensive is that if you go to the selected name, there will be no website there, but you will see an advertisement that this domain is for sale.

This is the very case when the terms cybersquatting and domaining are used.

Cybersquatting- registration of domain names containing trademark belonging to another person for the purpose of their further resale or unfair use. People who practice such actions are called cybersquatters.

For example, imagine that Coca-Cola does not have a website. And then the moment came when they decided to start one. But bad luck, there was someone more enterprising and fast man, who has registered this domain name. Naturally, he did this for selfish purposes, so that he could later resell this domain to Coca-Cola for crazy money.

Domaining (English domaining, from domain - domain)- almost the same thing as Cybersquatting - this is speculation in domain names. The idea is to purchase Internet domain names for their subsequent resale for profit.

The main difference is that NOT brands of any kind are registered here famous companies, but good interesting words from the most popular areas of our life, which can be used to create any website and attract large quantity traffic due to uniqueness of this word.

Most expensive domain

A striking example is the domain Sex.com, which was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive domain ever sold. Transaction amount: $13 million. Year of sale: 2010.

Here are a few more examples where people made huge capital by selling a domain name:

Vodka.com sold for $3 million in 2006
Business.com sold for $7.5 million in 1999
Hotels.com sold for $11 million in 2001
Pizza.com sold for $2 million in 2008
Beer.com sold for $7 million in 2004
Diamond.com sold for $7 million in 2006
Toys.com sold for $5 million in 2009
Clothes.com sold for $4 million in 2008
CreditCards.com sold for $2 million in 2004
Computer.com sold for $2 million in 2007
Russia.com sold for $1 million in 2009

So, as you can imagine, domain trading can be a very profitable business. If you do not plan to trade domains, but want to create your own website and come up with an interesting and memorable name for it, then you may have problems with this.

According to my subjective estimates, 80% of all interesting names already occupied by cybersquatters. Therefore, you will have to rack your brains to come up with and check dozens, if not hundreds of very different names and their variations in different domain zones.

How to come up with and choose a domain name?

The process of coming up with a domain name can take you anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks. Before starting this process, I recommend preparing some kind of notebook or having special folder on a computer where you will record all the options that come to your mind.

Remember, the domain is chosen once and for all. If, after several years of hard work on your website, you want to change the domain name to something more interesting, then be prepared for the fact that search engines will react negatively to this and this may affect you by a decrease in the number of visitors, and, therefore, loss arrived.

Please also note that the site name and address may vary. For example, the name of my site sounds like “My Ruble”. And its domain name looks like www.site. The meaning of the name of my site and its domain are similar, but the spelling is different. In this case, to write the domain name, I used the English translation of the words “My Ruble”.

In this case, I could use, for example, this option: moyrubl.ru. This method of coming up with domain names is called transliteration - the exact transfer of characters from one script to characters from another script.

Exist special services that will help you make the correct transliteration, for example this service: http://translit-online.ru/

When choosing a domain name, it is important to decide on the theme of the site for which you will create and register a domain.

If you are a freelancer and want to create a personal page with a portfolio and reviews, then it is recommended to choose a combination of your first and last name, for example ivanov.ru or smpetrov.ru, where the first letters sm will be the initials.
You can also use words that characterize your activity or a combination of such words, including with your first or last name. For example, if you are into design, you can search for domain names that contain the word design (masterofdesign.ru, ivanoffdesign.ru, etc.)
If you are going to launch an informational site or blog, then it would be logical to select a domain with the theme of your site. If this is a culinary site, then you need to select a domain name that will reflect the culinary theme.
The domain name for a company's corporate website may contain the name of the company or be based on some keywords characterizing the direction of the company's activities. For example, if your organization is engaged in European-quality repairs, it is logical to choose the name euro-remont.ru. Another example is tur4you.ru or kuda.ru - for a travel company website.

When choosing a domain name, it is advisable to select short options that will be euphonious and will not raise questions with spelling variations, as well as be easy to remember.

Modern “sharks” of Internet business - for example, lenta.ru, artlebedev.ru, gazeta.ru, utro.ru - with just one name they can inform the visitor not only about their topic, direction of activity, but also about the quality of work, the level of information presentation , his target audience and much more. Of course, for your site to stand on par with the Internet giants, you need to work hard on its operation. However, making a website recognizable only through a domain name is quite simple.

Ideally, your name will be within 4-8 characters. But even if the name turns out to be longer, this is not critical. Remember that people will primarily evaluate the quality of the content on your site and its usefulness.

Brainstorm

If you have difficulty with your creative imagination and few interesting domain name options come to mind, I recommend that you follow the following tips:

Open any search engine and enter various keywords related to your future site. Then look at the names of existing sites that the search engine will give you for your request and try to come up with an analogue, synonym, or play on different parts of the words.
Open a catalog of Internet sites, select a topic that suits you, and see what words your competitors use in domain names. Based on this, try to come up with your own version.
Open English-Russian directories and look for translations of keywords that most accurately describe the topic of your site. For example, if you want to create a sports-themed website, then look for translations of words such as: sports, fitness, movement, health, healthy image life, vigor, strength, etc. Based on these words, try to come up with a name for your website.

You can learn more about all these options for coming up with domain names in the video below:

How to check a domain for availability?

So, after you've sketched out a dozen or two different options, it's time to start checking the availability of your domain. I usually do domain selection. I then register domains there. For more information about the procedure for checking and selecting a domain name, watch the video:

Checking domain name history

After you have checked the options you have come up with for availability, do not rush to register the domain. Now it is necessary to check the history of the domain, since it could previously have been used by other people, and with bad consequences for its future owner.

The fact is that if you create a bad website and post stolen content on it, search engines will impose sanctions on such a site. More precisely, they will impose it on the domain name. Sanctions mean the exclusion of pages of a given site from search. This means that people will no longer come to the site from search engines, or they will come, but not soon. To do this, you need to remove all stolen content and replace it with unique and useful content.

As a rule, search engines can remove sanctions in such cases, please note keyword here “can”. And this does not happen immediately, but can take 6-12 months.

At the same time, if you plan to use the domain for a one-page site or a business card site, where people will mainly come not from search engines, but from advertising or links in your profile social pages, then it doesn’t matter whether this domain is banned by Yandex and Google or not.

Domain purity is important primarily for future information sites.

To check the history of a domain name we will use the following services:

Checking Whois history - whoishistory.ru
Checking by URL in Yandex and Google.
Check at archive.org/web.

You can find instructions for using these services in the video Checking domain history:

Domain registration

After all checks have been completed, it is time to register the domain. You can register a domain through a hosting company where your website files will be hosted. This can also be done through a special domain name registrar company.

I recommend registering domains separately from hosting in special companies registrars. It is more reliable and convenient. And you can order hosting services separately from other companies specializing in this. Why?

I registered my first domain and hosting in one place. It was a small hosting company whose services I refused after some time. I chose a different hosting and moved the site. But the domain remained with the first company. Over the past 8 years, I have changed about 5 hosting companies and now host my website on a separate dedicated server. My domain, by the way, is still registered with that first company.

What's so scary about this? I'm not sure about the small hosting company where I originally registered the domain. I periodically wonder what will happen if this company, unable to withstand the competition, closes? What will happen to my domain?

To register domains, I use the services of Reg.ru - this is one of the market leaders.

For instructions on registering a domain name, see below:

The Internet has long become an integral part of life modern man, but for ordinary users many terms associated with it are unknown. A relevant topic is why domain names are needed and how to register them correctly. To register your website on the Internet, you need to go through several mandatory steps; among the first steps is registering a domain name.

What is a domain and why is it needed?

Each person has his own first name, last name and patronymic, and websites also have a name, which is called a domain. Computers perceive each other via IP, but people use their domain names to search for a site. When figuring out why a domain is needed, it is worth saying that it is domain registration that allows a digital address to be presented in the form of a human-readable set of letters, numbers and symbols. To make it easier to understand why a domain is needed on the network, let’s look at clear example. In order to access any site, a person uses a similar combination: “site_name.com”, and the computer perceives and transmits it something like 194.100.255.101. It is clear that remembering the first option is much easier and more convenient, which explains the emergence of such a concept as a domain.

Another important detail in the topic - why a domain is needed for a site - concerns the domain zone, which is a prefix located after the individual name of the site. The most popular domains are: .com, .ru, .ua, etc. By it you can understand either the territorial affiliation (.ru - Russia, .ua - Ukraine) or the topic of the resource. Such prefixes are called first-level domains. If there is still a name before this ending, then this is already a second-level domain. There are third-level domains, as well as subdomains. It is also worth noting that all domains are unique and a user cannot take over a site name if someone else is already using it.

Now let's figure out how to register a domain. This can be done either for free or for:

Paid registration using the registrar. The user receives the domain completely for his use. This option is considered the most convenient, but also the most expensive among all. To purchase a domain, you can use the popular registrar Reg.ru.
Paid registration using hosting providers. This option is cheaper than the first. To obtain a domain, you must order a server from the provider according to the selected tariff plan. The downside is the inability to manage the domain yourself, so to make any changes you will have to contact the hoster.
free registration. This option is for beginners, which allows you to get third-level domains. When using a second-level domain, you will have to take into account that it will belong to the registrar that offers the service.

It will be interesting to know not only why you need a domain, but also hosting. Hosting refers to the disk space used to host a website on a server. Site includes various images, texts and other information that requires space, and is sold by special hosting providers. Dispensed volume disk space depends on the selected tariff plan. Today there are several types of hosting:

Virtual. Most affordable option, which is used by owners of medium and small resources.
Virtual dedicated. The portion of disk space that is located on remote server. In this case, the user will have fixed resources and an autonomous OS.
Dedicated. The server is completely transferred to the user, who can install the OS and software, as well as customize it to his own needs. This option is chosen for large-scale projects with increased requirements.

One of the first questions a novice website creator has is what a domain is, why it is needed, where to get it and how to choose it. It is present on absolutely any resource, you just have to look up at the address bar of your browser. A domain name is the name of a website.

Why is it needed?

As a rule, any website is located on the servers of various hosting companies. These servers, like any computer, have their own unique IP address, which consists of numbers in a certain sequence. To search for a site you need to know this combination of numbers.

The problem is that there can be a thousand websites on one IP address (server), and it is very difficult to find the right one. For convenient navigation on the World Wide Web, we came up with the idea of giving each resource a unique name. Each site is assigned a unique domain name. This greatly simplifies the search for the required resource.

Rules for creating a domain name

This is a combination of characters. There are certain rules for creating it:

The length must be between two and sixty-three characters.
The site's domain name can contain numbers from 0 to 9.
It may contain a hyphen, but not at the beginning or end.
It must not contain spaces.

Any name consists of several parts, which are separated by dots. Each part consists of domains of different levels. As a rule, three domain levels are used for a website.

Domain levels

They are determined by how many dotted words the name contains. First you need to decide on the audience of the resource and choose a name based on this.

For the first level, they can be divided into two types:

Domains that designate a geographic location. They show which country they belong to. For example, domain.ru means that the site belongs to Russia, .ua - Ukraine, .au - Australia, .cz - Czech Republic, and so on.
Determining the type of activity. The .org domain indicates that the site is non-commercial, .info is informational, .com is created for commerce.

It is worth noting that this classification is rather arbitrary; anyone can register for it. For example, a site ending in .cz may have nothing to do with the Czech Republic, but a site with the name .com may not be involved in commerce.

A second-level domain is a unique name for a website. For example, site.ru belongs to an organization or By the way, since the names should not be repeated, when registering, checking the domain name in a certain zone is necessary.

Third level - defines a resource within a second level domain. They are mostly free, but are not very popular among professional webmasters.

What level to choose a domain

If the project is long-term and designed to make a profit, then you should choose a second-level domain. Yes, it's paid, but it doesn't cost that much and eliminates the disadvantages that a third-party domain has. Despite the fact that it is free, it has a number of disadvantages:

The name becomes longer and therefore more difficult to remember.
As a rule, it is tied to a specific hosting; if you change the latter, you will also have to change the domain.
Since all services are free, you cannot demand anything from the host owners. Anything can happen to the site, and there will even be no one to file claims against.

The third level of the domain can be chosen if the resource is created with the goal of trying one’s strengths and gaining experience.

Also, when choosing, it is worth considering what audience the site is aimed at. If it’s in Russian, then you should choose the domain zone.ru. For international or multilingual projects the best option will.com.

How to choose a name

A domain name is a website, so you shouldn’t approach the choice carelessly.

Firstly, the more concise the name, the better. The name should be memorable and not too long. The name can indicate the type of activity, for example avto.com, and it will immediately be clear what information will be found by the user On the page. But ivan.ru does not reveal much about the subject of the site, unless it is Ivan’s personal blog. If this is an online store, then the domain must contain its name. A name that contains a keyword works well.

Secondly, the name in the domain is mostly written in Latin, so you need to make sure that it is displayed correctly and is readable. You should not assume that all users know English, so problems may arise with writing letters that are not in the foreign alphabet (ch, sch, yu, ya).

Thirdly, before using them in English, you need to check their correct spelling.

Fourthly, it would not be superfluous to check the domain name to see if there are similar names in other zones. It’s okay if there are some, but when it’s a competing resource, the user may mistakenly go to someone else’s page.

Domain name registration

You need to register a domain only with reliable partners. You should carefully read the documentation and capabilities of the seller. There is no need to save, otherwise troubles may arise later. Domain registration, which costs 99 rubles, looks very suspicious, and in the end, after purchasing it, you may find that, for example, there is no administration panel. Or resale will require you to provide a bunch of documents and perform many steps. As a result, it will take a lot of nerves and strength.