A Brief Explanation of Web Domains
We love talking about domains, but have you ever wondered why we’re so obsessed? To help you understand we need to explain a little about what web domains are and how they work, then you’ll soon see why they’re always on our mind.
There’s a lot of technical details we could dive into, but it’s not necessary so we’ll stick to the essentials. Here’s our brief explanation.
What Is A Domain?
Domains are a way of organising resources, an essential component of a system as large and complex as the internet.
They’re all registered with and controlled by the Domain Name Service (DNS), a decentralised system distributed across many servers all over the world. When you’re looking at registering a domain name, it’s the DNS that you’re registering it with.
An Internet Protocol (IP) address is the location of a file on the internet, expressed as a string of numbers. An IP address is what web browsers need to find web pages. The DNS exists to connect domain names with IP addresses.
When a web browser wants to display a web page, it sends a request to the DNS for the IP address it needs, and the DNS checks its records, finds and returns the IP address, and the web browser then finds and loads the page.
But why do we do this?
Why Do We Use Domains?
Machines love numbers, that’s why an IP address is a string of numbers. People, on the other hand, struggle to remember a string of random numbers that can be up to 12 digits long.
What we can remember is names, and so we assign names to those strings of numbers to make them easier for us to remember. What’s easier to remember? Facebook.com, or 157.240.22.35?
You can type either of those into a web browser and they’ll take you to the same place, but one is a heck of a lot more convenient than the other. We use domain names to make the internet accessible to people.
What Makes Domains Important For Small Businesses?
Domain names are a system for helping actual people find individual files in the colossal filing cabinet that is the internet. Without them, we’d never locate anything.
Without a memorable domain name, your business becomes a lot harder for customers to find. That’s why we recommend thinking long and hard about what you name your website, and putting in the effort to secure the best possible version of that name.
Now you should understand why domain names are so important, and why we’re always talking about them. Every Small Business needs customers, and customers are people, so make sure people can find you easily.
