What Is A Domain?
A domain is your property. A stake in one of the few things you can really own online. You can throw a copyright on every piece of content. But nothing can really stop anyone from right clicking and selecting “save,” not to mention the power of Ctrl+a with Ctrl+c. But that domain is really yours. Unless you are a victim of cybercrime, no one can take your domain away from you.
What’s in a name? It’s you. A domain is everything; it shows what you do as a business and what you’re all about. It’s the first ten seconds of an interview, the first impression you can’t undo. A misspelled, clunky, overly long domain might as well spell a cheap suit and sweaty palms.
It’s worth pointing out that throughout this book, and in the real world, when talking about domains, we are not referring to http://www.example.com, the URL, rather just the “example” section. The parlance of the web isn’t always in line with how we communicate, so if we refer to any specific part of the whole domain, we’ll point it out.
The constituent parts are important not only in the understanding of what’s below, but as you’ll learn, it’ll help you navigate the world of domain registrars. For example, the difference between a domain that drives traffic and one that doesn’t could be something as simple as a variation to a top-level domain (TLD) or hyphenation of a longer domain. The anatomy of a URL can be like a puzzle. Knowing how to manipulate a part separately can make the whole task less daunting.