Your Domain Name: The Basics

The domain name is your business address on the Internet; for example “sitebento.com” is one of our own.   Even though the process acquiring a domain name is simple, most small business owners will quickly learn that it the management of domain names is far more perplexing.  In this blog, I will attempt to break down the entire process into several key concepts; here is PART 1 of "Your Domain Name".

Simple Definitions and Key Players

• Domain Name:  Technically, a string of words used to identify computer addresses on the Internet.  To a small business, a means for customers and leads of identifying the business web-space.  Generally, attributed to the primary e-mail addresses of the said business. Therefore, it should represent the company, be relatively short, easy to remember, and easy to spell.  One of the three pillars of search engine position.
  
  
• Domain Name Registrar:  Organization or commercial entity, accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) or by a national country code top-level domain (ccTLD) authority, to manage the reservation of Internet domain names.  Small business owners typically know it as “GoDaddy” or “Network Solutions”, and are driven by price or media to choose one over the other.   Domain Name Registrars typically charge between $4 and $35 per year to maintain said name record and depend heavily on revenue from other products and services that they can bundle with registrations;  web-hosting companies often give away registrations for free.
  
  
• Domain Name Services (DNS): Naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participants.  For companies using domain names, these systems tell users where your website, e-mail, and other systems reside on the internet.   All domain name registrars provide this service, but so do web-hosting companies, 3rd party DNS systems, 3rd party mail systems, and your own office servers.  To make things more complex, the DNS records themselves can be changed individually OR the entire DNS zone can be moved form company to company.  Any change can have resonating impacts on your business.
  
  
• Domain Name Records:  Individual entries within the DNS system that line up internet addresses with their respective servers.   These are further broken down into:
  • A-records: numeric server addresses lined up with a pre-fix for your domain.  For example, “www.sitebento.com”,  “anything-you-want-here.sitebento.com”, or just “sitebento.com”. You can have dozens of these all pointed to different parts of the Internet.
  • MX (Mail Exchange) Records: determine where your mail goes. They can be as simple as “mail.sitebento.com” (which, if you’ve been reading closely is an A-Record), or to 3rd party mail service/scrubbing systems like POSTINI.
  • Other Records:  There are all sorts of text, spf, dns records that exist; all carry some level of importance.  All can overwhelm a person, so let’s keep things simple and stick to the main two.
    
    
• Web Host: Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their own website accessible via the World Wide Web.  Web Hosting Companies, like SiteBento, can provide a multitude of services ranging from domain registration, domain name services, e-mail hosting, web hosting, web site design and development, e-commerce, etc.  
  
  
• Mail Host: Is the server, or service, that provides e-mail capabilities for your company. There are several different types of mail systems that are common including POP3, Microsoft Exchange, GoogleApps for Business.    E-mail flow is primarily directed by the domain name services.   For small business owners, mail can be simple pop mailbox, enterprise class system like GoogleApps for Business, or on-premises/off-premises mail server like Exchange.   There is no rule of thumb for what’s best for your business, although most companies would agree that using POP3 mail, or a free service like GMail/AOL/Hotmail is no longer acceptable.