Do you want to go to your online business? First, you must buy a domain for your website, but what are a domain and its the difference between your domain and your IP, DNS and URL? What are the various types of domains and what kind of them is appropriate for your website? In this article, we are going to answer these questions and if they are your question too, join us to find out them.  ➡ A podcast of this article has been provided for your listening pleasure:  [lwptoc] What is A Domain Of A Website? The World Wide Web is an international network including different websites. Needless to say, users need specific addresses to find these websites. The domain is a web address that users use to open and enter a website, for example, ww.Chidma.com is a domain. When you type a domain of a website (its unique address) in the address bar of a browser, you can enter that website directly. In other words, In the digital world, people can know you exist and find your digital business by your domain. So, it is very important.   What Are IP and Its Different From The Domain? The web (internet) is a huge network formed from a great many computers that are connected. Every computer has a unique code that is called an IP address (Internet Protocol address). Every website is identified by its IP on the world web. The IP is created from a series number. For example, 79.153.66.1 is an IP address. Doubtless, fixing and remembering these numbers is very difficult, isn’t it? For this reason, computer scientists decided to invent a Domain. Thank them! Imagine that this morning, you want to read the instruction for a tasty cupcake from your favorite website, fortunately, there isn’t a need to remember and type its IP address (a difficult extended series number). It is enough to type its domain name. Without the domain, working with the internet was very difficult; imagine finding a specific place in your city, you have to use its geographical location instead of its usual address. What is DNS and What is The Difference Between DNS, Domain and IP? DNS is abbreviated for “Domain Name System”. For designing a website, you must buy a host. Then, a unique IP address is defined for your website and your domain is adjusted on your website’s IP. Actually, our website is not defined by its domain but it is defined by its IP SERVER. In a server, DNS determine which IP must be connected to which domain. After that, when a user searches our domain’s name on a browser, first, the browser detects its DNS on a server and determines which domain must be connected to which IP, and then the content of that IP address will be shown to users. What Are A URLs and Its Difference From A Domain? I am sure You know about URLs and their meaning, but you may ask yourself what is the true address of a website? Is it its URL or its domain? Both of them are the correct address of a website but there is a distinction. Let me say an example: http://www.Chidma.com is a domain name and it is the address of Chidma company. A domain ended with a specific domain suffix such as “.com” or “.org” etc. So, you cannot find any additional characters, suffixes or signs with it. But URL is including all derivative parts of a domain. For example, https://chidma.com/webdesing/domainname is a URL. As you can see, at the first of a URL, there is the domain name of the website. In other words, every website has a unique address; the address of the main page is the so-called domain and the other pages have their specific address which is the so-called URL.   What Are The Different Parts Of A Domain? A domain is made of 3 parts, including: The first part of a domain is www. It is abbreviated as World Wide Web. The second part of a domain is a Domain name. It is a unique name that you select for your website. There isn’t any determination for your selection, except that your selected name must be coherent. Certainly, you can separate them by using a dash (-). It is also can be numbered. The third part of a domain is a suffix or Top-level domain. There are a lot of various suffixes in the world web. Every suffix has a specific meaning and unique content. The suffix can partly determine the objective and geographical location of a website. In the next part, we will speak about the suffix of domains. So, keep reading. Different Types Of Suffixes (Top-Level Domains) In A Domain Generally, there are two types of suffixes (top-level) domains: 1. Country top-level domain (CTLD): they determine the geographical location of every website. every country has its specific suffix (top-level) domain, for example, .fr: France and .nl: Netherland 2. Global top-level domain (gTLD): these are global domains that are more expensive than cTLD. At the following you can find out common types of GTLD: ● .com (abbreviated as company or commercial): It is the most common domain in the word web. ● .org (abbreviated of Organization): usually nonprofit organs use this TLD. ● .biz (abbreviated of Business): it is specific to commercial websites. ● .net (abbreviated of Network): it is used by web companies and networks. ● .info (abbreviated of Information): usually News websites use this suffix. ● .edu (abbreviated of Education): educational websites and organs use this TLD ● .gov (abbreviated of Government): Governmental organs use this suffix. ● .name: it is based on the name of a real person that uses it for its website. ● .me: it is like .name but it is more familiar. ● .tv: this suffix is a CTLD that belongs to an unfamiliar country, Tuvalu. This country first defined it for itself, but this TLD is a so-called abbreviated of television and today most of the websites that are related to television, use this suffix.