If you want to build a website or start your personal blog and wonder why you need a domain name, or why are their domain names, keep reading this blog post. It will surely help you understand why are there domain names.
The World of Websites
There are thousands of websites out there that we encounter while searching and surfing the internet. Hundreds of websites are such that we need them again and again. And dozens of those websites are much important for us, to the extent that without visiting these daily, we feel unease (like social media platforms, news sites, email, etc. and maybe this website.
Path to Websites
All the content that we see, read, listen or watch on a website is saved on a server. The path to the directory of the website on that server is represented by a string of digits. This numerical address is called an internet protocol, or IP address. Examples of IP addresses are 192.168.0.105 and 168.243.224.271.
This means in order to access a website, you need the IP address of that website. This is just like you need the address of a home where you want to go.
In the case of a website, you have to put the IP address of a website in the address bar on the internet browser of your device. The browser searches of the website through that IP address on the internet and fetches the content available.
Wait a minute! You are right. You never did it and do not know much about IP addresses. Even, you do not remember a single IP address. Still, you are able to search and surf the internet. Is not that it?
Beautiful Alternative to the Ugly IP Addresses
Well, the story is incomplete. You surely do not remember any IP address and never typed a single IP address in your internet browser. But accessing a website is only possible through an IP address. It is the domain name system that makes it for you while you need not be aware of it.
Why are there domain names
Since it is difficult to remember or store long strings of numbers for websites, hence we use domain names to access them. Domain names play the same role as our own names do for our recognition. Imagine if we don’t have names, how would we have to introduce ourselves in our college or university? By registration number?
Same way, just think if we had to deal with IP addresses by ourselves, how tricky would it be for us to surf the internet. Every link would have long strings of digits and we would find ourselves in a world of meaningless boring numbers and periods surrounding us.
Here comes the answer to our question, why are there domain names?
Remembering IP addresses would not be possible for us. We would try alternate shortcuts. For most of the time, we would have to copy IP addresses in our notepad or spreadsheet for later use. However that copy-pasting would really be a tough game for us. Maybe there would have come some software programs to help us. In conclusion, different such applications would be a great hurdle in free internet surfing.
Fortunately, the domain name system made it possible by providing a universal network of names and IP addresses. The beauty of this system is that things go normally for internet users.
Humans and machines work together without any complexity. Humans like names. They use human language names. Machines love numbers. They look for the numbers against the names and deal with them in their way.
The way Domain Names work
The IP address of every website is covered by a unique name called, domain name. There is a large central database of domain names and IP addresses in the domain name system. When your device browser gets a website address that contains the domain name of that website, it contacts the domain name system through one of its millions of DNS Servers. These servers are in connection with each other and work in coordination. They search for the domain name record and where find it, match the browser to its IP address, and redirect it to its destination, the website page.
“Domain names point on the internet to their respective websites. These are just used at the user end to access information on the website while the file directory or server has an address that consists of a sequence of numbers and periods.”
Other Benefits of Domain Names
All that you read above is not solely the reason why are there domain names, domain names are helpful to us in some more ways.
Though domain names really helped us relieving from dealing with numerical addresses, they also boosted businesses a lot. Everyone, individuals or groups, companies or corporations, choose their names, abbreviations, or acronym as their domain names. Now a person searching for their names quickly find them and does not get lost. On the other hand, the websites do not lose their traffic by preventing users from searching them and wandering randomly somewhere other on the internet.
People are definitely attracted by names. Businesses use beautiful and attractive names (relevant to their field) for their website. This way they attract more and more people to their websites.
You can register a domain name for your website with a domain name broker by paying their annual fee. There are hundreds of domain name brokers. Namecheap, Namesilo, and Netim are some of the top domain name brokers on the internet that offer the best domain name-related services including WHOIS guard, SSL certificate, etc.
You can read more about why are there domain names and the various terms related to domain names like domain extensions, TLDs, SSL certificates, WHOIs guard, and much more in our explanatory guide Whats a Domain Name, Domain Names Explained.
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