What is a Domain Name? Types and Best Practices

A domain name is a crucial component for any website and e-commerce business. It's essential to choose a domain name that aligns with your brand, making it easy for customers to remember and recognize your online store. If you're still unsure about what a domain name truly is or how to go about choosing one, this article will clarify all your questions.

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What is a Domain Name?

A domain name is a memorable and practical name for a website. More deeply, a domain name is the address used to reference a website on the internet. It communicates with a DNS Server. When you visit a website, the DNS translates the domain name into an IP Address to connect to the internet and access that specific webpage. 

Simply put, a domain name is our online address. Instead of using a hard-to-remember numerical IP Address, we use a domain name to specify the website's location. This makes it much easier to recall and use in practice.

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How Many Types of Domain Names Are There?

Primarily, domain names are categorized into two main types: Second-Level Domains and Third-Level Domains.

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1. Second-Level Domains 

A Second-Level Domain is a URL that consists of the domain name followed by an extension after a dot, which typically indicates the organization's type. Examples include .com for commercial organizations, .edu for educational institutions, .gov for government entities, .mil for military organizations, .net for network service providers, and .org for other organizations. Common examples you might encounter are google.com, th-wifi.net, and thaingo.org.

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2. Third-Level Domains

A Third-Level Domain is a URL that includes the domain name, followed by an extension indicating the organization type, and then a country code. For instance, moj.go.th, google.co.th, and isa.go.kr.

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What Are the Principles for Choosing a Domain Name?

Choosing a catchy domain name or website name is incredibly important for building your online business brand. Your domain name is the first thing users and customers will see. A good domain name will attract attention and drive traffic to your site. Conversely, a poorly chosen name might result in low website usage. Therefore, you should select a name based on these best practices for domain naming:

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1. Use Your Brand Name

Incorporate your brand name into your domain or online website to clearly represent your store and identity. A unique and distinctive name will help your online business stand out.

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2. Include Keywords Related to Your Products or Services

Keywords are crucial for attracting people and customers to your store when they search for information or products online. Using relevant keywords correctly can bring free visitors to your website. Therefore, consider using your products or services as keywords when naming your domain.

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3. Keep It Concise

A good domain name should not exceed 63 characters. Avoid overly long names, as they are difficult to remember. The shorter the name, the easier it will be for users to recall and find your website. Ideally, a domain name should be no more than 2-3 words.

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4. Hyphens (-) Are Allowed, But Use With Caution

While you can use hyphens (-) between words in a domain name, it's generally not recommended to use them at the beginning of the domain, as this practice is unpopular. It's usually better to keep words concatenated without hyphens.

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Now that you're familiar with domain names, it's time to choose one for your own online presence! Apply these ideas when naming your website or online store to ensure a strong start for your online business. And if you're ready to power up your online selling, Zaapi's unified chat, chatbot, and AI agent capabilities can help you streamline customer interactions and boost sales. For example, you can use our All-in-one Inbox to manage all your customer conversations in one place, leverage Insights from the Dashboard to Turn Chats into Sales, and even build a Chatbot without coding to automate responses.

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