A domain name is a unique and easy-to-remember address used to access websites, such as ‘google.com’ or ‘facebook.com’. It serves as the address to your website on the Internet, allowing users to connect to specific web servers. Every website has an IP address, which is a string of numbers that is hard to remember; therefore, domain names provide a human-readable alternative for accessing websites.
Domain names are structured with different parts separated by dots, read from right to left. The Top-Level Domain (TLD) indicates the purpose of the service behind the domain name (e.g., .com, .org). Labels follow the TLD and can be one to sixty-three characters long, containing letters A-Z, digits 0-9, and hyphens. Domain names are registered through registrars and stored in DNS databases worldwide.
When you type a domain name into your browser, a Domain Name System (DNS) request is sent to servers that look up the correct IP address associated with that domain name. This process directs your computer to the right location on the Internet within milliseconds. Domain names play a crucial role in identifying Internet resources like computers, networks, and services with text-based labels that are easier to memorize than numerical IP addresses.