PhoenixDzine

Registering and using multiple domains names is great for building your business and can help you create a dynamic online identity. The ease of not having to guess the domain type is great for user who who are not  net savy. Even misspellings are means of attracting traffic to your site.The most common reason is that of protecting your valuable brand name from Domain Squatting.

When you register multiple domain names, you can:

• Protect your brand and online identity from those who may have unsavoury purposes.
• Provide customers more ways to find you when searching the Internet.
• Capture common misspellings of your domain name, instead of sending visitors to an error page.
• Keep your competition from registering a domain name that draws customers to them instead of you.
• Promote the different products and services you offer.
• Drive more traffic to your Web site.
• Enjoy more opportunities to market to — and be listed in — search engines.
• Create distinct advertising strategies that reach different target markets.

A domain name is a Web address, such as yourdomain.com, that is linked to an IP address. This means that users can access your website without the need to know the ip address (which represents a physical point on the Internet) of the machine hosting your site.

For example, think of an IP address as the telephone number for your site and the domain name as the speed dial.

A domain name consists of a top-level and a second-level domain. A top-level domain (TLD), or domain extension, is the part of the domain name located to the right of the dot (yourdomain.com). The most common South African domain extensions are .COM, .NET, ORG and CO.ZA.. Some other popular domain extensions are .BIZ, .INFO, .NAME, and .WS. The MOBI extension for example refer to sites for mobile phones and PDA’s. Domain extensions have certain guidelines, but are usually available to any registrant, anywhere in the world.

The part of the domain name located to the left of the dot (yourdomain.com) is called the second-level domain (SLD) name. The second-level domain name is the “readable” part of the address and refers to the organization or entity behind the Internet address. Second-level domain names must be unique on the Internet and registered with an ICANN-accredited registrar.

There are also restricted top-level domains (rTLDs), like .AERO, .BIZ, .EDU, .MIL, .MUSEUM, .NAME, and .PRO that require the registrant to represent a certain type of entity or to belong to a certain community. For example, the .NAME domain extension is reserved for individuals, while .EDU is reserved for educational entities.

Country-code TLDs (ccTLDs) are for Web sites and registrants of a particular geographic location, such as  .CA (Canada), .DK (Denmark),  .UK (United Kingdom), .US (United States), and .ZA for South Africa.

If you are registering a domain in South Africa the .CO.ZA Domian type or .ZA.COM would be used. Your Name and Brand is valuable so be sure to register the most common domain types you might use eg. .COM, .BIZ, .CO.ZA to protect your brand.

Domain Names can be registered without having a website or just to personalise your email.

Check you name and see if it is available. Check you name