It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the vocabulary associated with domains and websites. Thankfully we are here to help and offer you some easy to understand definitions you won’t find anywhere else. Study this domain jargon and you’ll be feeling like a whiz in no time. Consider bookmarking this post, it will be helpful to revisit.
Domains
Top level domains (TLD) are the fancy name for what you see at the end of your URL bar. This is .com, .ws, .net and myriad other names. The domain is partly a home to your website and partly a tail that your domain can’t shake. That TLD will be at the end of your website no matter what pages you add to it.
Country-code Top Level Domain (ccTLD)
This refers to domains that were originally assigned to countries. These domains are two letters long and were assigned to countries starting nearly 30 years ago. Examples of this are .us (United States), .uk (United Kingdom), and .au (Australia).
Generic Top Level Domain (gTLD)
These are the domains you see most commonly in your browser like .com, .org, .net and .ws. These are the original general purpose domains thats were assigned for people to use for their website outside of ccTLDs. Now they are the most common. Starting in 2013, ICANN began releasing TLDs never before imagined for public use. Now domains like .pizza, .website have joined the ranks of generic top level domains.
Domain Registrar
A domain registrar is a company or organization that essentially manages the reservation of a specific group of names, like. org or .ws. A domain name registrar can manage several different domain names, which is why you can have access to multiple domains through one domain name registrar. However, each different domain grouping is a separate registry. So .coms are one registry, .ws and .org another. Thanks to ICANN, domain registrars have access to these different registries.
ICANN
Domain name registries started to pop up in the 1990s, but unlike today they were able to put somewhat of a monopoly on the market. You could only get certain domains from certain registries. To combat this, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was formed and forced the creation of a shared registration system, which allows multiple domain name registrars to sell the same domains. So many domain name registrars could offer .coms, .nets, and other top level domains.
Domain Wholesaler
You can see that domains and domain registries is a fairly regulated industry. As such, all domain registrars buy domains at exactly the same price from registries. But for domain registrars to make a profit, they have to charge you, the consumer, a higher price. However, a domain wholesaler like Domain Cost Club offers you domains for the same price they pay for them from registries. You just need to join the club.
Looking to get wholesale pricing on hundreds of domains? Click below!
