Domain Name
- In Turkish
- Alan Adı
- Pronunciation
- doh-MAYN naym
In short
A domain name is the human-readable address of a website, such as example.com, which the DNS system translates into the IP address of the server that hosts it.
What is a domain name?
Computers find each other by IP address, but numbers are hard to remember, so the web uses names. A domain name is read from right to left: in docs.example.com, com is the top-level domain (TLD), example is the second-level domain that someone registered, and docs is a subdomain the owner created. Country domains such as .tr and .de work the same way.
Domains are rented, not bought outright. You register one through a registrar, usually for one or more years at a time, and renew it to keep it. The system is coordinated by ICANN, and each TLD is run by a registry. Registration details can be looked up through WHOIS or its newer replacement, RDAP.
After registering, you point the domain somewhere with DNS records: an A or AAAA record for a server's IP address, a CNAME to another name, MX records for email and TXT records for verifications such as Google Search Console. Hosting platforms such as Vercel tell you which records to add and then issue an HTTPS certificate for the name.
A common misconception is that a domain name and a URL are the same. The domain is only the name part; a URL also includes the scheme, path and other pieces, as in https://example.com/blog?page=2. Another is that a domain is yours forever once registered: if it isn't renewed in time, anyone can register it.
Key takeaways
- A domain name is a readable address that DNS turns into an IP address.
- It is read right to left: TLD, registered name, then subdomains.
- Domains are registered through a registrar and must be renewed.
- DNS records such as A, CNAME, MX and TXT say where the name points.
- A domain is only part of a URL, which also has a scheme and path.
Example
# Which IP addresses does the name resolve to?
dig +short example.com A
# Where does email for the domain go?
dig +short example.com MX
# Typical records for a site on a hosting platform
# example.com. A 76.76.21.21
# www.example.com. CNAME cname.vercel-dns.com.
# example.com. TXT "google-site-verification=..."Readers ask
What is the difference between a domain name and a URL?
The domain name is the site's name, such as example.com. A URL is the full address of one resource, including the protocol and path, such as https://example.com/about.
What is a subdomain?
A name under a domain you control, such as blog.example.com or api.example.com. You create subdomains yourself with DNS records, without registering anything new.
Which domain extension should I choose?
A .com is the most familiar worldwide, a country domain such as .tr can signal a local audience, and newer TLDs such as .dev or .io are popular for technical projects. What matters most is a short, clear name you can renew reliably.
See also
- DNSDevOps & Cloud, p. 16DNS is the internet's naming system that translates human-readable domain names like example.com into the numeric IP addresses computers use to connect.
- URLWeb Development, p. 52A URL is the address of a resource on the web, made of parts such as a scheme, a host, a path and a query string that tell a browser where and how to fetch it.
- IP AddressNetworking, p. 10An IP address is a numeric label assigned to each device on a network so that data can be routed to it, much like a postal address for a house.
- HTTPSSecurity, p. 17HTTPS is the secure version of HTTP that encrypts traffic between a browser and a website with TLS, protecting data from eavesdropping and tampering.
- SEOWeb Development, p. 39SEO is the practice of improving a website's content and technical setup so that search engines can find, understand, and rank its pages for relevant searches.
- Web ServerBackend & APIs, p. 46A web server is software, or the machine running it, that accepts HTTP requests from browsers and other clients and responds with pages, files, or data.
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