A domain name is a textual name that defines a numeric location of a computer on the Internet. Instead of referring to a domain with some cryptic number, you just type in an easy-to-remember domain name instead.
Levels of Domains
A domain name is divided up into sections – and confusingly, these sections are called domains. (Nerds, gotta love ‘em). The domain portions of the domain name are separated by dots. Here are examples of 2 typical domain names with their domains identified:
Yahoo.com JapanTimes.co.jp
Sometimes you will hear about ‘top-level’ domains. The top-level domain (or sometimes referred to as the ‘parent’ domain) is merely the .com .net or .org portion of the domain name. While .com .net and .org are the most common top-level domain, there are many others, like .biz and .info. Non-US top-level domains may be .au (Australia), .ca (Canada) or .de (Germany).
Mid-level domains are the rest of the domain name. For the example above, the word Yahoo in the yahoo.com domain name is the mid level domain. In the japantimes.co.jp domain name, there are two mid-level domains – the smaller mid-level domain is ‘japantimes’ and the larger mid-level domain is the ‘co’. The relative importance of each of the domains increases as you move to the right.
Learn the basics of Internet Marketing from veteran marketer, blogger and software engineer, Carl Ringwall. Check out the newbie-friendly blog series, Internet Business 101.