A domain name is a unique address on the Internet, used to access websites such as safebrands.com and google.com. Users can connect to websites using domain names through the DNS.
What is a domain name?
A domain name is a string of text or alphanumeric characters that corresponds to an alphanumeric IP address (for example 192.0.2.20), used to access a website from a web browser or other client software. A domain name is entered in the address bar or URL of a browser window to access a particular website. For example, a Google domain name is 'google.com', or for SafeBrands 'safebrands.com' and 'safebrands.fr'. Domain names are generally chosen to be easy to remember.
Thanks to the DNS system and what is known as DNS resolution, users can enter domain names into their browsers, which are converted into IP addresses, and directed to the websites they are looking for. This process is known as a DNS lookup or query.
What is the difference between a domain name and a URL?
A URL (Uniform Resource Locator), otherwise known as an internet or web address, contains the domain name and other information, including the protocol and access path. For example, in the URL "https://safebrands.com/brand-protection/", "safebrands.com" is the domain name, "https://" is the protocol and "/brand-protection/" is the path to the specific page on the website.
A URL can also contain other elements such as a connection port, additional parameters or an anchor (#).
To find out more about URLs
What are the parts of a URL?
URL analyser
Who manages domain names?
Domain names are all managed by domain registries or NICs (Network Information Centres), which delegate the reservation or registration of domain names to registrars. There are currently more than 355 million domain names registered worldwide.
What is the structure of a domain name?
A domain name is generally divided into two or three parts, each separated by a dot.
A domain name is read from right to left.
Structure: (...) . 3rd level . second level domain . top level domain (TLD)
Example: www . yourdomain . com
The section to the right of the full stop in a domain name is known as the Top-Level Domain (TLD). This includes generic TLDs such as .com, .net and .org, as well as geographical and country-specific TLDs such as .fr and .jp, known as ccTLDs for Country Code Top-Level Domain.
To the left of the TLD is the second-level domain. This is your personalised domain name: example.com
To the left of the second-level domain is the third-level domain, or subdomain.