Choosing a domain zone
More than 24 years have passed since the invention of domain names (and 18 with the creation of the World Wide Web), and people have not fully understood how to choose a domain name for the site.
A ridiculous superstition is still widespread, as if third-level domains are less attractive than second-level domains; Moreover, not so long ago I had to deal with allegations that a domain in the .info zone is indecent - and why? just because of the low price!
Those who are still not confident enough in this matter, as well as some of those who feel quite confident, I decided to tell you what considerations, in my opinion, should be followed when choosing a domain zone.
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The zone should be selected based on the purpose of the resource and adhering to the semantics of top-level domains.
A domain name consists of several words separated by dots. The number of these words (which I will call steps) determines the level of the domain : for example, google.com is a second-level domain; www.google.com or google.com.ua - the third; images.google.com.ua - the fourth. The hierarchy falls from right to left. In particular, the rightmost stage is called the top-level domain.
As a rule, a domain can be divided into three main semantic parts:
Examples:
This article is devoted to the choice of domain zone.
The domain zone, as you have noticed, can consist of one step (in this case it coincides with the top-level domain) or two. More than two - rarely.
Top Level Domains ( TLDs ) are formally divided into Country Domains ( ccTLDs ), General Purpose Domains ( gTLDs ), and Service Domains ( iTLDs ). The latter will not be useful to us.
Among the general purpose domains are some domains that are identified by language, cultural or territorial grounds, so ccTLDs and gTLDs are proposed to be regrouped into territorial-language and thematic domain zones.
These domains are for specific countries, languages ​​or cultures.
Rule: the territorial-language zone should be chosen when the resource is focused on residents of one country or speakers of one language or one culture. For example, this is a purely Russian-language website or a website of a company operating within Ukraine.
Country domains always consist of two letters and, with rare exceptions, comply with the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 standard:
General purpose domains identified by a cultural or territorial basis (some number of such top-level domains are under review - they are marked with asterisks):
Some of the territorial-language zones impose certain requirements on registrants. For example, in the zone of Ukraine you can register a domain only if you have a trademark of the same name. Other countries allow domains to be registered to everyone, including residents or citizens of other countries.
These are, in short, those gTLDs that are not related to the territorial-linguistic ones. They all consist of more than two letters and define some field of activity.
Rule: thematic domain zone should be chosen when the resource is fully (or at least predominantly) consistent with its purpose.
Many gTLDs have one historically established and very unpleasant limitation for us: they are intended only for the United States . So, gov means US government organizations, mil - US military departments. These domains are marked with asterisks (and, moreover, I have doubts about aero, jobs, travel).
How to be to other countries is described in the next subsection; here it is also necessary to note that thematic domains, not subordinate to the States, imply, on the contrary, universality or internationality . That is, net is an organization providing network services internationally; biz is a commercial organization whose activity is not limited to one country.
The rule: to register a domain in the world (international) thematic area should be only if its audience or activity is really not limited to one country.
Some domain zones require to register compliance with the stated subject matter; some allow anyone to register. Unlike countries, this most often leads to negative consequences when sites are registered in the zone that are not at all appropriate for its purpose. The most famous example is the domain .com, which is intended for commercial (commercial) organizations, but does not put forward appropriate restrictions; as a result, everything was recorded in it, it was overcrowded, completely lost its purpose and was rethought as a general purpose domain; de facto .com began to be considered a reduction from common (common), and the original .com function was intended to perform .biz, in which the necessary (albeit soft) registration restrictions are already present.
The rule: registering a domain in a non-compliant thematic domain zone is bad.
Some of the ccTLDs are also often used as thematic because of consonance, for example:
It is sometimes even officially supported by the organizations that manage the domains, and by the states themselves (such as Tuvalu).
Rule: you can register a domain in a consonant zone, if you really want.
In most ccTLDs, there are second-level domains that duplicate some thematic zones, such as: .net.ua, .com.ua, .biz.ua. However, not all domains composed of a combination of gTLDs and ccTLDs are domain zones: for example, info.ru was acquired by a certain Valentina Nikolaeva before the creation of .info and the domain zone did not.
On the other hand, some second-level domains that are not combinations of gTLDs and ccTLDs are domain zones (for example, .in.ua is intended for registering domains a la music.in.ua (English “music in Ukraine”)).
In some countries, regionally-themed domain zones may have slightly changed names: for example, in the UK, instead of .com.uk, .co.uk is used.
Regional-thematic zones may have their own restrictions on registration: for example, .edu.ua allows you to register not with any educational institution in Ukraine, but only with higher education, and no less than the third level of accreditation.
It is the regional-thematic zones that are needed when the thematic domain is limited to the United States (.gov - the US government, .gov.ua - the government of Ukraine, .gov.us - is not used).
It is the regional-thematic zones that should be used when the resource exactly corresponds to one of the thematic zones, but is not intended for a global (international) scale.
An example of a poor choice in this case is the Ukrainian mobile operator Kyivstar, whose website was first located in the kyivstar.net domain, and has recently moved to kyivstar.ua.
What is the mistake ? The first domain means "a company that provides network services at the world or international level"; the second domain means “a company providing a very wide range of services in Ukraine”. Both do not correspond to the activities of the company.
What are the options ? Kyivstar.mobi or kyivstar.mobi.ua are erroneous, because .mobi is a zone of sites optimized for mobile devices, and not mobile operators. Kyivstar.biz.ua means “commercial enterprise in Ukraine” and does not contain sufficient indication of the subject matter; There is an option kyivstar.net.ua, which should be chosen in this case.
Rule: when a resource meets both the purpose of a thematic domain and specialization for a particular country, the domain should be registered in the regional-thematic area.
In the absence of a suitable regional-thematic zone (let us imagine that the .net.ua zone would not exist, and our choice would be limited to kyivstar.net and kyivstar.ua) the decision is rather difficult to make; Perhaps, in this particular case, it would still be better to kyivstar.ua, but it’s not a fact that in other situations the domain in the thematic area would not be preferable.
These second-level domains are intended for individual regions of the country. For example, .lugansk.ua - Lugansk region of Ukraine; .crimea.ua - Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
The principle of choice is about the same as for the territorial zone, only with a narrowing to a particular region of the country. It should be remembered that thematic subzones (such as .biz.kiev.ua), as a rule, do not exist.
Rule: in the subregional zone, the domain should be registered if the focus of the resource on the region far outweighs the thematic.
Long subregional zones, at least in Ukraine, may have brief synonyms:
It can be assumed that not all countries have such subregional zones.
So, in order to choose the right domain zone, you first need to answer the following questions:
After that, you can make a decision, guided by the rules listed above and, in conflict cases, carefully setting priorities.
There is nothing shameful in using the .info zone, if your site is an information blog, or .biz.ua, if you conduct commercial activities within Ukraine. If you wish, you can call resources in zones such as .narod.ru or .na.by (you didn’t have enough money for a domain), but not properly selected domains, regardless of the registration price and domain level.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. If you want to create a personal website (for a personal blog or portfolio, for example), then there’s nothing to choose. For this there is a zone .name. It allows you to register third-level domains of the form vasia.pupkin.name, while automatically receiving an e-mail of the form vasia@pupkin.name. The second level domain pupkin.name in this case remains publicly available to all other Pupkin who wish to register.
Registrars often do not allow the domain to be tied to a hosting, limited to a redirect (when logging in to vasia.pupkin.name, the user is transferred to pupkin.narod.ru). However, not so long ago, for the .name zone, the usual option became available with the registration of a second-level domain and binding to hosting.
And yet, remember: choosing and registering a domain, do not forget to register similar domains in all other available zones in order to avoid fraud. If your domain is called pupkin.com.ua, users may mistakenly try to log in, for example, on pupkin.com or pupkin.ua; Naturally, it will not be very good if these domains belong to fraudsters who harvest crops from the popularity of your resource.
Good luck in choosing a domain!
A ridiculous superstition is still widespread, as if third-level domains are less attractive than second-level domains; Moreover, not so long ago I had to deal with allegations that a domain in the .info zone is indecent - and why? just because of the low price!
Those who are still not confident enough in this matter, as well as some of those who feel quite confident, I decided to tell you what considerations, in my opinion, should be followed when choosing a domain zone.
')
The basic principle
The zone should be selected based on the purpose of the resource and adhering to the semantics of top-level domains.
Short educational program
A domain name consists of several words separated by dots. The number of these words (which I will call steps) determines the level of the domain : for example, google.com is a second-level domain; www.google.com or google.com.ua - the third; images.google.com.ua - the fourth. The hierarchy falls from right to left. In particular, the rightmost stage is called the top-level domain.
As a rule, a domain can be divided into three main semantic parts:
- Domain zone
The right side of the domain name, which includes one or two (more - rarely) steps. It is not a property of the resource, but a public domain intended for registering domain names in it.
- Resource name
Own name of the resource. For example, if it is a corporate site, then the name of the company. Usually contains one stage.
- Subdomain
Optional left side of the domain name. Denotes a separate subsection of a resource, containing logically separate information or performing its allocated role. For example, the resource may include ftp subdomains for an FTP server, www for the main site, forum for the forum, etc.
Examples:
| google.com | - | com | |
| google.com.ua | - | com.ua | |
| images.google.com.ua | images | com.ua | |
| vasia.pupkin.name | - | vasia.pupkin | name |
| ftp.pupkin.narod.ru | ftp | pupkin | narod.ru |
This article is devoted to the choice of domain zone.
Classification of domain zones
The domain zone, as you have noticed, can consist of one step (in this case it coincides with the top-level domain) or two. More than two - rarely.
Top Level Domains ( TLDs ) are formally divided into Country Domains ( ccTLDs ), General Purpose Domains ( gTLDs ), and Service Domains ( iTLDs ). The latter will not be useful to us.
Among the general purpose domains are some domains that are identified by language, cultural or territorial grounds, so ccTLDs and gTLDs are proposed to be regrouped into territorial-language and thematic domain zones.
Territorial language domain zones
These domains are for specific countries, languages ​​or cultures.
Rule: the territorial-language zone should be chosen when the resource is focused on residents of one country or speakers of one language or one culture. For example, this is a purely Russian-language website or a website of a company operating within Ukraine.
Country domains always consist of two letters and, with rare exceptions, comply with the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 standard:
| ua | Ukraine |
| ru | Russia |
| us | United States |
| uk | Great Britain |
| eu | European Union |
| im | Isle Of Man |
| tv | Tuvalu |
| fm | Federated States of Micronesia |
General purpose domains identified by a cultural or territorial basis (some number of such top-level domains are under review - they are marked with asterisks):
| cat | Catalonia |
| asia | Asia |
| berlin * | Berlin |
| lat * | Latin America |
| nyc * | New York |
| bzh * | Brittany |
| cym * | Wales |
| gal * | Galicia (Spain) |
| sco * | Scotland |
Some of the territorial-language zones impose certain requirements on registrants. For example, in the zone of Ukraine you can register a domain only if you have a trademark of the same name. Other countries allow domains to be registered to everyone, including residents or citizens of other countries.
Thematic domain zones
These are, in short, those gTLDs that are not related to the territorial-linguistic ones. They all consist of more than two letters and define some field of activity.
Rule: thematic domain zone should be chosen when the resource is fully (or at least predominantly) consistent with its purpose.
| com | Actually domain common (common) destination. |
| biz | Commercial organizations. |
| net | Organizations providing network services. |
| gov * | Government organizations. |
| mil * | Military departments. |
| edu * | Educational institutions. |
| aero | Airlines. |
| jobs | Staff recruitment organizations. |
| travel | Travel agencies and travel agencies. |
| coop * | Cooperatives. |
| mobi | Sites optimized for mobile devices. |
| museum | Museums. |
| info | Information sites. |
| org | Non-profit organizations. |
| name | Individuals or characters. |
| pro | Certified professionals (such as doctors or lawyers) |
Many gTLDs have one historically established and very unpleasant limitation for us: they are intended only for the United States . So, gov means US government organizations, mil - US military departments. These domains are marked with asterisks (and, moreover, I have doubts about aero, jobs, travel).
How to be to other countries is described in the next subsection; here it is also necessary to note that thematic domains, not subordinate to the States, imply, on the contrary, universality or internationality . That is, net is an organization providing network services internationally; biz is a commercial organization whose activity is not limited to one country.
The rule: to register a domain in the world (international) thematic area should be only if its audience or activity is really not limited to one country.
Some domain zones require to register compliance with the stated subject matter; some allow anyone to register. Unlike countries, this most often leads to negative consequences when sites are registered in the zone that are not at all appropriate for its purpose. The most famous example is the domain .com, which is intended for commercial (commercial) organizations, but does not put forward appropriate restrictions; as a result, everything was recorded in it, it was overcrowded, completely lost its purpose and was rethought as a general purpose domain; de facto .com began to be considered a reduction from common (common), and the original .com function was intended to perform .biz, in which the necessary (albeit soft) registration restrictions are already present.
The rule: registering a domain in a non-compliant thematic domain zone is bad.
Some of the ccTLDs are also often used as thematic because of consonance, for example:
| fm | Federated States of Micronesia | radio |
| tv | Tuvalu | a television |
| im | Isle Of Man | messengers |
| md | Moldavia | the medicine |
It is sometimes even officially supported by the organizations that manage the domains, and by the states themselves (such as Tuvalu).
Rule: you can register a domain in a consonant zone, if you really want.
Regionally-themed domain zones
In most ccTLDs, there are second-level domains that duplicate some thematic zones, such as: .net.ua, .com.ua, .biz.ua. However, not all domains composed of a combination of gTLDs and ccTLDs are domain zones: for example, info.ru was acquired by a certain Valentina Nikolaeva before the creation of .info and the domain zone did not.
On the other hand, some second-level domains that are not combinations of gTLDs and ccTLDs are domain zones (for example, .in.ua is intended for registering domains a la music.in.ua (English “music in Ukraine”)).
In some countries, regionally-themed domain zones may have slightly changed names: for example, in the UK, instead of .com.uk, .co.uk is used.
Regional-thematic zones may have their own restrictions on registration: for example, .edu.ua allows you to register not with any educational institution in Ukraine, but only with higher education, and no less than the third level of accreditation.
It is the regional-thematic zones that are needed when the thematic domain is limited to the United States (.gov - the US government, .gov.ua - the government of Ukraine, .gov.us - is not used).
It is the regional-thematic zones that should be used when the resource exactly corresponds to one of the thematic zones, but is not intended for a global (international) scale.
An example of a poor choice in this case is the Ukrainian mobile operator Kyivstar, whose website was first located in the kyivstar.net domain, and has recently moved to kyivstar.ua.
What is the mistake ? The first domain means "a company that provides network services at the world or international level"; the second domain means “a company providing a very wide range of services in Ukraine”. Both do not correspond to the activities of the company.
What are the options ? Kyivstar.mobi or kyivstar.mobi.ua are erroneous, because .mobi is a zone of sites optimized for mobile devices, and not mobile operators. Kyivstar.biz.ua means “commercial enterprise in Ukraine” and does not contain sufficient indication of the subject matter; There is an option kyivstar.net.ua, which should be chosen in this case.
Rule: when a resource meets both the purpose of a thematic domain and specialization for a particular country, the domain should be registered in the regional-thematic area.
In the absence of a suitable regional-thematic zone (let us imagine that the .net.ua zone would not exist, and our choice would be limited to kyivstar.net and kyivstar.ua) the decision is rather difficult to make; Perhaps, in this particular case, it would still be better to kyivstar.ua, but it’s not a fact that in other situations the domain in the thematic area would not be preferable.
Subregional domain zones
These second-level domains are intended for individual regions of the country. For example, .lugansk.ua - Lugansk region of Ukraine; .crimea.ua - Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
The principle of choice is about the same as for the territorial zone, only with a narrowing to a particular region of the country. It should be remembered that thematic subzones (such as .biz.kiev.ua), as a rule, do not exist.
Rule: in the subregional zone, the domain should be registered if the focus of the resource on the region far outweighs the thematic.
Long subregional zones, at least in Ukraine, may have brief synonyms:
| Lugansk | lugansk.ua | lg.ua |
| Ivano-Frankivsk | ivano-frankivsk.ua | if.ua |
| Nikolaev (Mykolaiv) | nikolaev.ua | mk.ua |
It can be assumed that not all countries have such subregional zones.
Choosing a domain zone
So, in order to choose the right domain zone, you first need to answer the following questions:
- Is the resource focused on one of the topics corresponding to the thematic areas?
- If so, is this thematic area limited to US jurisdiction?
- Is the scope of activity or audience of the resource limited to any country?
- If yes, and if there are subregional zones in this country, is the scope of activity or audience of the resource limited to one of the regions of this country?
- If the answers to the 1st and 3rd questions are positive, is there a regional-thematic zone corresponding to the thematic and regional zones selected in paragraphs 1 and 3?
After that, you can make a decision, guided by the rules listed above and, in conflict cases, carefully setting priorities.
There is nothing shameful in using the .info zone, if your site is an information blog, or .biz.ua, if you conduct commercial activities within Ukraine. If you wish, you can call resources in zones such as .narod.ru or .na.by (you didn’t have enough money for a domain), but not properly selected domains, regardless of the registration price and domain level.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. If you want to create a personal website (for a personal blog or portfolio, for example), then there’s nothing to choose. For this there is a zone .name. It allows you to register third-level domains of the form vasia.pupkin.name, while automatically receiving an e-mail of the form vasia@pupkin.name. The second level domain pupkin.name in this case remains publicly available to all other Pupkin who wish to register.
Registrars often do not allow the domain to be tied to a hosting, limited to a redirect (when logging in to vasia.pupkin.name, the user is transferred to pupkin.narod.ru). However, not so long ago, for the .name zone, the usual option became available with the registration of a second-level domain and binding to hosting.
And yet, remember: choosing and registering a domain, do not forget to register similar domains in all other available zones in order to avoid fraud. If your domain is called pupkin.com.ua, users may mistakenly try to log in, for example, on pupkin.com or pupkin.ua; Naturally, it will not be very good if these domains belong to fraudsters who harvest crops from the popularity of your resource.
Good luck in choosing a domain!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/22503/
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