If you are totally new to the internet then you may not realize that the web address you type into your browser is known as a domain name. A domain name is an easy way for humans to understand and navigate the internet.

A domain name is a string of characters used to make a name. There can be up to 63 characters in a domain name which can consist of all the letters in the English alphabet plus the numbers zero to 9 and the hyphen or dash symbol. The name can consists of a mixture of these characters but they cannot start or end in a hyphen. The hyphens are used to separate words within a domain name to make them more readable for humans.

All domain names must have a top level domain suffix. The top level domain extensions are the characters at the end of your domain name after the last dot. This extension is used to describe the country or type of website that the domain name represents. The most popular top level domain extension is com and this will probably continue to be so for some time due to it's ingrained relationship with the internet. Web business's are mostly referred to as dot com's.

Domain names can be purchased from a domain name registrar. Domain name registration is a process of registering a domain name, much like you would register a new car or the birth of a new baby.

The cost of domain name registration will vary depending on the registrar and the domain extension that you choose. To register a dot com name you should expect to pay about ten dollars for a years registration. You can register a name for up to ten years and you would usually expect to get a small discount for this.