SEO Hosting Blog

What is a TLD?

TLD is an acronym for top level domain. There are two types of top level domains –

Generic Top Level Domains: Commonly referred to as gTLD. Includes .com, .net, .org, .edu, .gov and over a dozen others.

Country Code Top Level Domains: Commonly referred to as ccTLD. Includes .uk (United Kingdom) and .us (United States), as well as a ccTLD for almost every other country.

What’s the Difference Between a URL and a Domain Name?

Because of the technical nature of this question, the easiest way to explain it is with an example –

Domain Name: seohosting.com

URL: http://www.seohosting.com

What is a Domain Registrar?

A domain registrar is a company that is accredited to manage domain name reservations. Currently, the top ten domain registrars according to volume are:

GoDaddy
eNom
Tucows
Network Solutions
1&1
Melbourne IT
Wild West Domains
Directi Internet Solutions
Moniker
Register.com

What is Domaining?

Domaining is a broad terms that refers to a business that focuses on buying, monetizing, selling and/or developing domain names. A domainer is someone who engages in domaining.

Because of the broad nature of the term, domainers can have different primary focuses. While one domainer may primarily focus on buying domain names from other domainers and then reselling them to end users, another domainer’s primary focus may be registering domain names from a registrar and developing them into websites with content.

What is Cybersquatting?

Cybersquatting refers to the practice of registering a trademark domain name in bad faith. The goal of cybersquatting can be to benefit from misguided traffic or resell the domain name to the trademark owner for a profit.

What is ICANN?

ICANN is an acronym for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. ICANN is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to manage IP address spaces, accredit registrars and handle domain name ownership disputes.

What’s the Best gTLD?

While there will always be people with other opinions, most agree that .COM is the best gTLD. There are several reasons for this prevailing opinion –

Most Popular: There are currently close to 90 million registered .COM domain names. .NET is the second most popular gTLD, and there are currently a little over 13 million registered.

Stood the Test of Time: Over the past decade, multiple new gTLDs have been introduced and hyped as “the next .COM.” However, none of these gTLDs have lived up to their hype, while .COM has continued to retain its position as the most popular gTLD.

Most Invested: Companies have spent billions of dollars that include their .COM domain name. Therefore, consumers are programmed to add .COM to the end of any domain name that they type into their browser.

Most Brandable: Because so much advertising has already been created around .COM domain names, it is the easiest gTLD for a company to brand. While it’s not impossible to brand another gTLD, this will inevitably lead to some traffic being lost as a result of consumers still typing in .COM out of habit.

(images from ivanpw, kony6347 and a100tim)

Search engine optimization focuses on organic search engine results.

Organic search results are generally the larger column of results found on the left side of search engines. The search engine’s algorithm determines the order of organic results.

Paid search results are generally the smaller column of results found on the right side of search engines. Paid search results are also commonly placed in a box above the organic search results. Their order depends on the system used by the search engine. The system can range from simple (the listing of the advertiser who pays the most is at the top), to much more complex (using multiple factors to determine the order of the results).

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Hello. My name is Tyler, and this is the first post in my new, ongoing series: Back to Basics.

Our regular readers will be familiar with most of the information covered in this series. However, we have many first-time visitors who are just getting their feet wet. Although they are new, they are eager to learn. If you are a regular reader, you can help out the newbies by leaving a helpful comment.

(Image Credit: Robbie Ewing)

Because this is the SEO Hosting blog, the question we most frequently receive from first-time visitors is “what is SEO?”

Search engine optimization (SEO) consists of two parts: on-page and off-page.

On-page: The first purpose of on-page SEO is to ensure that search engines can access a website’s content. Because search engines use robots to crawl the pages of a website, websites need to be free of technical issues that could interfere with the robots’ ability to crawl.

The second purpose of on-page SEO is to optimize website pages to rank well in search engines. While this purpose of on-page SEO has aspects that are still relevant, the overall impact of this purpose has decreased as search engines have evolved.

Off-page: The primary purpose of off-page SEO is obtaining links to a website from other websites. Authority and relevance determine the value of a link.

SEO practices are commonly labeled with a hat color. The intent of labeling is to show whether a practice is ethical (white hat) or unethical (black hat). However, while some practices obviously fall into one category or the other, the majority of SEO practices fall somewhere in the middle.

Until recently, SEO was commonly viewed by the public as a dark art or magic. A lack of public education, as well as misinformation or negative experiences with fake SEO gurus who were only skilled at making a quick buck through deception, caused this perception.

However, over the past year, two factors have lead to a more public acceptance of SEO. The first is the mainstream media’s realization that the Internet is not simply going to disappear. As a result, the mainstream media has begun embracing SEO to attract more visitors to their websites.

The second factor is the media attention given to Demand Media. Demand Media is categorized as a mass content producer that relies heavily on SEO to attract visitors. While Demand Media is commonly vilified by the media, the attention they have received has shown the public that SEO is now viewed as a legitimate practice at the corporate level.

If you are a first-time visitor and have a question about SEO, please leave your question in a comment. You can also email your question to me at tyler@copymoz.com.