What is a domain name?
Domain names are known as the online address for your website and can be attatched to a hosting package in order for you to publish a website. Many different domain suffixes are available to suit the websites purpose such as .org, .net, .co, with the most popular being .com for commercial websites. In the UK it is also popular amoungst commercial sites to use a .co.uk domain to identify themselves as a local site catering specifically to the UK market.
How to Choose a Domain Name?
Depending on whether your web strategy is more brand focused or mainly content based a domain name can be purchased to suit either approach. If your site is pushing more a of a brand such as gumtree or wonga.com then it would be best to purchase your specific brand name which can be used in offline and online advertising to direct customers. However if the brand does not play a key role in your strategy then purchasing a domain name with relevent words and phrases within the domain could be benficial for google rankings. For example if your site specialised in printing T-shirts then it would be beneficial to purchase the domain tshirtprinting.com to make the site seem as relevent as possible.
How to point your domain to your web hosting
Once you have logged onto your control panel click on the domains icon or section. You will then have the optiion to change the DNS, transfer you domain or change the destination. Select change the destination and direct your domain to the relevent folder on your home directory which you have created beforehand which it is usually public_html/your folder or homedirectory/yourfolder. Some hosting companies do not allow manual changes of the destination so you will have contact them directly and arrange the neccessary changes.
What is domain privacy
Domain privacy is a way of protecting your identity online rather than have all of your contact information publicly available as a default on the whois database. Many web hosting comapnies can protect your privacy by charging a small fee for the privilege