Every website has a domain name. This is because a domain name is the address of your website. It is what people will type into the URL when searching for your website.

Why the need to have domain names?

A domain name is needed because the Internet is basically a giant network of computers which are all connected and communicate to each other through network cables which span across the whole globe. Due to the vast number of computers that are connected and are communicating with each other, they need to be able to identify each other. This is done via an IP address which is assigned to each computer.

IP addresses are basically a series of numbers which allow other computers on a network to identify each other. These IP addresses could look as follows: 67.233.88.2 or 55.298.76.4 etc. Now if you are quite an advanced Mathematician, it could be quite simple to remember these numbers, however, if you’re like me who struggles to do maths without using my fingers, it can be quite a task to remember numbers such as those previously mentioned.

Domain names were created to help make remembering an IP address a whole lot easier. Now to visit a website you only need to remember the domain name of a website, ie "takealot.co.za" or "breadfactory.com" etc. This makes finding a website a whole lot more attainable rather than having to type in a set of numbers that you’ve most likely forgotten the moment you’ve started typing it into the URL.