A domain name, often simply called domain, is a human-readable and easily memorizable string of characters that identifies a service provided through the Internet such as a website or an email service.

It is usually associated with a physical IPv4 or IPv6 address on the Internet.

For example, the domain name learnbackend.dev translates into the physical 35.180.43.38 IPv4 address.

The domain name structure

A domain name is usually made of several parts called levels, separated by dots, and read from right to left.

https://www.learnbackend.dev

Each of those parts provides specific information about the whole domain name.

Top-level domains

The top-level domain indicates the general purpose of the service behind the domain name.

Its maximum length is 63 characters, although most rarely exceed 2 or 3 characters.

Some of the most generic ones are .com, .org, or .net and don’t require web services to meet any particular criteria, however, some might enforce stricter policies.

For example:

• The .us, .fr domains can require the service to be provided in a given language or hosted in a certain country.
• The .gov domain is only allowed to be used by government departments.
• The .edu domain is only for use by educational and academic institutions.

The full list of available top-level domains is maintained by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).