Dec
10

What are TLD and SLD?

By Jim Corbett

“What are TLD and SLD?”

Top Level Domain & Second Level Domain

mmos-domainingDomain names are references to addresses on the Internet. Much like a postal address or phone number, a Domain Name is divided into parts Each part of that address is separated by a dot ( . ). The letters to the right of the rightmost dot and the left of any single forward slash ( / ) are referencing the Top Level Domain (TLD). There can be additional slashes followed by any number of other characters after the TLD which will direct any web browser (such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Mozilla’s FireFox) to sections or “pages” within the web site. Example:

DomainName.TLD/pages

SLD

A Second Level Domain Extension (SLD) can be placed to the left of the TLD separated by a dot ( . ). Additionally, a dot can be used webmasters to create and attach secondary web sites to their original web site. These are referred to as Sub-Domains. “SLD” is a second level extension, and “TLD” is a top level extension a Domain Name with only a top level extension would be a second level name, not a second level extension. Example:

DomainName.SLD.TLD/pages

There are three basic types of TLD’s Generic Top Level Domains (gTLD’s) are world-wide. Un-sponsored TLDs (uTLDs) are gTLDs such as .COM that are not restricted as anyone around the world may buy and use a .COM domain name.

Sponsored Top Level Domain Names (sTLD’s) are a sub-grouping of Generic TLD’s and are also worldwide but are restricted to use only within a particular industry or other group by its governing body. .TRAVEL for example is a sponsored TLD.

Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLD’s) are country specific and have only 2 letters. The United States has .US domain names available and Canada has .CA . Country codes have very little in the way of governance as some countries are promoting their CC domains as though they were generic or sponsored domains, while many other countries are very restrictive regarding who they allow to buy their country code domain names. View a complete list of Country Code Extensions and *LD’s here.

Related SEM-Answers Posts
  • Elance Top 100 for April '09 Elance.com Online Work Index Top 100 for April 2009 Skillz in demand Elance.com released its April 2009 Online Work Index Stats which ranks the 100 hottest in-demand online job skills.  The data is derived from more than 100,000 online job postings created over the last several months. It's no surprise......
  • How To Make Money Online Series Making Money Online With Auctions Series Article 3 Selling to the highest electronic bidder, if you want to earn some extra income, online auctions sites like eBay are a great way to go. The first thing to remember is that not everything you want to sell, will sell. Conversely, just......
Tags: , , , ,

Stumble It [Post to ping.fm] Ping this!

Categories : Research, e-Inside
Related Partner Site Articles

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.