Why Use a Domain Name?

A domain name is a placeholder for an IP address.

An IP address can be linked to just as easily as a domain name can be linked to. So why not just use an IP address?

The primary reason is if you change hosting companies, then the IP address will also change. Everybody who has links to your website would need to change their links to the new IP address of your website.

Hosting companies are assigned blocks of IP addresses. They use them for the domains they host. If you change hosting companies, the previous IP address is unlikely to be available.

Another prominent reason to use a domain name instead of an IP address is because a domain name is easier to remember than an IP address. The domain name can be a brand for you, at whatever hosting company your website is served from.

Many hosting companies will assign more than one domain to the same IP address. When a request is made for a web page from a domain, the hosting company's software makes certain that the correct domain page is served to the browser. Therefore, if you do want to use an IP address instead of a domain name, ensure the IP address is not also relevent to other domains.

A positive reason for using an IP address instead of a domain name is when a cloud server is rented for server-side processing. Let's take PDF generation as an example. If a domain generates a lot of custom PDFs, the domain website owner may wish to put PDF generation on another server — to use less CPU at the domain's server. There is no need to buy and maintain another domain name just for that.

Domain names to represent IP addresses was a good invention. They are quite handy.

(This content first appeared in Possibilities newsletter.)

Will Bontrager