The internet is a technological landscape of many different parts that come together in a way that is so seamless, most people take it for granted. These parts all work in the background to provide your internet experience. Most of the internet is made up of web pages that you access every day for various services.
DNS or the Domain Naming Service is the boring part of the internet for many people. A business domain is often an overlooked asset, because people do not understand it.
Domain names were developed, because people are bad at remembering numbers. People know they can type Facebook.com into their browser, but no one is going to remember 31.13.66.35, which is an IP address and is used to tell the internet the location of the Facebook.com server. Domain records also tell the internet where to send your email. Think of it as the internet house address for your business.
You buy your domain through a registrar. It is the registrar’s job to know who owns what domain and the IP address of the DNS server hosting the domain. The DNS hosting provider in turn tells the internet where e-mail, web, and a variety of other services are located.
This is a basic explanation of DNS, and there are an ocean of details that make DNS work that have not been described here. DNS hosting providers and registrars offer resources and instructions that can help with this.