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There are umpteen live and operational websites on the internet. They are hosted and managed by web servers that are located worldwide. A directory is required to find a website and where it’s being hosted. Without a directory, it would be virtually impossible to find websites. DNS stands for Domain Name System which is the largest digital database for the internet in the world. This database stores the information about every website in the world. Every website and every machine on the internet has an IP address, which is a digital address. The domain name of a website along with its IP address is stored in this database. The data files that tell a web server about how to respond to a request by a search browser are called DNS records.
DNS records are called ‘mapping files.’ When a web server sends a request by a user to visit a particular website, this request is sent to the DNS database. This database looks up its records, finds the website’s IP address and forwards it to the server that has requested it. The requesting server uses this P address to find the website and display it to the user who had initiated the request.
There are letters associated with the DNS records, known as DNS syntax. Some of the commonly used syntax in all DNS records are; A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, PTR, NS, SOA, SRV, TXT and NAPTR.
The ‘A’ syntax is the most basic type of syntax. It stands for ‘address’. It indicates the IP address of the website.
The ‘AAAA’ record is an IPV6 address. It maps the hostname to a 128-bit IPV6 address.
The ‘CNAME’ stands for ‘conical name’ and is used to associate sub-domains with those existing DNS records.
The ‘MX’ stands for mail exchange. It is used for mail exchange servers.
The ‘PTR’ record, as the name suggests, is a pointer record and maps an IPV4 address to the CNAME.
The “NS’ record stands for ‘name server’. It tells the server on which the domain resides.
The ‘SOA’ record stores important information about the domain, such as when the time at which it was last updated, etc.
The “SRV’ record tells the TCP service in which the domain operates.
The ‘TXT’ record allows the website’s administrator to insert any text in the record.
The DNS records of any website contain important information for webmasters and SEO. These records give you information regarding any website that you might be interested in viewing. You can get to know the IP address of a domain, by looking at the DNS records of that domain. An IP address will tell you from which address the domain is being hosted, and if you know the structure of IP addresses you will also know in which country the domain is being hosted. IP addresses are assigned like telephone numbers. Every country is assigned a particular number, followed by a city code and then the actual telephone number. To make an international call, you have to dial the international code, area code and the actual number, to make the call. Similarly, IP addresses are also designated following a given structure.
When you view DNS records, you get to know the addresses of any sub-domains that are associated with the domain. You also, get to know when the domain was last updated, what is its refresh rate, etc.?
You might want to check the information like a competitor’s DNS records, where it is being hosted from, and other information about the website. DNS records are helpful for webmasters and SEOs in setting up or managing a website.
You will need to use an SEO tool if you want to find DNS records of a domain. This will find and show these records for you. Visit smallseotools.com from your search browser and scroll down the icons until you spot the ‘Find DNS records’ icon and click on it. You can also directly go to the tool by copy/pasting smallseotools.com/find-dns-records in your search browser.
Once you are there, type in the domain name of the website whose DNS records you want it to fetch. Press ‘Submit, ‘ and within seconds it will give the DNS records of the domain. You can view all DNS records for a domain here. Now you can study the records and see the IP address listed in the ‘A’ type record. The list will also have‘NS,’ ‘SOA,’ ‘MX’ and ‘TXT’ records.
All this information in the DNS records is very useful in knowing the environment in which a domain is operating and all the parameters associated with it.
You can also do a Google DNS lookup or a DNS whois search. You may even dig DNS records. For further help, you can learn how to use lookup to find IP addresses.
Finding and studying DNS records is valuable for SEO and webmasters. You will want to know your website’s IP address and the additional services provided by the web servers for your domain, once you decide to use a web hosting service. If the internet speed is slow or the refresh rate is low, you can ask your web hosting service provider to improve that.
No website can operate without its DNS records being saved in the DNS database. The database holds all the necessary information about a website.
All web servers use the server to process a visitor’s request. It guides them to the right location. For example, a website owner might decide to alter the web hosting service provider and move the domain to a better provider. When he or she signs up on the new hosting servers, the first action that will be taken is that the domain’s information contained in the DNS records will be modified.
Websites cannot operate on the internet without DNS records