When you register a domain name, most hosting/domain providers provide you with free subdomains. Some (like Bluehost) provide unlimited subdomains, but all hosting providers provide enough for normal use. But what is a subdomain, and what is it used for? See a guide and tutorial with subdomain creation tips.
Usage Examples and Motivation
‘What is a subdomain?’ is one thing, but why would you need one? The most common scenario in which a subdomain is used is to organize or divide web content into sections. Meaning subdomains are great when you want to build a separate content catalog to serve a different purpose from what’s on your main domain.
In this helpful tips guide and tutorial, a new subdomain creation usually involves launching a new website on that subdomain. A website that’s more or less separate from your main site (the one under your main domain). Here are some popular examples of what subdomains are used for Launching a separate ecommerce store that’s not within your main website.
For example, ‘Site’ may want to make their store available under store.site.com while their main website remains at site.com. A blog at blog.yoursite.com. Forum for your customers or audience to interact with each other at forum.yoursite.com.
Creating an additional language version of your website at es.yoursite.com. Subsections of your website for different segments of visitors based on their location. For example, if you try visiting Craigslist while in Philadelphia, you will be automatically redirected to philadelphia.craigslist.org.
More Subdomain Possibilities
These are just some of the possibilities, and this distinct nature of subdomains makes them perfect for creating new websites that appear as though their addresses are original. The idea of the subdomain creation guide is to use them when you have enough content to fill each one. Or alternatively, when you have content or parts of your business that deserve a space of their own — for example, Nike has a separate section devoted to careers at jobs.nike.com.
Overall, using subdomains in situations like the above clarifies things for the visitor. For instance, they’ll know that store.YOURDOMAIN.com is where they can purchase your products. Lastly, when you no longer need the subdomain, you can just shut it down with a few clicks and redirect all traffic to your primary domain.
Subdomain Creation Guide
Once you have a standard domain name registered, there are two parts to creating a new subdomain: Coming up with a subdomain you want to create. Enabling it and then redirecting it to your new website (or to a third party). No. 1 is a simpler stage. Basically, all you need to do is develop a short subdomain that fits your purpose.
The subdomain can generally consist of any number of alphanumeric characters (a-z, A-Z, 0-9) and hyphens (permitted if surrounded by other characters or digits) with no spaces. But this varies with different domain registrars, so it’s best to double-check with yours.
Alternatively, you can choose one of the popular subdomains, like the tips above- Store, blog, languages (such as es), locations (such as Philadelphia), forum, events, community, help, news, and jobs. No. 2 can be a bit more tricky. That’s because to carry the process through, you must enable the subdomain and point it somewhere on the web. That somewhere can be a section of your existing website. The completely new website of yours. Third-party website or URL.
The exact steps differ depending on your domain registrar and/or web host. One thing’s certain, though with this subdomain creation guide: Things will be much easier if you’re with the same company for your domain name and hosting.
This is because you can usually do all the setting up within a single user panel, whereas when you have your domain and hosting handled by separate companies, you need to go through the required motions with each.
Subdomain Related Questions
1- What’s the difference between a subdomain and a domain name? A domain name is your website’s main address on the internet (e.g. yoursite.com). Sub-domain is a ‘child domain’ name that’s under the ‘parent domain’ name (e.g. blog.yoursite.com). You can’t have a subdomain without the main domain name above it.
2- Do I need to buy a domain name to be able to set up a subdomain? Yes. You can only create a subdomain under a standard domain name that you already own. How many subdomains can I create for my main domain name? This depends on your domain registrar. With GoDaddy, for example, you can create up to 100 subdomains per domain name.
3- Do I need to pay for new subdomains? Most commonly, no, but this depends on your domain registrar. Can I create a separate, new website on a subdomain? Yes. This is the most common scenario.
4- Can I point a subdomain to individual content on my current website? Yes. This is potentially a great way to spotlight your most essential pieces of content. Is ‘www’ a sub? Technically, yes. But it’s a special type of sub that usually points to the same website as the main domain name. For example, www.visualmodo.com is the same as visualmodo.com.
Concluding Subdomain Creation Guide
Subdomains are great when you want to create a separate content catalog to serve a different purpose than your main domain. Most hosting/domain providers provide free subdomains when registering a domain name. We hope this article about a guide and tutorial with subdomain creation tips has helped you.
