What Is A Subdomain
If you are a newbie to this world of the web, you might be wondering what are domains, subdomains, etc. Here is the answer.
What is a subdomain?
A subdomain is the additional part of your primary domain. It is created to navigate different sections of the website. Subdomains can be created and used for testing, and staging versions of your website. You can create a specific subdomain for specific users. The subdomains help in organizing your website.
For example find.yourname.com
In this mentioned example, ‘find’ is the subdomain, ‘yourname’ is the primary domain and ‘.com’ is the top-level domain (TLD). Any text can be used as a subdomain for your website, but one thing you would want to make sure of is it’s easy to type and remember.
There are numerous reasons companies use subdomains, a few of them are discussed below:
Use cases of Subdomain
The most common use case of a subdomain is for making a staging version of a website or testing a version of the website. Usually, developers can take a look at new plugins and updates on a subdomain staging website before publishing them live.
Another use of a subdomain is to form an online e-commerce store is very common. Usually, firms desire a separate subdomain to handle transactions as a result of e-commerce sites usually needing an additional complicated setup.
We have additionally seen firms use subdomains for their mobile websites (m.yoursite.com), location-specific sites (uk.yoursite.com), and making sub-sections of the website.
You can install and work using WordPress on your subdomain, and it’ll function as a separate installation from your primary website.
A subdomain can be used to serve a particular cluster of users on your website like ‘guest.yourwebsite.com’, ‘user.yourwebsite.com’, and more. This is how website builder platforms like WordPress.com and blogger.com often supply custom websites to users.
Subdomains may be incredibly helpful in organizing your website content additional with efficiency. The proper use of a subdomain doesn’t affect your primary website’s SEO. However, in uncertainty, we tend to suggest keeping everything on a similar domain and avoiding employing a subdomain for public sites.
Subdomains are commonly used by internet service providers to supply web services. They allocate one or multiple subdomains to their clients who do not have a domain name of their own allowing independent administration by the clients over their respective subdomains.
Subdomains are also widely used by companies or organizations that wish to assign unique names to every service, department, or function related to the company or the organization. For example, universities mostly assign “CSC” to the computer science department, in a way that several hosts can easily be used inside that subdomain, such as www.cs.exam.edu.
Some of the globally recognized subdomains are WWW and FTP. These subdomains allow a structure wherein the domain contains files including the FTP directories administrative directories and webpages. FTP subdomain is capable of storing logs and the web page directories, while the WWW subdomain is capable of storing the directories for the web pages. Independent authentication for each domain allows access control over the different levels of the domain.
Types Of Subdomain
There are various types of subdomains available, a few of them are:
Show WebSpace content
Forwarding
Hidden forwarding
Show “Domain parked” name
You might be interested to know how a CMS – Content Management System works!
Frequently Asked Questions About Subdomain
Some frequently asked questions regarding Subdomain that might interest you –
Is WWW a subdomain?
Yes. www is referred to as a subdomain.
What characters are allowed in a subdomain?
Subdomains can only contain characters, digits, and hyphens (-). However, you will find that underscore (_) works in all major browsers in practice, although it may not work always, and it is better to avoid it. You may not be able to set it in DNS with some providers or services.
Do we need to pay extra for the subdomain?
Since Google considers subdomains to be independent websites, they must be hosted on separate hosting plans. This implies that every subdomain will require its own hosting account. Alternatively, if you use subdirectories, you simply have to pay one hosting charge.
What’s the advantage of having a subdomain?
A subdomain allows you to divide sections of your site that are large enough to deserve their own hierarchy without having to build up a new site with a new domain or confusing visitors with a completely distinct root domain.
How do subdomains impact SEO?
You can simplify your site hierarchy and increase user navigation by using a subdomain. This makes it easier for customers to find the information they need, which is vital for enhancing your SEO performance.
What’s the use of a subdomain?
Subdomains help organise and navigate to various sections of your website by acting as an extension of your domain name. You can also use a subdomain to point to a certain IP address or directory within your account or to send users to an entirely new web address, such as your social media page.