Everything You Need To Know About Subdomains

January 4, 2021

If you are using hosting, then you most probably know a lot about subdomains or even more. In case you are a beginner in this business, then this article will be especially useful for you. Here, we will cover the most important and interesting information about subdomains and everything related to this topic. Keep reading to know what subdomains are used for and how to create a subdomain. We will also talk about the influence of subdomains on SEO.

What Is a Subdomain & What Is It Used for?

What do you need a subdomain for, what is a subdomain and what function does it perform? These are some of the questions that novice webmasters have. A subdomain is a domain of the third level or even higher; it is the part of the domain that goes after the dot from the main domain name of the site. Basically, subdomains are used to provide a unique name for an individual page of a site or service.

Why Do You Need a Subdomain?

There are a couple of reasons why you should create a subdomain.

• Structuring site content — Subdomains are much easier to remember. They are used by large companies and organizations that work for different categories of users. A vivid example of this is the worldwide company Google. The main domain of the company hosts the search engine, and the subdomains host additional services such as mail.google.com, docs.google.com, drive.google.com. Such a system is convenient for users since it is always easy to find exactly what you need on a particular service.
• Site load distribution — Subdomains are stored and added separately on the server. Also, if necessary, you can distribute the load across multiple servers.
• Clients of your service can use your subdomain to host their sites — This is often done by website builders and hosting providers. For example, you have created a website using the builder, but you don't want to buy a domain for yourself. In this case, you can place your site as a subdomain of the service you used. For the full-fledged operation of the site, such a solution is not enough, but it will be quite enough for testing the project.

Subdomains and SEO

How do subdomains affect website promotion? For search engines, subdomains are separate sites. What does this mean?

• Subdomains are ranked separately — Therefore, if the main domain of the site with the absolute URL ranks well for certain queries, this does not mean that the subdomain will rank well for the same. That’s why experts recommend using different keywords for the main domain of the site and its subdomains.
• External links to subdomains do not automatically affect the authority of the main site. The degree of popularity of a site for search engines depends on a large number of factors, one of which is external links. The more such links on other sites are, the better. If the pages of your site are hosted on subdomains, then the links placed on them will not create an impact on the main domain by default.

Based on the above, it is important that you take special care of subdomain management and promotion in case you decide to go this way.