What is a Subdomain? A Complete Beginner's Guide

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A subdomain is an extremely useful tool for organizing and optimizing your website. This comprehensive guide will teach you everything you need to know, from what subdomains are to how to create and use them effectively.

What is a Subdomain?

A subdomain is essentially a “sub” website that is part of your main domain. It looks like this:

subdomain.yourdomain.com

So for example, if your main website URL is yourdomain.com, a subdomain would be something like blog.yourdomain.com or store.yourdomain.com.

The key thing to understand is that a subdomain is still part of your main domain, but allows you to segment parts of your website into separate sections.

This segmentation into subdomains can be extremely useful both for organization purposes as well as for search engine optimization.

How Subdomains Work

Behind the scenes, subdomains function by creating separate folders on your web server that act as mini websites within your main domain.

So if we go back to our example with the subdomain blog.yourdomain.com, this subdomain would get its own folder on the web server that holds all the blog content, images, pages etc.

This keeps it neatly segmented from other parts of your main website in the backend. But in the frontend, visitors would still be accessing it as part of your overall brand, just via the subdomain URL path.

The technical name for your main domain is the “root domain”, while each subdomain you create essentially branches off from that root.

Difference Between Subdomains and Subdirectories

One common point of confusion is understanding the difference between subdomains and subdirectories.

While they sound similar, and both allow you to segment website content, they work quite differently:

Subdomains – A subdomain creates a separate mini website with its own folder on your server. The URL structure looks like: subdomain.domain.com
Subdirectories – A subdirectory is simply a folder within your main domain’s folder. The URLs look like: domain.com/subdirectory

So in a nutshell:

Subdomains = Separate websites
Subdirectories = Folders within site

This key difference affects things like how Google and visitors perceive the segmented content, which we’ll explore more below.

Examples of Subdomains

Lots of popular websites use subdomains to organize specific sections into their own segmented spaces. Some examples include:

Blog subdomains – blog.yoursite.com
Store or ecommerce subdomains – shop.yoursite.com
Support or help subdomains – help.yoursite.com
Login subdomains – login.yoursite.com
Regional or language subdomains – ca.yoursite.com
Mobile subdomains – m.yoursite.com

Essentially if you have a specific section of your website that would benefit from having its own space, a subdomain is likely the best approach.

Benefits of Using Subdomains

Now that you understand what subdomains are from a technical perspective, let’s explore some of the benefits leveraging them provides:

1. Organization of Content

One of the core benefits of subdomains is allowing you to organize your content more cleanly.

Rather than having your blog, store, help documentation, support forums etc. all jumbled together on one domain homepage, subdomains let you give each their own separate space.

This creates a more streamlined experience for visitors looking for specific types of content on your site.

2. Search Engine Optimization

Properly leveraging subdomains can also benefit SEO in a few key ways:

Allows you to target keywords more precisely
Helps search bots crawl relevant content more efficiently
Provides credibility signals by segmenting different site sections

Essentially subdomains enable a “divide and conquer” approach for both optimization and rankings.

We’ll get into SEO subdomain best practices more below.

3. Conversions and Analytics

Using subdomains also makes tracking conversions and analytics much easier. Since each subdomain effectively operates as a separate website, you can view detailed metrics for each.

For example, if you have an ecommerce subdomain, you could analyze shopper behavior, conversions, popular products etc. for just that section of your site rather than trying to filter out ecommerce data from your entire domain.

4. Domain Authority Flow

An underrated benefit of using subdomains is leveraging domain authority “flow”.

Domain authority refers to the trust and rankings boost a site receives by virtue of the main site’s reputation.

For example, if your main website has published quality content for 5 years, it will have higher authority vs a brand new site.

When you create subdomains that also inclusion your primary domain name (ie shop.yourbrand.com), these automatically benefit from and pass on some of the “domain authority juice”.

This trust flow effect from the primary domain can give your subdomains an SEO boost.

Best Practices for Using Subdomains

Now let’s get into more tactical recommendations once you’ve decided to start leveraging subdomains.

Choose Descriptive Subdomain Names

Your first step is choosing smart subdomain names that accurately describe the content segment.

For example for a blog, use blog.yourbrand.com rather than a vague z123.yourbrand.com.

These descriptive subdomain names act almost like category tags, helping search engines understand the content focus. Visitors also will have an easier time knowing what part of your site they’ve landed on.

Match Subdomains to Content Type

As we discussed above there are certain types of website content that lend really well to becoming their own subdomains, such as:

Blog platforms
Ecommerce stores
Support documentation
Discussion forums
Regional site versions

Decide which of these (or other content types) would benefit from having their own dedicated space from an organization, SEO and analytics tracking perspective.

Provide Value, Don’t Just Segment

While subdomains provide technical SEO advantages, that doesn’t necessarily equate to a rankings boost on its own.

At the end of the day, Google still wants to see valuable, relevant content regardless of whether that’s on a subdomain or subdirectory.

So make sure your subdomains offer topic-focused value rather than just trying to carve up your current content across new segmented domains.

Link to Subdomains Internally

Once you’ve created subdomains, add links pointing visitors from your main site to each one. This conveys the interconnectedness to both visitors and search bots.

For example if your blog lives on the subdomain blog.yourbrand.com, link to blog posts from your main site with anchor text like “Read more on our blog”.

This builds credibility and DR flow to the subdomain.

How to Create a Subdomain (Step-by-Step)

Ready to get hands-on and create your first subdomain? The process is actually quite simple.

Here is a step-by-step walkthrough:

1. Purchase Domain from Registrar

First, make sure you’ve purchased your root domain name from a domain name registrar like GoDaddy, Bluehost, Namecheap etc.

If you haven’t bought your domain yet, check out a domain search tool to find available options.

2. Sign up for Web Hosting

You’ll also need web hosting for the domains and subdomains to point to. The easiest option is using the same company for domains and hosting such as with Bluehost.

Once signed up, log into your hosting account dashboard.

3. Navigate Domain Settings

Within cPanel, navigate to “Domains” or “Domain Manager”. Then access settings for the root domain you want to add subdomains to.

4. Click “Subdomains” > “Create”

On the domain settings screen find and click “Subdomains”. Then click the “Create” button to add your first one!

5. Enter Subdomain Name > Create

Start by entering your desired subdomain name(s) such as “blog” then click “Create Subdomain” when ready.

And that’s it! The hosting company will now create a new folder on your server mapped to the subdomain which functions as a separate site.

You can immediately visit it by typing blog.yourdomain etc. Then begin adding content just like with your main domain.

Pretty straightforward right?

With just a few clicks you can start segmenting sections of your site into their own optimized subdomains spaces. This structure helps improve site organization and search visibility over the long term.

Subdomain FAQs

Let’s wrap up by answering some frequently asked questions:

There’s no “right” subdomain amount, but focus on creating ones aligned to providing value vs trying to pad out numbers. Start with a blog, store, help section etc then expand based on what makes sense for your content model. Less can be more.

Yes, used properly subdomains can benefit SEO by allowing more targeted optimization, cleanly separating related content, enabling authority flow from root domain etc. But you still need high quality content above all else.

Absolutely – having regional subdomains like fr.yourbrand.com, es.yourbrand etc is an excellent way to segment translations and target locally.

Choose one version and stick with it consistently vs mixing both (either www. or non-www). Best practice is to redirect to your preferred version. There is no universal consensus on which is better, so pick one.

No – with rare exception, subdomains need to include your owned root domain name (ie blog.yourbrand.com) rather than piggybacking off someone else’s domain authority (unless you have explicit permission).

Final Thoughts

And there you have it – a comprehensive beginner’s guide on what subdomains are and how to utilize them for a more optimized, segmented site architecture.

The key points to remember are:

Subdomains help organize related content sections
Proper use enhances SEO through targeting and authority flow
Descriptive names and value-focused content is key
Implementation only requires a few steps

Now that you understand the basics of working with subdomains, it’s time put this knowledge into practice! Start brainstorming ideas for subdomain content segments that could benefit your website and your visitors.

Neil Beckett

Neil is an accomplished web, designer and developer with over 15 years of experience in creating and optimizing websites for small businesses and online entrepreneurs. Read full bio

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What is a Subdomain? A Complete Beginner’s Guide