What Is A Subdomain
You might think you have a firm grasp on what a subdomain is. After all, the name is rather obvious and a bit of a spoiler alert. But subdomains are filled with plenty of little intricacies that make them a unique member of the Internet ecosystem.
And while you might feel confident about what a subdomain is, you might not be aware of everything you can use a subdomain for, or the challenges that come along with having a subdomain. For example, do you know the impact subdomains can have on your websites search engine ranking?
In this post, were going to dig into all things subdomains, so you can be much more confident about your subdomain knowledge than you were before.
It all starts with the right domain. Get yours today at Domain.com.
Tips For Choosing A Registrar
Determine which services you require
You may want services like email hosting or support offered in French, so find out what each registrar offers. Remember, if you registered your .CA domain name as an individual you have free WHOIS privacy protection already included.
Check references
Seek out customer reviews and testimonials, and ask friends or colleagues for a recommendation. You may find that some registrars come highly recommended by your peers. If you make a mistake, you can always transfer your .CA domain to another registrar.
Shop around
Shop around to get a good understanding of how much your domain name, and additional services, will cost. Registrars may offer bundles, packages, or special promotions. Keep in mind that cheapest isnt always necessarily best.
Create Subdomains For Specific Users Or Clients
Lets say you are making a pitch to a client to create their new website. You can create a subdomain that is specifically intended for them to give an idea of what their new website might look like. This is hosted on your own main domain, while retaining ownership of the subdomain. You can then customize the site to your clients needs.
Another example is if a restaurant group opens a new location. You can then add the new restaurant to the parent site, and create a web page for the new location. This keeps the new restaurant under your overall umbrella, while giving it its own online identity.
Read Also: How To Find Who Owns A Domain
But My Site Is Just For Fun I’ll Get A Domain When I’m Serious
“But my site is just for fun,” you say. “I’ll buy a domain when I’m serious about making a proper website.”
When I started my first website, it was just for fun. It was a place for me to post a few of the programs I’d writtenand dump my bookmarks which I had annotated with my own notes. Later, I also wrote short articles about my experienceswith creating websites to help visitors who kept emailing me for help. I never planned for that initial play site tobe anything other than a toy.
The beauty about websites you create for fun, as a hobby, is that they are genuine. They are not fake websites createdso that you can earn a quick buck. You pour your soul into it, and the love you lavish upon it can be seen inyour content. And people notice. And when they notice, they’ll come back for more.
What I’m trying to say is don’t underestimate this first website that you’re creating “for fun”.I never stopped working on that first site. It is still here today. You’re looking at it. It’s nowsplit into two,and known as thefreecountry.com and thesitewizard.com.
Your site may be a hobby site now. But who knows what will come of it in the years ahead?
Privacy And Protection Costs
Whenever someone registers a domain, the registrar is required to provide that users contact information to be added to the Whois database, which publicly lists the owners of every domain name online.
While its required that you provide your information, its not required that it be easily accessible to everyone. When you purchase a domain, each registrar provides varying degrees of privacy to ensure that your personal information isnt visible on the Whois database which ultimately protects you from things like spam phone calls.
Some registrars offer full privacy on the Whois database free for the first year. Others offer tiered solutions, with the bottom tier free for the first year, which will still mask most personal details in the Whois directory. Its rare to find a reputable registrar offering free Whois protection after the first year.
TopTip:
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How Can I Register A Domain Name
In order to use a domain name, you need to register it and pay a fee to keep it registered. Typically, registration fees are annual and vary in price based on whats to the right of the dot. For example, a .com domain name will probably cost $8 to $12 to register and maintain each year. You pay these fees to a domain name registrar, like Uniregistry.com or Enom.com. Once you have your domain name, youll need to pay the registration cost to renew your domain name every year or pay for multiple years in advance.
If you miss a payment to renew your domain name, there is usually a redemption period where you can still renew it, but many times this will cost you extra. Reclaiming an expired domain through redemption will likely cost you around $100, depending on your registrar. Redemption periods can vary from registrar to registrar. So, if you made the mistake of forgetting to renew your domain name and its only been a few days, contact your registrar right away and see if you can redeem it.
I Bought A Domain Now What Exact Things To Do Next
1. Get a hosting for your domain
The next thing to do after registering a domain is to buy hosting for it.
If you dont already know, let me explain you what a domain is and why you need hosting.
A domain is like your address to your offline retail store. And hosting is like the brick and mortar shop where you store your goods to sell . Got it?
Now for the hosting, there are dime a dozen hosting providers. Dont ever settle with a free hosting or something that is too good a deal to be true. These do more damage to you than good.
I recommend Bluehost hosting and easy to deal with. I am not a technical guy and when it comes to online business I want a resource/hosting I can turn to when I have a glitch. Bluehost never has let me down on this.
Their basic plan starts at $2.99/month.
2. Connect Your Domain to Bluehost Hosting & Install WordPress on It
Now that you have bought the hosting, but you have your domain name bought elsewhere, all you need is to direct the domain name to point visitors to your hosting. You can easily do so by updating the DNS of the domain.
Ill share the step by step way to do so with Godaddy registered domain .
Here is how to point your Godaddy domain to Bluehost:
3. Design Your Blog
Also Check: How Much Does It Cost To Register A Domain
Subdomains And Parked Domains
Besides the above mentioned classification, domain names are categorized in another fashion.
One common type of domain you often hear about is a subdomain, which is exactly what it sounds like, a domain within a domain. A subdomain is usually prefixed to the name of the original domain, for instance, blog.puppylinux.com.
Subdomains are useful as they help you effectively host a different website without purchasing an additional domain name. The subdomains are usually employed to host content that is somehow different from the main domain. For instance, Google uses the support.google.com subdomain to provide help and support for all the services offered by the search engine.
Another popular type of domain is a parked domain. This is usually used as an alias for the main domain and redirects requests to the primary domain. Companies usually use parked domains to secure common misspellings of their primary domain name, such as microsft.com or gooogle.com. Many also use parked domains to register the primary domain with other TLDs, for instance yahoo.net.
Do It Yourself With A Content Management System
If youve got some skill, you can build a site using a popular CMS like WordPress.
Want to build a WordPress site but dont feel like handling all the technical stuff on your own? You might want to check out our easier way to get started with WordPress.
GoDaddys Managed WordPress Hosting features a Quick Start Wizard to get your new WordPress website up and running in a snap. Featuring eight pre-built customizable pages, easy drag-and-drop page building, and quick access to thousands of WordPress plugins, theres virtually no limit to what you can create.
Youll also get 24/7 support, core software updates and patches, free daily backups and one-click restore, a free domain with an annual plan and more.
Also Check: Transfer Shopify Domain To Another Host
Renewal Of A Domain Name: Which Registrar
Should you decide to keep your domain name, and you did not set it to auto-renew, you will have to return to the sameregistrar you used before to pay the next year’s fee.
This doesn’t mean that you’re stuck with a single registrar for life. You’re free to change registrars if you like.However, don’t wait till the last minute to change registrars, or you may run into problems. Transfers take a bitof time to take effect, and often require you to take action on both your new registrar’s site as well as your old.I suggest that if you want to transfer your domain, play safe and transfer it long before the expiry date.
Why Do We Have To Pay For A Domain Name
The question may sound stupid but I find it very difficult to understand that why do we have to pay for a domain name if the web is free? And who do I pay? Why do I have to pay for a domain name?
- 1Dec 9 ’10 at 14:08
- 6If domains were free people would hoard and we’d all be stuck with mycoolblog283.com, just like free webmail is now.Dec 9 ’10 at 20:35
- 1Dec 13 ’10 at 13:01
- 4Why do you have to pay for water? Because someone owns the process of getting it to you.
Simplified answer:
You don’t actually buy the domain name, you rent it from your registrar. The price you pay them is for the service of routing the domain name to an actual server. Without that service a domain name would lead nowhere, they have to point visitors to the right server. They need servers to do that, which you pay for.
If I go to “,” how does my browser know how to find the server for “webmasters.stackexchange.com?” It knows through using DNS lookups, which means it needs to ask a DNS server if it knows the address of webmasters.stackexchange.com.
So who owns those DNS servers? Typically, it will be your Internet provider they aren’t personally responsible for knowing the address of every web site across the ‘Net.
That’s why you have to purchase a domain name, so you can claim ownership and pay for the costs of the services provided by the registry. However, there are services, like DynDNS, that let you buy a sub-domain under a domain name that they own.
Also Check: How To Transfer Squarespace Domain To Shopify
When Testing Out Your New Website
One of the most common uses of subdomains is to use them as a testing ground for when youre updating or creating a new version of your website. You can actually install a program like WordPress on your subdomain and use it as a completely separate entity from your main website. You can also test your updates and plugins on your subdomain to see how they perform before you publish them to your live site.
When using subdomains as a testing ground, the subdomain will typically be something that web users wont think to type in, since you dont want them to see the content yet. They act as hidden pages where you can safely test new features before it is ready to go live.
Buying A New Domain Name
For most people, they go with the option of purchasing a new domain name. Its the quickest and cheapest option, and with a little creativity, you can find a solid domain.
First, youll need to choose a domain registrar. For the sake of example, lets say youre going to register your domain with HostGator.
Also Check: What Is An Io Website
Turn Your Site Into A Business
With a self-hosted site, you can monetize however you want.
There are certain advertising and monetization restrictions for WordPress that youll run into. For example, you can only use their integrated advertising platform, and you need a certain level of traffic to qualify.
If youre serious about growing your WordPress site, scaling your traffic, or turning your site into a full-fledged business, then youll want to self-host your WordPress site.
You Want To Use It As An Investment
Buying domain names for investment purposes was more common in the early days of the internet, when there were more .coms with popular keywords still available to claim. Now that most are taken, its hard to find domains at a good price that make a solid investment. Nonetheless, if you think you have the skill spot a domain name likely to go up in value, you can buy it now in the hopes of selling it later.
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Hosting $5 Per Month To Start More When You Get More Visitors
When you pay for hosting, youre basically renting space on a computer to power your website and make it available to visitors from around the world.
If you choose a website builder like Squarespace and Wix, those services already include hosting in their prices, so you wont need to pay anything else.
However, if you use self-hosted software like WordPress, or other free content management systems like Joomla or Drupal, youll need to purchase your own hosting to install and run that software.
When youre just getting started, cheap hosting is totally fine and will cost you less than $6 per month. For example, Bluehost, one of our recommended WordPress hosts, costs just $71.40 for your entire first year, including a free domain name .
As you grow, you might need to pay more to handle the increase in traffic but thats a good problem to have.