What is a subdomain and why would I use one?

[RKramkowski]

I've run into the term subdomain on several forums, particularly on how to set one up or other various technical questions.

But I'm even more basic than that. What is a subdomain and why or when would I set one up? How are they used?

Thanks,

Bob

[Johnny]

This is an interesting questions.
Never think of that when I am setting up my sub domains.

Personally, I used sub domain as it looks more professional (at least to me), instead of the folder after my site link. Esp when it is 3 level down.

Beside, I have heard that it help in SEO. Not too sure though, this is not my main reason to used it anyway.

[Paul_Short]

Bob,

A subdomain is like a sub-section of a site. For example, forums.gadgetizer.com is a subdomain of my gadgetizer.com site. Even though those forums are in a folder off my main domain, gadgetizer.com/forums/ I set it up on a subdomain so the forums were separate from the main site and the DNS system (the internet naming service that attaches sites to domain names) treats it as a separate site.

Why would you set one up?

Tons of reasons really, for example, the autoresponder service Aweber sets up some of their top affiliates with subdomains. Lynn, the owner of this forum has her own subdomain there sswt.aweber.com for promotion purposes. It's a branding thing for both Lynn and Aweber.

If you want a free blog and don't have hosting of your own you can set one up at Wordpress.com and your blog would be yourblog.wordpress.com.

Other sites set up subdomains to separate areas of their content, like a sports site could have basketball.theirdomain.com or hockey.theirdomain.com

Plus, on the tech side, most subdomains have separate stats and control panels in their hosting so things like traffic and bandwidth is easier to track, scripts are easier to manage when separated from the main site, etc.

Those are just a few and there are many more, but I hope this helps.

[90PercentAttitude]

[weblord]

[RKramkowski]

Thank you all for responding. I think I've got it.

There are several things I'm setting up. The first is for my management consulting practice. I already own the domain name. I also now own a second domain name that I'm setting up as a forum for independent consultants to share ideas, ask questions, etc.

Based on what I think I read above, I want to create a blog off of my consulting forum. For this, I think it would work better as www.mydomain.com/blog. Also based on all I've read so far, WordPress with some of Teli's products are the best way to go.

I also want to set up a link from the forum to at least the above-mentioned blog, if not the website itself.

The second "big" thing I'm doing is setting up a series of related niche sites (I haven't decided on a domain name for this one yet). For this, I'm thinking subdomains are the way to go similar to the car example above. (e.g., www.mydomain.com, niche1.mydomain.com, niche2.mydomain.com). I think this'll improve my overall performance with the search engines (assuming I do SEO even halfway right! ). These are information sites, not discrete hard products.

The third "big" thing is a product-based ecommerce site (internet storefront), also niche based (I also own this domain as well). I think this is also best set up as item number two above. The different twists here though are that this series will be product based (dropship). I've already signed on with DOBA and COPEAC (thanks, Lynn! ) and I'm looking into Chris Malta's site (www.worldwidebrands.com). But this will also be tied to an eBay store. Teli's script will probably work real well for these sites.

For the product and informational niche sites should I consider multiple landing pages? Or is that in effect what I'd be doing?

Right now all are hosted on HostGator. Being as they are all with the same host, will this present an issue? The "big" things aren't related and so I don't see any cross-linking there - only for the site, forum, and blog dealing with consulting.

Now I'm just trying to learn more about natural SEO, tagvertising, and RSS!


Bob

[Lynn Terry]

I would definitely recommend Teli's products.

RE: Landing Pages - every page of your site is basically a landing page. The search engines rank pages, not 'sites', so visitors may enter your site on any one of your pages. You want each page to have solid navigation and a call-to-action (even if just a link to take them back to the main page if nothing else).

I hope that makes sense...

[Teena]

I love this entire topic above - excellent information, and very clearly put.

I'd like to throw in my two cents' worth, from building your web pages angle.

If your hosting company already provides either a website builder [like Site Studio or one of the many others] or solutions like WebsiteBaker, Mambo, Joomla, then this is great news.

When you create a subdomain, you can also set up the website using any one of the web builders your hosting company provides ... it's just like a stand-alone website.

Why is this good? Well, it will save you having to redesign a site from scratch. If you want the subdomain website to look like your main website, you can - with the click of a button to install.

Or you could have different looking websites for each subdomain [as in the car example above].

So check out your current hosting company and see if they provide web builders - it will make your life so much easier, and the launching of new subdomains so much faster!

Cheers
Teena!