Your domain is where your website lives. But what if you want to organize it, or make it easier for users to find exactly what they are looking for? You may be looking for subdomains. Have questions about subdomains? Look no further! This Fyresite blog will tell you all you need to know.

What are Subdomains?

Subdomains are smaller subsets of a domain that allow you to break up your main domain into more manageable and accessible locations. They are a prefix, added to the beginning of your main domain.

Note: Subdomains are different from subdirectories. A subdirectory is the /at the end of the URL. These are files under your main domain, and are part of the same website. Each subdomain is counted by search engines as a different site.

How Can I Use Subdomains?

Subdomains have many uses. In fact, you may be unaware that you’re utilizing them. Here are a few of the most common ways to utilize them.

Localization

If you’re taking over the world, you’re probably familiar with using subdomains for localization. Subdomains are used to separate regions and languages.

For example, if you’re selling worldwide, you can use es.yourstore.com for Spanish-speaking countries, but en.yourname.com in English-speaking countries.

You may notice that you’ll go to a website under a different region than your computer is in, it will ask if you want to go to the subdomain for your region.

Content Organization

Some businesses want to keep their sites uncluttered, and use subdomains to organize different branches of content.

This includes blogs and eCommerce sites. This is helpful for established brands to add on to their business.

The main domain, google.com, is boxed in purple. docs, the subdomain, is boxed in blue.

This is also helpful for businesses that offer a suite of products. One of the biggest examples is Google. Google uses subdomains to separate different services. Docs, Drive, Sheets, etc. are all different subdomains.

Landing Pages

Landing pages are incredibly powerful marketing tools. One page to drive traffic to and tell a whole story. Because of this, people often want their landing pages to be separate from their website. How do they do that?

If you guessed by using a subdomain, you’re 100% correct!

Developer Testing

As any good developer will tell you, you need to test things before putting them on your website. That’s where subdomains come in. A subdomain can be created for a developer to test new implementations before putting them on your live site.

This is important because it allows a developer to iron out any kinks without it interfering with your site or your users.

Subdomains and SEO

Now that you know what subdomains are and how they work, there’s another aspect to tackle: SEO. Search Engine Optimization is arguably one of the most important aspects of any website. After all, if you’re going through the incredible effort of creating and building a website for your brand, you want people to be able to find it.

A subdomain is an incredibly efficient way to organize a website. However, they do leave an impact on your SEO. This is because web engines recognize each subdomain as an individual website.

Positive SEO Impacts

Because subdomains exist as individual website entities, you can leverage SEO for the specific audience you’re targeting with each subdomain.

Using separate SEO strategies for the different subdomains allows you to create special experiences for each audience group. Since you’re not trying to drive traffic from multiple audiences to one page, your content may perform better.
Having subdomains also gives you separate entries on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page), increasing your presence and the likelihood of your site being viewed.

Negative SEO Impacts

Since you can give subdomains individual SEO strategies, they can individually drive solid traffic. However, any authority gained on a subdomain will not link back to your main domain. This means important SEO factors, like backlinks, have to be cultivated for each individual site.

Subdomains can dilute the authority of your main site as well. Any content that is duplicated can negatively impact your SEO on all domains.

Make the Most of Your Site

If you’re looking to build your domains, main and sub, with best practices, reach out to see if Fyresite is a fit for you!