Creating Sub-Domains

Creating Sub-Domains

People, both young and old, connected to online business vertical must have heard the word sub-domains a couple of times. Some may have gone as far as done researches on the meaning, while others have basic idea of what a sub-domain is and not how it works while the rest are waiting for anybody who can help them understand it even if it is just a little. Last time we spoke on Domains, Hosting and EPP code and I am very confident by now we must be very conversant with the meaning.

Now let us tackle this issue – Sub-domains. The lay-man definition of it will simply be ” a part of a domain”.

What is a sub-domain?

www.mydomain.com is a domain name. A sub-domain is anything that replaces the www in a domain name. For example domains.upperlink.ng is a sub-domain. www.domains.upperlink.ng is not a sub-domain.

One would easily wonder, “How do I create a sub-domain?”. Below are steps that would guide in creating a sub-domain.

Some sub-domain names are reserved. Examples include mail, www, ftp, cpanel, whm, webmail, webdisk. You can use any name except these.

In creating a sub-domain, there is only one rule which you must not break. MAKE SURE the sub-domain name you give isn’t the name of an already exsisting folder. If it is, the sub domain will not work. For instance, I want to create the sub-domain blog.upperlink.ng so my sub-domain name is going to be blog. If I already have a folder in my ftp(file transfer protocol) named blog, I need to delete it or rename it to something different before I create the sub-domain with the name blog.

To create a sub-domain:

1. Log into cPanel.
2. In the Domains section, click on the sub-domains icon.
3. In the sub-domain field, select the name of the sub-domain you wish to use. For example, if you choose blog, your sub-domain will be: blog.example.com
4. In the adjacent drop-down menu, select the domain for which you wish to create this sub-domain. You may create a sub-domain for any addon domain or parked domain that already exists in your cPanel.
5. Note: Addon domains automatically create a corresponding sub-domain that reflects the addon domain and primary domain.
6. Click on the Document Root field and it should automatically populate with a suggested location from which the sub-domain will load it’s content.
7. For instance, if you chose “blog” as your new sub-domain, then the Document Root field will populate with /public_html/blog. This means that the new sub-domain will load its content from the folder named blog from within the public_html directory.
8. Once all three fields are set, simply click Create to complete the creation of your new sub-domain.

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