Web Hosting Reviews & Ratings

May 07, 2009

Increasing Visibility Through Sub-Domains

Multiple domain hosting is a trend that has become very popular over the years.  In the most common application, this refers to a hosting solution that allows you to host more than one domain on a single account.  While there are certainly benefits to such a solution, this article will focus on why you may want to consider using sub-domains instead.

What is a Sub-Domain?

Hence the name, a sub-domain is basically a sub or second level of a primary domain.  For instance, if your domain is sportsworld.com, you could create support.sportsworld.com as a sub-domain.  A perfect example is how Dell has created a separate support area (support.dell.com) for its main website.  It is quite similar to a primary domain in the way it can achieve independent search rankings and also act as an individual website.  When used correctly, sub-domains can go a long way in enhancing your visibility.

The Advantages of Sub-Domains

A sub-domain can provide you with a weapon to effectively battle the competition in your niche.  You can choose to set it up as an extension of your main website or another site altogether.  In the eyes of the search engines, a sub-domain is viewed as an independent site.  It can be manually submitted to a search engine such as Google or Yahoo just like a standard domain.  This also means that by linking to your main domain, it appears to be an inbound link coming from a different site.  A sub-domain can also play an important role in your pay-per click campaign.  The Google AdSense program only allows 35 characters to displayed in your URL, making it difficult to fit the your chosen keyword phrase or product into the mix.  Utilizing a sub-domain makes the perfect alternative as your keyword can be easily inserted into the first part of the URL, giving you a powerful means of advertising your product and increasingly click-through rates.

Using Sub-Domains Effectively

Sub-domains have many uses but the best way to exploit them is to allocate them to the same subject field.  While this should go without saying, it probably wouldn't be a smart move to add a sub-domain for your clothing line onto the domain dedicated to your IT consulting business.  This is a tool that can act as that essential gateway to your primary website for both visitors and the search engines.  Having the ability to host multiple domains that truly act as individual sites is great but when used appropriately, sub-domains can be just as effective.

The concept of sub-domains has caught on over the years and this popularity is reflected on the web hosting market today.  In fact, they have become a standard feature and generally come included at no additional cost.  The typical hosting solution allows you to create an unlimited amount to be used how you see fit.  In most cases, setting up one is as simple as adding on the sub text in front of your primary domain and clicking a button, a quick process that can usually be done from your control panel software.  While your goals might not involve creating a separate website, the sub-domain is a tool that will always serve a purpose.

Tags: URL,  sub-domain,  Multiple Domain Hosting,  Google,  Domain Names,  domain