Subdomains Explained
Written by Denise Witter Tuesday, 22 June 2010 11:18
So much can be said about domains, but here, I'm going to stick to the use of domains and subdomains.
You might have heard the term "top-level domain" or more simply put, "TLD," but wondered what is it exactly? A top-level domain is the part that is the furthest right on a domain name. For example, for a site that I've created, www.innovatien.com, the ".com" is the top-level domain. Since ".com" is the top-level domain, the word "innovatien" is the second-level domain. This translates to a string of numbers that computers can read and find your web site.
Some of the more popular domains are .com, .biz, and .info just to name a few. There are many more generic TLD's out there, with .com probably being the most well known. The country TLD's also belong to the top-level domain category. Examples of these are .nz for New Zealand and .uk for the United Kingdom.
Your domain is more than just the name you pick, it's the folder that holds your site's files. This is where it comes in handy to create subdomains. A subdomain will help you keep your site organized and help people find quickly what they're looking for when they get to your web site. For example, a subdomain of www.innovatien.com is "gardening.innovatien.com" with the word "gardening" being the subdomain.
When you create your web site, you should keep in mind the use of subdomains to help organize your site and therefore keep your domain name to a reasonable size. If your domain name is "verylongandwordydomain.com," adding a subdomain makes it seem tedious to type as in "subdomain.verylongandwordydomain.com." So if your domain is easy to type and remember, you're placing yourself in a position to have an organized web site that's easy to find and navigate and thus will help catch visitors.
One way to use subdomains is to have a "FAQ" subdomain, a "shopping" subdomain, or a "tools" subdomain, or any word or term that might be useful to your customers so that they can access that page directly without having to go to your home page or type in your domain and subdirectory file. Subdomains are simply easier to remember.
And one final word, domains and subdomains are evolving everyday as is the internet, and they are what you make of them. Put as much careful thought into choosing your domain as you did your business name and your marketing strategy will become that much easier.
