What Are Subdomains

Subdomains are websites that are associated to your main website, however, they contain similar, but different information. They are basically used to keep your information organized to make it easier for you and your users.

A subdomain works similarly to the way a sub-directory works, only the subdomain appears in front of your main domain, and not after. A subdomain appears like this: sales.yourdomain.com, and a subdirectory would appear like this: www.yourdomain.com/sales. Even though your subdomain is considered to be a part of your website, it does not have to be linked to it in any way.

Subdomains will rank on their own in the search engines, and it is essential that you build lots of back links to them as you would with your main domain.

Subdomains are usually free with any domain name and hosting account. However, some hosting plans are limited, but when you upgrade to a better hosting plan you can have as many as you like.

Subdomains are essential in affiliate marketing as they help to make you look more professional. All you do is redirect your subdomain to take your users to the sales page with your unique affiliate ID. Instead of seeing an affiliate link in the address bar, your customers will see your subdomain. This not only makes you look more professional, but you are most likely to get more sales as a result. Plus your customers will keep coming back, because they only have to remember the subdomain, and not a long affiliate link.

Another reason why subdomains are great is because it helps you to keep your information separated. It may not be as essential if you are an individual marketer, but if you are a part of a large corporation with many departments, it will help to keep each department separated. Each subdomain is entitled to its own email address, and therefore it helps customers to get in touch with the right department. Plus one department does not have to constantly filter out emails for another department.

They are also great if you have multiple users that need their own profile or own space on your domain. This is often used on blogging platforms where you can set up a blog for free, along with a free subdomain. Another place this is used is on e-commerce sites where you are allowed to set up a store under your own unique subdomain.

If you do a lot of affiliate marketing where you refer others to affiliate products, then yes you should use subdomains in order to hide the affiliate link. Or, if you run a large company, then obviously you should consider using subdomains as well.

But if you are running your own small business online, then perhaps sub-directories will serve you better. They both work in similar ways, but search engines seem to favor sub-directories over subdomains. So until you are ranking fairly good in the search engines, you should probably stick with just sub-directories.