What are Domains & Subdomains
A Domain is the name of your main website. This name is used to call an IP address. If you want to have a website that is visible and available to everyone, you must have a domain/ web address by which your content will be accessible to everyone. One way to organize the different types of content of your main website is to create Subdomains.
Subdomains are subsites within your main site or main domain, therefore, yourdomain.com, the subdomain for a user account will be account.yourdomain.com.
Subdomains are highly customizable and can be used as separate sites that have separate WordPress installations. They can have separate DNS records from the main site but cannot have separate nameservers from the main site.
Subdomain Use Cases
Subdomains are used for various purposes. For example:
- ecommerce site
- blog
- version of your site in a different language, etc
In this article we will discuss having a separate WordPress installation on a subdomain for two different cases.
- Main Domain Hosted at 10Web With Nameservers Pointing to 10Web
- Nameservers of Main Domain Pointed Elsewhere
Main Domain Hosted at 10Web With Nameservers Pointing to 10Web
Suppose you have your main site yourdomain.com, hosted at 10Web with the nameservers pointing to 10Web, and you want to point your subdomain account.yourdomain.com to it. To do so, log into your 10Web dashboard, click Manage on the site to which you would like to point your subdomain.
To the left of your individual website dashboard, under Hosting Services, click on Domains. To the right of the domains page, click on Add Domain.
A pop up will appear. Fill in the name of your subdomain in the domain field. For example, account.yourdomain.com, where the name “account” is the SUB and the name “yourdomain” is the main DOMAIN. Then click Add Domain.
In this case, with nameservers of your main site pointed to 10Web, once you have successfully added your subdomain, it will appear in the list of your domains. An A record and a CNAME record will be automatically created for your subdomain.
The only thing left to do is to make your new domain primary:
- Click on Domains under Hosting Services
- Click the Make Primary button next to your newly added subdomain
- Click on Confirm to make the change
Nameservers of Main Domain Pointed Elsewhere
In the case with nameservers of your main site pointed elsewhere, after adding your subdomain, you need to create an A record in your main domain registrar. To do this, you first need to locate the IPv4 address of your subdomain. Under Hosting Services then click on Credentials. Find your IP address and copy it.
You will need to use this IP address to create an A record in your domain registrar. Go to your domain registrar to set up an A record with the IP address you’ve copied. This step varies for each registrar and provider.
Here’s how you set up an A record with GoDaddy.
Here’s how you set up an A record with NameCheap.
Here’s how you set up an A record with Google Domains.
We recommend setting up a CNAME record as well. It’s optional but you’ll need to point subdomains to your domain, like www.howto.com.com to howto.com.
Here‘s how you set up a CNAME record with GoDaddy.
Here‘s how you set up a CNAME record with NameCheap.
Here‘s how you set up a CNAME record with Google Domains.
Enter your new address to check if it’s resolved.
When it is, you’ll be redirected to your .10web.site subdomain.
Make sure to make your new domain primary, as shown above.
That’s it! You’re all set up!