How to Create a Subdomain

How to Create a Subdomain

When you create a subdomain in cPanel, you will be asked to choose the name of the subdomain, the domain the subdomain is for and the location from which the new subdomain will load it’s content.

We do have a video tutorial which will show you how to create a subdomain in cPanel.

Note: Some subdomain names are reserved: mail, www, ftp, cpanel, whm, webmail, webdisk. You can use any name except these.

How to Create a Subdomain

  1. Log into cPanel.
  2. In the Domains section, click on the Subdomains icon.
  3. In the Subdomain field, select the name of the subdomain you wish to use. For example, if you choose blog, your subdomain will be:

    blog.example.com

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

Document Root for Subdomains

If you have addon domains or parked domains for which you wish to have the same subdomain name but wish for those subdomains to load different content, then pay close attention to the Document Root field when creating a subdomain.

Why Document Roots Cannot be the Same

This is very important because if you create blog.hostgator.com and blog.seohosting.com on the same cPanel, but leave the Document Root as the cPanel suggested location, both of your blog subdomains will load from the same directory of /public_html/blog and you will not have separate content for each subdomain.

Furthermore, if you own several domains and wish to have a different blog set up for each domain that loads from the subdomain name blog, then you will have to change the document root of each domain that you set up.

How to Avoid Duplicate Document Roots

To avoid this issue, when you create your new subdomain, make sure you set the document root to something other than /public_html/blog; instead, set it to something like /public_html/blog1. If you have done this correctly, then you will have more than one domain using blog as a subdomain, but both subdomains will be loading separate content.

What is a Parked Domain? How Do I Create and Delete One?

What is a Parked Domain? How Do I Create and Delete One?

Parked domains are often used by businesses that want to have more than one web address for advertising purposes. Parked domains are additional domains hosted on your account which display the same website as your primary domain and share web statistics as well; however, you can give the parked domain its own email boxes.

For example, if you own domain1.com and it is the primary domain of your cPanel account, you can set up domain2.com as a parked domain and it will load the content of domain1.com. When you visit domain2.com, you will notice that although the content of domain1.com is loading in the browser, the address bar will display http://domain2.com/. This is similar to a masked forward.

Domain Parking vs. a Parked Domain

When domain registrars offer domain parking, they are offering to park your domain on their servers and direct traffic to a page of their choice. This is a good temporary solution if you don’t have a web hosting account, but it is very restrictive.

Add a Parked Domain

Domains must be registered with a valid registrar before they can be parked. In addition, a domain will not be functional unless it is configured to point to the same name servers as your primary domain.

To add a parked domain to your account:

  1. Log into cPanel.
  2. In the Domains section, click the Parked Domains icon.
  3. Under Create a New Parked Domain, enter the domain name you would like to park on top of your primary domain.
  4. Click Add Domain.

You have just added a parked domain.

Remove a Parked Domain

To remove a parked domain from your account:

  1. Log into cPanel.
  2. In the Domains section, click the Parked Domains icon.
  3. Under Remove Parked Domains, find the domain you wish to remove.
  4. In the Actions column for that domain, click Remove.

To learn more about the difference between parked domains, addon domains and subdomains, please see the following article: