How to use subdomains

This article will show you how to create subdomains if your domain is registered with Sitejet. 

Basic knowledge

URLs are made up of three parts: the subdomain, the domain, and the top-level domain (TLD). The domain is the part of the URL that contains the website name. For example, in the case of "www.your-website.com", the domain is "your-website". 

The "Top Level Domain" (TLD) was originally meant to indicate the region in which the website is located. For example, for Germany this is ".de", for Italy ".it", for Spain ".es", and so on. Now, there are more TLDs that have nothing to do with the region, such as ".com" for example (commercial purposes). Generally, when people are discussing a particular domain, the TLD is included anyway even if it isn't technically part of the domain.

Subdomains are the part that comes before the actual domain. Nowadays, websites are often accessed without the "www.", but strictly speaking the "www." is a subdomain. There are many other common subdomains that you will be familiar with. For example, if the domain of your company is "your-website.com", you could create the following different subdomains:

• "services." -> "services.your-website.com"
• "contact." -> "contact.your-website.com"
• "info." -> "info.your-website.com"
• "blog." -> "blog.your-website.com"

Each subdomain is assigned to a specific subpage of your website that is pulled up when you navigate to it. This could also have SEO reasons. 

Create a subdomain

You can only create a subdomain for a domain that is also registered in the Domain Manager. So, first create a domain in the Domain Manager. It is not possible to create a subdomain for a website in another website.

In addition to the settings in Sitejet described below, it is necessary to set a CNAME in the DNS settings of your domain, which points to our server as it does for "www". The CNAME for the subdomain "blog." could look like this, for example:

Now, you can go into the Website Editor and create the subdomain in a few steps.

• Click on "Pages" in the top navigation. 
• On the right side, you will see the view described in the article about adding navigation.

From this view, you can either create a new page or make an existing page accessible via subdomain.

To create a subdomain, proceed as follows:

• Click on the cog icon and then on "More Settings" for the relevant page to show all settings. 
• The default value "www" is already entered in the "Subdomain" field. If you now set this to the desired value, e.g. "blog", then that page will become accessible by navigating to blog.your-website.com.

Please make sure, that under URL you only have the sign "/" (slash) in the field. You have now set up the subdomain blog.your-website.com.

In addition to the settings in Sitejet described, a CNAME is required in the DNS settings of your domain, which points to our server as it does for "www". The DNS record for the subdomain "blog" might look like this:

Multilanguage with Subdomains

When you decide to create a multilangual website, this will also affect your subdomains. The concept of multilanguage stays the same. Sitejet automatically changes the URL for all available languages of the currently accessed page e.g. www.sitejet.io/en/templates, as follows:

For subdomains e.g. blog.your-domain.com this will also apply as follows:

Read more about creating a multilanguage website here.

Subpages with Subdomains

When you set up a subdomain and like to create a subpage for that specific subdomain, Sitejet will make it possible to use one more domain level. For your website blog.your-domain.com the following structure will be possible: 

The same applies to a multilingual website: 

It is only possible to create the first level of a subpage. The following structure is not possible:

Read more about creating subpages here.

Set up only a subdomain at Sitejet

1. First, you need to set up the domain in the Domain Manager in Sitejet. If you do not yet know, how to do this, please follow the guide "Activate forwarding". (Please do not change the DNS settings for the domain at your third-party provider unless you want your website to point to Sitejet.)
2. When the domain is connected in the Domain Manager, Sitejet is able to recognize the domain assigned to the website.
3. Now set up your subdomain exactly as you want it in the editor. Then, save the website.
   

   

   

4. Afterwards, remove the "/" (Home site) with the www-subdomain from the pages section. 

   

   

5. Once this is done, switch to your domain hoster. Here, you set the appropriate CNAME for your subdomain. Your domain now continues to point to your main site, which is with another provider. The subdomain, however, points to the website with us.

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