What is Main Domain?
Main domain is a domain name you used to purchase a server or signed up for web hosting account. It is important for a business because it represents a web presence. Besides, it creates the first impression of your business. A good domain decides the professionalism of business as well as help to build branding. Thus, you should think twice before deciding a domain otherwise it would be a complicated process to change it later.
Table of Contents
- How to Choose a Good Domain Name?
- What is Subdomain?
- Why need Subdomain?
- Steps to Create E-commerce Store using Subdomain
- Hiding your Subdomain from Search Engine
- Why You Need to Hide Subdomain?
How to Choose a Good Domain Name?
1. Use .com as top level domain
Most users are used to .com top level domain. So if you choose others extension, .org or new extension, .xyz where your users are not so familiar, it might bring them to an error page or other website. This is because most users only remember the domain name but not extension.
2. Keep it short and simple
It is important to keep the domain name short so that it is easier to be remembered and type. Compare with a complex domain name, a simple and memorable domain name brings more traffic to your website.
3. Unique
Make sure to research domain name in a search engine such as Google. This is to ensure not yet used by others and also to avoid confusion. Besides, include the keyword that is related to your business in the domain name can make your business stand out from others.
4. Avoid number or symbol
Domain name with number or symbol does not increase credibility to your website. Besides, it causes your domain name to seem like not professional. Furthermore, if people misspell or do not include it when typing, the traffic to your website is lost.
5. Avoid misspell
Make sure to check the spelling of your domain name before used because misspelling a word might make your website look like a spam website. Use some tools such as Grammarly to check for the spelling errors in your domain name.
What is Subdomain?
A subdomain is an additional part of your main domain. It is viewed by the search engine as a separate website. Therefore, you need to set everything from the start in the subdomain. For example, if your run https://yourwebsite.com your subdomain could be https://store.yourwebsite.com. The store is an additional part of your main domain. You can create multiple subdomains on your main domain.
Why need Subdomain?
The subdomain is used for several reasons:
1. Testing of website
A subdomain can be used to test plugins or updates. You can use a subdomain to check plugins that cause error or performance issues on your website. You also can test the compatibility of the plugin with your current theme in the subdomain. Testing or staging of a website can be carried out without affecting the main website.
2. Create E-commerce store
A subdomain can be used to create an e-commerce store. As we know, E-commerce function is complex as it has JavaScript and CSS running which might affect the performance of the website. So you may consider moving it to the subdomain. With this, your website performance score won’t be affected and your website will have the E-commerce function.
3. Organise content of website
Subdomain also can use to organise the content of your website. You can use it to store different sections of the website. However, it is best to add the main content in the main domain instead of the subdomain.
Steps:
Below is an explanation to create an e-commerce store in WordPress using a subdomain.
- First, set the theme of the subdomain as in the main domain.
- Next, go to Appearance > Customize > Global
Adjust typography, colors and buttons for subdomain as in the main domain.
- Then, go to Appearance > Customize > Header > Site Identity to add your site logo, site icon, site title and site tagline.
- Add pages that support e-commerce function in the subdomain. You can add pages as in the figure below or as you wish.
- Then, go to Appearance > Menus to create a primary and footer menu in the subdomain as in the main domain.
For page not in the subdomain, create custom links and input the main domain link in the URL field.
- Install WooCommerce plugin in the subdomain.
- Go to Product > Add New to add your website products or services
- Go to WooCommerce > Settings to set up your e-commerce store address, shipping location, currency, shop page, review, shipping zone, shipping methods, payment methods, privacy policy, email and etc.
- Back to the main domain page and add a subdomain link in the text or button.
For example:
Add a subdomain product link in the button of the main domain.
- Done.
You successfully linked the main domain to the subdomain of the website.
Hiding your Subdomain from Search Engine
This is to ensure the subdomain would not be indexed by a search engine.
- Go to Settings > Reading from WordPress dashboard
- Select the checkbox of Discourage search engines from indexing this site and Click ‘Save Changes’.
Why You Need to Hide Subdomain?
This is because the search engine viewed the subdomain as a separate website from the main domain. If you did not hide from a search engine, it will index every page in subdomain including the whole site structure. An error occurred if the search engine cannot understand your site. On the other hand, if you copy all content from the main domain to subdomain the traffic to your website would be separated and it is not advisable to do that if it is the same content.
Check server and domain service provided by us if you want to register your domain and host your website online.