A subdomain is a domain that is part of an even larger domain and is dependent on that larger domain.
There are different rules than with a regular domain; for instance, there is less of an ability to infringe with the subdomains because once your main domain is original and legitimate, you can have whatever subdomains you want because they are part of your longer name.
Why Would I Want a Subdomain? One of the reasons you may want to have subdomains is that your website has a lot of information to organize.
There are a few ways to deal with this problem; one of them is to just have subdirectories with the information organized among them.
With a subdirectory, which is different from a subdomain, the address will look like [main domain].
[com]/[subdirectory].
This type of organization will always be part of the same server and is usually used when there is a page or so of information to talk about.
Subdomains are more useful when you have a whole website's worth of information in one category.
For instance, if a student is looking for the section of a college website that has to do with the math department, you can tell them to go to [math].
[college name].
[edu].
Having each of the academic sections organized this way allows the students to go immediately to the part of the website they want quite easily where they can find lots of information on that department.
With subdomains there is also the added bonus of being able to tell people quite easily where to go to find what they are looking for because they are easier to remember and more familiar.
You can also use subdomains for the purposes of individual people who are members in some way of your website.
If it is a social website and each member has their own username, you can set it up so that if they type [username].
[main domain].
[com], they can access their personal login area.
This enhances their feeling of connection to the website and will probably help your business.
How Much Will It Cost Me? The great thing is that many hosting providers will not only provide you with a free domain name for choosing them, but will also allow you to have multiple websites on a single hosting account.
This means that it will cost you no extra to have the subdomains once you take care of your main domain agreement.
This will vary with different providers, so be sure to look into it when you are choosing one and balance the pros with the cons of each provider.
When you are thinking about organizing a vast amount of information, subdomains are a great way to go! As long as you check with your provider to find out what the rules would be for your particular domain, you should be good to go on your way of optimizing search results and having content that is easy to find for your customers.