How are sub-domains handled?

[Gerry]

I'm a little fuzzy on how sub-domains are handled as far as building, indexing, and ranking.

I own the domain rex dot info.

Other than it is a very popular name for people and pets, the name itself means "King", I would like to create informative sites for:

Kings (a historical type site as it relates to kings, countries, and their reign)

and something like t.rex dot info (cool paleontology site for kids)
and fo.rex dot info (currency trading basics and tutorials)

Can someone direct me to some tutorials or a "how to" section for constructing the URL, sites, and SEO and indexing?

[Devil Dog]

From what I know a sub-domain is an entirely separate domain.

For instance, I have semperfidelis.com then I have gallery.semperfidelis.com which are on two separate ip's
and both should be able to submit each one to s.e's for inclusion.

[Gerry]

I have no idea to structure subdomains.

Here's another inquiry...if subdomains are set up at the registrar (for instance, fo.rex (.) info) can you redirect and set DNS to parking?

[Aleksandar]

Sub-domains are often used to reduce server load if you have a very popular website. They can point to another server and therefore reduce your main server load. Some example would be high traffic sites like about.com or myspace.com

Just for now google "subdomains explained" and read.

After that type "subdomains and seo" and read some more.

Let me know if you didn't understand something and can't find an answer online, I'll try to help you if I can.

By the way, I have never pointed a sub domain on another server, or parked it. I've set up some via cpanel on my external Hosting account, so I'm not sure maybe you can find all options you need in your hosting software if you're hosting it outside of your registrar.

Read and experiment.

p.s. Actually all of your "main" domains are sub domains also.

They are all a part of a greater top level domain such as com/net/org/info or other gTLDs/ccTLDs etc.

[katherine]

www. is a subdomain

[biggedon]

I have no idea to structure subdomains.

Here's another inquiry...if subdomains are set up at the registrar (for instance, fo.rex (.) info) can you redirect and set DNS to parking?

Hi Doc

if your root domain is already parked, any subdomain you create will resolve to that parking service.

for instance

www.doc.96.net

one issue i see with using prefixed subdomains, is that they are subject to typos.

your "fo.rex.info" example, would loose traffic to forex.info

less if you did "rex.info/forex_information.html", and it's easier to set-up, imo.

it's one of the reasons why Sony.com started doing online trailers as Sony.com/NewMovie

you can still get ranking for such urls as described above.


all imo...

[Gerry]

Hi Doc

if your root domain is already parked, any subdomain you create will resolve to that parking service.

for instance

www.doc.96.net

one issue i see with using prefixed subdomains, is that they are subject to typos.

your "fo.rex.info" example, would loose traffic to forex.info

less if you did "rex.info/forex_information.html", and it's easier to set-up, imo.

it's one of the reasons why Sony.com started doing online trailers as Sony.com/NewMovie

you can still get ranking for such urls as described above.


all imo...

Thanks! losing traffic does make sense in the case you stated.

[AMERICAR]

I have no idea to structure subdomains.

Here's another inquiry...if subdomains are set up at the registrar (for instance, fo.rex (.) info) can you redirect and set DNS to parking?

Subdomain Configuration
A subdomain configuration is very similar to a domain name configuration. The only difference is that the subdomain entry is tied to the corresponding domain name lookup. A request for the subdomain (e.g. http://content.websitegear.com) will be routed to a DNS server containing the DNS information for the parent domain (websitegear.com). Once the DNS record for the subdomain is resolved to a particular IP address, the request is sent to the web server listening on that IP address. The web server can now delegate the request to the particular website based on the subdomain name in the host header of the request object. Various combinations of subdomain configurations are possible by using DNS server entries and web server application setup for load distribution, application isolation or security purposes. ... ** you can set up as many sub domains as you wish to **

More: http://content.websitegear.com/artic...main_setup.htm

And yes ... www dot is a subdomain ... actually unnecessary .. i rarely use www dot it's a waste of typeing effort in most cases, but some webmasters haven't got the where-with-all to configure the websites or domain names without the WWW dot so different results can be achieved from the same domain name ... ISPs/Hosting companies can and do take advantage of such situations ...

You can have the WWW (.) name redirecting to one site and the http ( : // ) name[/url] whatever redirecting to another complety different site, then you have C Name which can redirect to another site all together ... there many options to fool around with ... your Registy or re-direction service should have this facility free.

** English engineer and computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee, now the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium, wrote a proposal in March 1989 for what would eventually become the World Wide Web.[1] He was later joined by Belgian computer scientist Robert Cailliau while both were working at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1990, they proposed using "HyperText [...] to link and access information of various kinds as a web of nodes in which the user can browse at will",[2] and released that web in December **

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web

[PokerPie]

I'm not an SEO expert but from what I have seen it has a lot to do with how you use them. For instance .us.com domains are sub-domains of us.com. However I highly doubt they are getting any extra search juice for 'us' because us.com has nothing to do with the sub-domains. Different IP's, no links to each other, different content etc.

However if you have sports.com and make basketball.sports.com and football.sports.com and tennis.sports.com and link to them all from the homepage and link them all to each other and they are all hosted together, I'm fairly certain the 'sports' is going to be factored into the SEO for the sub-domains.