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Subdomains are one of the most effective tools for maintaining an organized website with a flawless user experience. A subdomain is a prefix added to a URL to create a new section for your website—an extension of the root domain that forwards to your site.
For example, Squarespace’s domain name is www.squarespace.com. The “www” is the root domain, which can be replaced by anything to become a subdomain, like domains.squarespace.com or fr.squarespace.com.
Creating a subdomain helps you build unique pages or capitalize on traffic from people searching for similar websites. You can use it to organize your site and reach a specific target audience, demographic, or region, launch a new website without buying an entirely new domain, or as a specialized link or landing page to track a unique marketing campaign. It can also help boost SEO.
Common benefits of subdomains
Subdomains are often used to organize distinct sections on your website, making them clearer and more targeted for visitors. Examples of these sections include your blog, online store, customer support, and more.
You can use subdomains to build specific sites in different languages or regions, test new features outside your root domain, offer a mobile version of your website, and target audiences with unique content on a separate domain.
Unique subdomains can also help you create a different look, feel, and purpose for new pages beyond your root domain. They enable you to experiment with design, marketing, copywriting, brand, and sales strategies without impacting your core website.
Here are a few of the biggest benefits:
Organization and navigation: Unique pages improve user experience by helping visitors navigate your website and find the information they need without getting lost.
Branding: Segmenting information or specific focuses into distinct, digestible pages helps users understand your brand and offerings.
User targeting: Customizing pages for different products or locations helps you effectively and authentically reach different users.
Common uses for a subdomain
Just like domain extensions, there are limitless possibilities when creating subdomains. Here are some of the most common examples of how and when to create a subdomain.
Blog: Using a blog subdomain is a great way to make your blog stand out as a content destination or test different marketing tactics without impacting your root domain website.
Online shop: A shop or store subdomain can help send traffic directly to your ecommerce site. This can be helpful if you want different features on your store website than you do on your main website.
Mobile: A mobile subdomain, usually denoted by an “m,” provides a streamlined visitor experience for mobile users. When you create a mobile subdomain, your mobile site lives on a different domain from the desktop version of your site. This is especially helpful if you need to change parts of your main website to improve mobile page speeds.
Targeting location and language: Using a region-specific subdomain such as AU, UK, or DE allows you to develop unique pages for visitors in different regions and languages, which is also helpful for international SEO. For example, de.squarespace.com is the German-language version of Squarespace’s website.
Sub-websites: These pages can help brands separate their locations, offices, or channels. For example, a restaurant chain might use “Brooklyn” and “Austin” as subdomains for individual restaurants or franchises and a global brand might use a subdomain to direct visitors to offices in different cities.
Content and custom landing pages: These are great for giving marketing initiatives a dedicated focus. A good example is a large media outlet creating a distinctive page for its fashion, travel, or music imprint. Or Squarespace’s dedicated website template supporting its Big Game ad: mosley.squarespace.com.
Customer support: Creating a specific page for customer support shows users that you’re listening and paying attention to their concerns. It helps you to provide them with a clean, easy-to-navigate experience to address their needs. For example: support.squarespace.com
Brainstorm ideas with the free domain name generator
How to create a subdomain on Squarespace
Creating a subdomain for a Squarespace website is straightforward. To take these steps, you’ll need to have your root domain registered with Squarespace Domains.
Open your domains dashboard.
Select and click the domain you’d like to edit.
Click Manage Domain Settings.
Under Domain Forwarding Rules, click Add rule.
In Forward From, enter your new subdomain name.
In the Forward To field, enter the URL you use for your website.
Under Advanced Settings, select if this move will be a Temporary Redirect (302) or a Permanent Redirect (301). A temporary redirect is for a short-term change to your website, while a permanent redirect is for a long-term change.
Under Forwarding over SSL, we recommend selecting SSL On.
Click Save.
This will create a subdomain that points to your root domain. If you want to direct your subdomain to a different website or page, you can forward or point your subdomain instead.
Learn how to manage subdomains or add to a third-party domain
Subdomains vs. subdirectories
SEO enthusiasts often debate which has more impact: subdirectories (also called subfolders) or subdomains. A subdirectory is a folder within your main website domain name.
These folders help you organize content into separate sections while using the same primary domain, for example, squarespace.com/blog or squarespace.com/templates. In this case, the blog and template subdirectories create a hierarchical structure for the website content, where the main URL lives higher on the hierarchy than the blog or template library.
When to use a subdirectory vs. a subdomain
Subdirectories are ideal when you want the content in your subdirectory to have the same SEO impact as your main website, also known as having a strong domain authority. A strong domain authority makes you more competitive in search results. Subdirectories are a good option for a long-term page that’s relevant to your main website content, like an online store vs. a shop page for a limited-time collaboration.
A subdomain is ideal when you want specific content—such as a localized website or a unique product line—to be completely separate for organization or functionality purposes.
Ideal uses for subdirectories
For content that is closely related to your main website
To maintain a unified SEO authority across all pages
When you want to avoid managing separate domains
Ideal uses for subdomains:
Sections of your website that are valuable to your brand, but slightly different from your main content
Content that is more complex or requires a unique design or tech structure
Pages that will exist for a shorter period, like a marketing campaign landing page
SEO impact of subdomains
Many people in the SEO community believe subdirectories are more SEO-friendly than subdomains because search engines may view subdomains as separate entities. However, experts at Google encourage website creators to use whichever works best for their brand and setup. According to them, Google search ranks subdomains and subdirectories equally.
Creating subdomains can have several key benefits for your SEO if used strategically.
Local SEO benefits: Subdomains can help you rank in local searches since you can tailor content to specific areas. Returning to the restaurant example above, a “brooklyn” or “austin” subdomain would allow the owner to rank for location-specific search results in Brooklyn and in Austin.
Keyword targeting: Subdomains can help you publish content targeting a broader range of keywords that your main website might not cover, improving your brand’s overall visibility and niche authority.
A safe space for testing: Subdomains are a place where you can safely test a range of content without hurting your main site’s search results.