Subdomains are a powerful feature of your hosting package, offering a flexible way to expand and organize your online presence. These additional third-level domain names provide several key benefits, allowing you to:
- Logically structure your website, creating distinct sections for different types of content.
- Host additional websites or specific parts of a larger site on the same server, eliminating the need to register new primary domain names.
Consider an example: if you manage a website like your-product.com for promoting and selling a product, you might want to provide dedicated sections for customer service or order tracking. By setting up a subdomain such as "orders", users can directly access this information by navigating to orders.your-product.com. This enhances user experience and streamlines content organization.
Moreover, subdomains in Plesk Obsidian are treated with the same capabilities and services as additional domains. This means you can leverage a comprehensive suite of tools, including SSL/TLS protection for security, the Sitejet Builder for easy website creation, detailed web statistics for performance monitoring, and many other features to manage your subdomain effectively.
Setting Up a New Subdomain
To establish a subdomain for a specific site division or an entirely separate website, follow these straightforward steps:
- Navigate to the Websites & Domains section within your Plesk control panel.
- Click on the Add Subdomain button.
- On the subsequent page, you will need to specify the following details:
- In the Subdomain name field, enter the desired prefix for your subdomain. This will be the portion of the address that precedes your main domain name (e.g., "blog", "shop", "orders").
- In the Document root field, define the absolute path to the directory on your server where all the files and subdirectories for this new subdomain will reside. You have the option to use the default
httpdocsdirectory of your main site or designate a completely different directory for better organization.
- After entering the necessary information, click OK to create the subdomain.
Upon successful creation, your new subdomain name will be prominently displayed in the list at the bottom of the Websites & Domains screen, indicating it's ready for use. You can then proceed to upload your web content to this newly created subdomain's directory on the server. For detailed guidance on content upload, refer to the Website Content section, specifically the Uploading Content Using FTP subsection.
Understanding Wildcard Subdomains
Plesk Obsidian also supports the creation of wildcard subdomains, which offer enhanced flexibility for handling unconventional domain requests. By entering an asterisk (*) symbol as the subdomain name during creation, you instruct Plesk to direct any requests for a subdomain that has not been explicitly registered to this designated wildcard subdomain. This is particularly useful for catch-all scenarios.
Wildcard subdomains can be established at any domain name level. For instance, you could create a wildcard subdomain such as *.mystore.example.com. This means if a user types in anything.mystore.example.com (where "anything" is not an existing subdomain), they will be directed to the content associated with *.mystore.example.com. To delve deeper into the configuration and benefits of this advanced feature, consult the section on Adding Wildcard Subdomains (Linux).
