How To Create Subdomain Website

What Is A Subdomain And How Does It Work? How To Create A Subdomain

What is a Subdomain

A subdomain is a prefix added to your original domain name, like a domain within a domain, usually following subdomain.example.com. They behave very similarly to an addon domain and are often created to separate your website's different sections, such as blog.example.com or store.example.com. You can point them to a folder to host a website, just like a normal domain name.

Accessing the Subdomain Menu
Creating a Subdomain
Hosting Only A Subdomain
Restrict Subdomain Access to Addon Domains

Accessing the Subdomain Menu

Note: TheAdvancedtab will load your cPanel.Legacy accounts will feature a horizontal navigation bar at the top of the screen, while Bluerockaccount users will see a vertical navigation menu on the left-hand side of the screen. To learn more, please see Bluerock vs. Legacy.

Bluerock

Log in to your Bluehost account.
Click theDomains tab from the side navigation to the left.
Click onSubdomains from the drop-down menu that appears.
Hit onAdd Subdomainbutton at the upper right corner of the screen.

Legacy

Log in to your Bluehost cPanel account.
Click theDomains tab from the navigation menu that stretches across the top of your screen.
Click onSubdomains on the submenu.

Creating a Subdomain

Enter the desired subdomain.
Choose one of your Domain Names from the drop-down list.
Enter the Document Root (this is the folder that contains the website you want to show). We recommend that you use the same name for this folder as your subdomain.
Click theAdd subdomainbutton.

Tip: You can point any subdomain to the root folder of any of your sites by simply placing the correct directory in the home folder box. But if you want to change where an existing subdomain is currently pointing at, please refer to Changing a Domain's Assignment.

Hosting Only A Subdomain

In Bluehost, create the account with the domain name you purchased elsewhere.

Example: If you are setting up the domain subdomain.example.com, sign up for your account with the nameexample.com
In your Bluehost cPanel, create the subdomain you need to host with us (i.e., "subdomain.example.com.")
Contact the host of your domain name's zone file and have them point the A record for the subdomain to the IP of your Bluehost server.

Note: This should take somewhere between 24 to 72 hours to propagate, and your subdomain will be live on our servers.

Restrict Subdomain Access to Addon Domains

Each Addon Domain requires a subdomain. Using mod_rewrite, you can stop people from using the addon domain as a subdomain of the primary domain.

Put this in the .htaccess file located at the subdomains folder, changing the subdomain, primarydomain.com, and addondomain.com:

                          RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^subdomain.primarydomain.com$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.subdomain.primarydomain.com$ [OR] RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^addondomain.com$ RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/$ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.addondomain.com/ [R=301,L]

For further assistance, you may contact our Chat Support or Phone Support via888-401-4678. You may also refer to our Knowledge Base articles to help answer common questions and guide you through various setup, configuration, and troubleshooting steps.