Building a website
What are the security and performance implications of subdomains?
Subdomains can be used to separate high-traffic services, allocate dedicated resources, and organize development and testing environments. However, any…
2026.11.14What’s on your mind today?
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Domains & DNS
Manage domain choices, DNS and URLs, including common connection and migration issues.
42 articles found
Building a website
What is a subdomain, and how does it differ from a subdirectory?
A subdomain adds a name before the main domain to distinguish a section of a website, such as blog.example.com; a subdirectory is a path after the domain,…
2026.11.14
Building a website
What are subdomains, and what are their uses and benefits?
A subdomain is an extension of a main domain. For example, if the main domain is example.com, blog.example.com can serve as its blog subdomain. Subdomains…
2026.11.14
Building a website
How do you choose a new domain and maintain external links?
When choosing a new domain, first consider whether the name reflects your brand and is easy to recognize. Then check whether the domain and matching social…
2026.11.14
Growth & conversion
How can you use multiple domains to build content and traffic while assessing the risks?
Multiple domains can serve different content roles, cater to different markets, or guide visitors from an existing website to a new one. But adding domains,…
2026.11.14
Building a website
Putting an unfinished website on its production domain: use authentication to restrict public access, not robots.txt
You can deploy an unfinished website to its production server and domain, but if the goal is to let only authorized people view it, use user authentication…
2026.11.14
Building a website
How should you choose a domain based on search volume and competition?
Search volume and competition data can help you compare potential domains, but you should not choose a name solely because it has “high search volume and…
2026.11.14
Building a website
How can you diagnose and fix connection problems affecting only some websites?
When only some websites are inaccessible, first identify which websites, devices, and connection types are affected, then compare browsers, DNS settings,…
2026.11.14
Building a website
Can two URLs point to the same website?
Yes, two URLs can lead to the same website, but there is a distinction between “two URLs each displaying the same content” and “a secondary URL redirecting…
2026.11.14
Building a website
Should user groups use subdomains or subdirectories?
If a photography website already gives each user a subdomain, subdirectories are a reasonable starting point for new groups when ease of maintenance and…
2026.11.14
Building a website
What are the common mistakes, limitations, and costs of using subdomains?
When using subdomains, the issues worth watching are managing multiple sites, duplicate content, and spreading content efforts too thin , rather than…
2026.11.14
Building a website
Should a multiword business domain name include a hyphen? Consider readability and typing first, then SEO
When choosing a multiword domain name for a business, consider prioritizing the unhyphenated version if it remains clear and easy to read, reducing the…
2026.11.13
Building a website
What is a TLD, and what are its types and uses?
TLD stands for top-level domain and refers to the final part of a domain name, such as .com in www.semrush.com. The supplied 2021 Semrush article introduces…
2026.11.13
Building a website
Migrating hosting without changing URLs: test the new environment before switching DNS
When URLs remain unchanged, the key to reducing the impact of a hosting migration is to copy and test the site in the new environment, confirm that both…
2026.11.13
Building a website
What are www subdomains and relative links used for?
A www subdomain determines which hostname a website uses, while relative links determine how URLs are written; the two can be used together and are not…
2026.11.13
Building a website
When should you use relative or absolute paths in WordPress?
In WordPress, relative paths are an option for links within the same site if you want fewer links to update when changing domains. For links to external…
2026.11.13
Building a website
What types of URLs are there, and what are they used for?
URLs can be distinguished by how their addresses are written and what they are used for: absolute URLs provide complete addresses and are commonly used for…
2026.11.13
Building a website
Should a Tumblr blog use the platform’s domain or the company’s domain?
If a company blog is still testing the waters and the company wants to avoid additional domain and DNS management, there are reasons to keep…
2026.11.13
Building a website
How do SSL certificates protect websites, and why are they needed?
SSL certificates, combined with properly configured HTTPS, protect data transmitted between a browser and a website’s server, reducing the risk of…
2026.11.13
Building a website
How does HSTS protect websites and subdomains?
HSTS protects websites by having browsers subject to the policy use HTTPS directly, rather than first sending an unencrypted HTTP request and waiting for…
2026.11.13