Using subdomains in Multisite Domain Mapping

  • Resolved cdcongdon

    (@cdcongdon)


    10 years, 4 months ago

    I just installed a Multisite for the first time and confused about Domain Mapping.
    Can I only map other domain names that I own or can I create a subdomain on my cpanel and map that domain? The goal being to have a cleaner URL such as city1.com vs city1.mymainsite.com

    Example: mymainsite.com, if I want to map another site, say: city1.mymainsite.com it seems that I can create that and it will show up as: city1.mymainsite.com. But unless I owned “city1.com” and mapped it to mymainsite.com, it would always show up as city1.mymainsite.com.
    If I owned city1.com as an individual site I could “map it to the main site and have it appear as city1.com
    Is this correct?

    My goal was to create several sites such as, city1.com, city2.com, etc. without having to buy each city name, by using subdomains.

    If I did create the subdomains like, city1.mymainsite.com, city2.mymainsite.com… would each one be indexed in Google? with no domain mapping needed?

    Have created subdomains for other sites before in cpanel, which worked fine. Which I think is confusing me a bit when it comes to the domain mapping.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Moderator Bet Hannon

    (@bethannon1)

    10 years, 4 months ago

    This got a little confusing to read, but I think I’m understanding your questions– let me know if I’m not.

    First off, if you are using subdomain type multisite, you do NOT need to create the subdomain in your hosting. Multisite will do this for you using the wildcard domain that you set up in your hosting account.

    I’m pretty sure that you cannot domain-map to the main site of the network. That has to stay unmapped for the network to function.

    With subdomain type multisite, you can create the subsites city1.mymainsite.com, city2.mymainsite.com

    If you own city1.com, you could map it to city1.mymainsite.com, and that site will always appear as city1.com.

    But you certainly don’t have to map the domain to city1.mymainsite.com, and in certain use cases, it probably doesn’t make sense to map in this way. For instance, if you want to build your branding for mymainsite.com.

    I’m not a wiz with Google & SEO, but my understanding is that each subsite is indexed as a separate site.

    Thread Starter cdcongdon

    (@cdcongdon)

    10 years, 4 months ago

    Bret,

    Thanks for your answer.
    Now I understand, it has taken me awhile to get my head wrapped around this concept. With your answer and doing further reading on the subject I have a better concept of how this works.

    Domain Mapping is not used or needed if I’m just creating additional sites using the subdomains.

    Thanks Again

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

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