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If you can’t find a good domain name, why not branch off of your own website with a subdomain? They’re given the same regard to search engines as newly-registered domain names, and can be a great solution when it seems as though your domain purchasing plans have been screwed. There are few instances where it makes sense to use subdomains. However – when used correctly, they can really help retain your brand image and segregate major areas of your website.

Take this scenario: I once had to divvy up a website into major sections, since the main site began to lose its focus. This site fell in the ‘online video’ category in the television industry. There were two considerations: register 4 new domain names (since the .com’s were already taken by others, the idea was to register .tv’s…a very costly expenditure with their $20/year upkeep fee), or, create subdomains.

The Dilemma: Subdomains, or New Domain Names?

• The re-branding effort to raise awareness for domain names would be a short to mid-term struggle.
• The promotional aspect would be equally as difficult, especially in terms of raising awareness to domains that were not .com’s but .tv’s. Keep in mind, second-time visitors might forget the .tv extension.
• The cost of renewing .tv’s would be near $80/year, a costly expense for a small business that is looking to save money.
• If this site were to divide up further into more mini-sites, yet even more .tv domain names would be needed in the future. Common sense would dictate that they should be purchased immediately so that other people who have caught on to this site’s strategy won’t go ahead and purchase these future names (there goes the marketer’s paranoia again).

When Subdomains Can Be Attractive

• There’s zero competition. Only you can create subdomains off of your existing domain name – nobody else can. That means no threats from cybersquatters. It’s almost like going back to the early 1990s and being able to register any domain name you want!
• It’s the closest thing to being able to register a 1, 2, 3 or 4-character domain name. Doesn’t go.mysite.com sound cool? How about sell.usedclothing.com?
• Subdomains keep the original domain name within them…therefore, they also keep the branding schema that has been built up for that domain name. In essence, you’re not straying from the brand, but are building upon it. No effort has to be done in “re-branding” the subdomains in regard to logo, theme, tone, or anything else. Simply follow the same formula as before!
• Not only do subdomains retain visual branding, but also brand identity. With every website residing on a subdomain, you’re expanding your business and relating that subdomain’s term to it. In this case, it was seen to be much easier for people to associate with a domain like “sitcoms.televisionshows.com” instead of “televisionsitcoms.tv”.

What Else are Subdomains Good For?

• How about websites that need to use more than one CMS? If you’re running the main site off of WordPress and desperately needed to use Magento as your e-commerce solution, simply create a “shop.mysite.com” fashioned subdomain, and run Magento on it.

Everything varies on a case-by-case basis. For the most part, buying new domain names and building sites on them is more like creating separate businesses. They’ll all need their own logos, branding efforts, and tactics. They’re all starting from a clean slate – nobody has heard of them before, and you’ll have to fight hard to promote and raise awareness for them.

Subdomains, however, start off with the advantage of already having brand identity from the parent domain name. It’s always much easier to expand on something that’s already there!

Many big companies use subdomains. Just look at Microsoft. They also run privacy.microsoft.com, go.microsoft.com, profile.microsoft.com and many more.  Sun Microsystems has blogs.sun.com, forums.sun.com, wikis.sun.com and store.sun.com. IBM uses them to segregate brands, using subdomains like redbooks.ibm.com and alphaworks.ibm.com.  Even Apple has gotten in the action with store.apple.com. Yahoo has the ever-popular answers.yahoo.com

If you do go with subs, don’t forget to properly 301 redirect your old content over to your subdomain. When properly done, those subdomains will keep the search engine positions and page rank as seen on the parent site.