Understanding Top-Level Domains, Subdomains, and Parked Domains: Clarifying Domain Terminology by Purpose

Do you find domain concepts confusing? Knowing the differences between each type of domain is crucial when managing a website or using hosting services. In this article, we will clearly explain the concepts of main domains, addon domains, parked domains, and subdomains through practical examples. After reading this, managing your domains will become easier, helping you establish effective branding and SEO strategies.

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Why It’s Important to Clearly Distinguish Domains

There are so many types of domains—top-level domains, subdomains, parked domains… When you start a blog, there’s a lot to learn! But for beginners, it’s important to clearly understand these domain concepts for the following reasons:

• Ease of Hosting Management: Many hosting services label menus differently depending on the domain type and its use. Understanding these concepts helps you implement the desired functionality for your domain.
• SEO Optimization: Knowing what roles domains can play allows you to create more effective SEO strategies.
• AdSense Approval and Use: Subdomains can use the AdSense approval granted to the main domain, which is convenient.

1. Primary Domain

The primary domain is the main domain associated with your cPanel account. It is the domain you use when you first purchase hosting, and the document root for this main domain is always the public_html folder.

For example, in my case, the WPlaybook domain wplaybook.com was my hosting primary domain.

Example:

• Primary domain: wplaybook.com
• Document root: public_html

URL structure

When we use a main link, the URL can be broken down into several terms with different names. Let’s take a look at the diagram!

So, my primary domain, wplaybook.com, uses .com as its top-level domain. Common top-level domains (TLDs) include .com, .org, .net, and .info.

Top-level domains (TLDs)

In the Domain Name System (DNS), the top-level domain (TLD) is the last part of a domain name. For example, in example.com, com is the TLD. TLDs are generally used to classify domain names and indicate their purpose.

We’re mentioning TLDs here just for clarity, so don’t get confused! What’s important is that you’ve purchased a domain and are now using it as your primary domain, which you linked with a hosting provider like ChemiCloud to build your first blog! 😊

2. click Addon Domain

You might hear that you can register an Addon Domain in cPanel. An addon domain is a domain added to your hosting server in addition to your primary domain, and it’s used to run a completely separate website.

In other words, if you want to run two different websites under a single hosting account, you can simply purchase and add an addon domain. This allows you to operate a completely different brand or website using the same hosting plan.

Example:

• Primary domain: wplaybook.com
• Additional domain: statisticsplaybook.comPolylang

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Creating a Second Blog with an Addon Domain

If you already have a primary domain and are curious about how to create a second blog by purchasing a new domain and using your hosting account, check out the guide below!

• WordPress Connecting Multiple Domains to a Single Server (Using Additional Domains)

3. Parked Domain (Alias Domain)

A parked domain, also known as an alias domain, is a domain name that points to the same website as another domain. You can think of it as a domain that is “parked” on top of your primary domain.

Just like people can go by multiple names, websites can be accessed through multiple domain names. For example, my Korean name is “Isaac,” and I also use “Isaac” in the U.S. Let’s say my main personal website uses issaclee.com as the primary domain. However, some people who know me by that name might type in saklee.com instead.

In that case, I can set saklee.com as a parked domain for issaclee.com, so visitors who type saklee.com are redirected to my main site, issaclee.com.

In a way, saklee.com is like a nickname for issaclee.com, so it’s also called an alias domain.

WPlaybook

To give you a real-world example, I recently worked on a website for Ain Internal Medicine, where the primary domain is aiin-medical.com, and aiinmedical.co.kr is configured as a parked domain.

Real-life examples: Ain Hospital homepage

• Primary domain: aiin-medical.com
• Parking domain: aiinmedical.co.krPolylang
  • When you visit aiinmedical.co.kr, it displays the same website as aiin-medical.com.

Subdomain (Lower-level domain)

A subdomain is a domain that exists under a primary domain.

Until now, we’ve talked about primary domains, addon domains, and parked domains—these are all domain names that need to be purchased from registrars like Namecheap before being used in specific ways.

• However, subdomains are not purchased.

nstead, subdomains are created by adding a prefix to your existing, purchased domain for more detailed purposes or organizational needs.

For example, let’s say we bought mypetstore.com as our primary domain to build a website.

Reason to Use a Subdomain #1: Breaking Down Website Content

he concept of “pets” is quite broad, right?
So, while the primary domain can be used to manage general content about all types of pets, there are times when you might want to build separate, more specialized websites.

For example, you might want a dedicated site just for dogs, another one for cats, and yet another one for rabbits—each focusing only on that specific animal category.

Example:

• Main domain: mypetstore.com
• Subdomain

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• Each subdomain can be set up as a separate website or a specific section of your main site.

Reason to Use a Subdomain #2: AdSense Auto-Expansion

One of the main reasons many bloggers choose to operate their blogs using subdomains is that AdSense ads can be placed on subdomains without requiring separate approval, as long as the primary domain has already been approved.

In other words, just like how WPlaybook has received AdSense approval for wplaybook.com and is now able to run ads on all100adsense.wplaybook.com without any extra approval process!
Many bloggers get their main domain approved and then go on to operate anywhere from 3 to 5, or even up to 10 subdomain blogs, all under one approved domain.

In Closing

In this post, we looked at the domain-related terms and concepts that are useful to know when using a hosting service.
Now you should clearly understand the differences between a Primary Domain, Addon Domain, Parked Domain, and Subdomain.
Make sure to use each type effectively based on its purpose and characteristics to get the most out of your domain management!