Robert

This does not mean I will be abandoning HostGator, because I intend to keep both accounts. Just that I like both, but some features of one better.

Rochelle

Thanks again for the explanation!

Bunny

I’m not an expert on this stuff but I believe that hosting companies, such as HostGator, show addon domains as subdomains within your cPanel as a way of organizing your URLs. This does not turn an addon into a subdomain. If you were to sell an addon domain that looks like a subdomain in your account (or move the URL to a different hosting account) you would just remove it from the account. It wouldn’t affect any of your other addon URLs.

Does this help?

Rochelle

Subdomains and addon domains confuse me, too. An addon domain is adding a new domain to your hosting account. It has nothing to do with any other domain you have, except that it shares your hosting account neighborhood.

Subdomains are created when you create a new URL from a primary URL. They are connected, directly, to the primary URL, though not to any addon domains.

Let’s say you have many subdomains that are all indexed in search engines:, http://www.siteone.mydomain.com, http://www.sitetwo.mydomain.com, http://www.sitethree.mydomain.com, and so on. If you enter just ‘mydomain.com’ into a search engine you will see all the subdomains attached to that URL that are indexed. So that is how people wanting to see more of your sites would be able to find your subdomain sites.

Addon domains would not be affected by selling a single URL, because they aren’t related to each other. But subdomains are affected because if you want to sell niche store located at http://www.siteone.mydomain.com then you would have to sell the URL ‘mydomain.com.’ All subdomains that have been added to that URL will be no longer be yours once you sell that URL. Unless you move them to their own URLs, as I am doing (though I’m not doing it so I can sell it).

I hope this helps clarify things.

Rochelle

Is my situation different from what you’re talking about? If I wanted to sell one of my “add-ons” later, would I have a problem? Thanks for your insight!

I ready your latest how-to post on moving your site. Frankly, I think I’d rather pull out my own teeth!

I’m a little confused still on the sub-domain/add-on domain issue. When I type in my main domain into the Google box, all I get are links related to that domain. When I type in one of my add-on domains, the url is http://www.SiteOne.com and all I get are links related to http://www.SiteOne.com. So I don’t see how anyone can see all my other domains by typing in just the url.

Were yours set up differently so that the urls were http://www.SiteOne.MyDomain.com? If so, I can see why you’d want to change that.

I don’t know how my add-on domains would be affected if I wanted to sell one, but I’m a ways away from that yet.

It’s good to hear that PR will likely follow. You shall be clueless no more, though on how to do a 301 Redirect because I have written about this

I’ve included instructions for creating 301 Redirects in the instructions I wrote for moving from a subdomain to a new URL.

Rochelle

I think your argument is basically correct on subdomains.

For mine, if you’re going to use the same domain it is better to use a folder than a subdomain. That way, the newly created store benefits from the domain trust that has already been built. For example, my domain jonksbargains.com has had some fairly heavy SEO done on it and now ranks well on Google.com.au for many terms pretty much instantly when they go live on a new page.

I’ve only just started making BANS stores 2 days ago so am very new to this, but I’m hoping my strategy will also be productive.