Creating a subdomain for your Squarespace Domain

If you have a Squarespace Domain, follow this guide to set up a subdomain. If you have a third-party domain intended for subdomain use, visit Connecting a subdomain to your Squarespace site.

What is a subdomain? 

A subdomain is an extension of the “root” domain name that forwards to your site. The most common subdomain is "www," as in www.yourdomain.com, where “yourdomain.com” is the root domain.

While "www" will always point to your primary domain, you can create custom subdomains that point to the same domain, or point elsewhere. One example would be a domain like “blog.yourdomain.com,” where the subdomain is "blog." Your subdomain is the part that replaces the standard “www” and goes in front of your root domain.

Where will a subdomain point?

The steps in this guide explain how to point your subdomain to where the root domain connects. Usually that's your site's homepage. 

If you're directing your subdomain to another page or site, follow our steps for forwarding or pointing a subdomain instead. We recommend reviewing the difference between forwarding and pointing first. 

Create your subdomain

To create a subdomain for your Squarespace Domain:

1. In the Home Menu, click Settings, and then click Domains. You can also press the ? key while any panel is open and search domains.
2. Click the domain that you'll add a subdomain to, this is your root domain.
3. In your root domain's panel, click Advanced Settings.
4. Choose Subdomain from the Add Presets drop-down menu.

5. Enter your new subdomain (the part before the first ".") in the Subdomain field, then click Add.

6. Your subdomain will appear along with any other defaults or presets in the root domain’s Advanced Settings panel. 

Note: It's not possible to edit the subdomain's custom record after it's created. To change the information, hover over the record and click the trash can icon to delete it, then create a new record. 

Set your subdomain as your primary domain

By default, your subdomain will redirect to your root domain. For example, the subdomain blog.createbeautifulwebsite.net will direct to the root domain www.createbeautifulwebsite.net.

If www.createbeautifulwebsite.net isn’t set as the primary domain, then both the subdomain and the root domain will direct to the primary domain. Your primary domain is the main domain on your site, the one that shows in the browser address bar.

Setting your subdomain as the primary means that all custom domains will redirect to that subdomain. Visitors will always see that domain in the browser address bar no matter which domain they used.

To use a subdomain as your site’s primary domain, choose this in your root domain’s settings:

1. In the Home Menu, click Settings, and then click Domains.
2. You can also press the ? key while any panel is open and search domains.
3. Click the domain you’d like to adjust.
4. If this domain isn't your site's primary domain, first set it as the primary before continuing. After this root domain is set as the primary, you'll be able to replace it with a subdomain.
5. From the Primary Domain drop-down menu, choose the subdomain you’d like to use as your primary domain.