The CPanel is a wonderful area for beginner and experienced webmasters to see exactly what is going on with the hosting of their websites. Companies that manage multiple websites use the CPanel all the time, while one or two-site managers might only check it out every once-in-a-while.
Regardless, you must learn how to manage domains in CPanel, because the domains are the bread and butter of your site. Domains are what house your content and they are great ways to organize separate sites, pages and content. Not to mention, your domains are actually the names for your sites.
Let’s take a look at how to manage domains in CPanel so you can get it done within just a few minutes.
Step 1:
Login to your hosting account to get started. Your hosting account is run through something like Bluehost or WP Engine. I’m using Bluehost in this demo, but they all look pretty similar in terms of the CPanel configuration.
Step 2:
Go to your CPanel by clicking on the Hosting tab at the top of the site. Then click on CPanel.
Step 3:
Locate the section called Domain Management. This may vary, but it typically has the word Domain in it. This is where you can manage anything when it comes to domains. We will cover all of the most used domain management buttons to help you better understand the system.
Step 4:
If you click on the Domain Manager button, this is an area to view the status of all your current domains on the hosting plan. You can register a new domain if you are creating a new site, assign domains or even export a list of your domains.
The Domain Manager page is basically a summary of your domains, with links to all the functions we are going to cover. If you feel more comfortable on this page, feel free to use it, but I’m going to work from the previous CPanel Domain Management section.
Step 5:
If you click on the next button it reveals the Register Domain page. This page is quite simple. It is for finding and buying new domains. Type in a domain and see if it is available.
Step 6:
The next button, Transfer Domain, is for if you have a previously purchased domain that is on another host, or it isn’t hosted at all. Bring it to your current hosting platform to get started with your site.
Step 7:
The Subdomains button is useful for adding subdomains to the current domains you own on your hosting account. Subdomains create separate sections on your hosting account as if they were completely different sites. This is typically useful if you have different departments in your company.
So you might create a sales.mysite.com subdomain or a support.mysite.com subdomain. You can always create a page like mysite.com/support if you don’t think this is necesarry.
In order to make a subdomain, just type in what you want it to be called and hit the Create button. You can then choose which domain you want it to be assigned to.
Step 8:
If you click on the Addon Domains button it allows you to create a domain that points to a different subdirectory on your site. The purpose of subdomains is to make the website look completely different from the primary site.
Simply select the domain you want to use, verify your ownership if needed, choose that you want an addon domain created and select the addon directory.
Step 9:
Next you can go to the Parked Domain button. A parked domain points directly to the primary website directory. So if you have one parked domain called mysite.com and your primary domain is myawesomesite.com, the mysite.com website will look exactly like the main website.
Step 10:
The final, more common button you will use in the Domain Management Cpanel area is the Redirects option. This is for taking one domain or page and redirecting it to another. So if you have an old domain you can just send people to your new one if they choose to type that in.
Just type in the domain you want to redirect, then tell CPanel which site you want it to redirect to. You can also choose a permanent or temporary redirect. Click Add This Redirect, and you are done.
Let us know in the comments section if you have any questions about how to manage domains in CPanel. Subdomains, parked domains and add-ons are quite simple to manipulate, so follow the guide above and share if you have any other tricks.
