FayazMiraz

Remove sub-domain access from Addon Domain

Most of the shared web-hosts that allow hosting of multiple sites from a single hosting account (like Hostmonster, CirtexHosting etc.) has a common structure. You'll have one main website or domain and all the other websites or domains will be added as Add-on domains from cpanel. This way you can host multiple websites from a single hosting account. However, this approach has a problem. With each Add-on domain created from cpanel, you also automatically get a sub-domain (almost in all cases). Now, the challenge is to using the Addon domain, without the auto created subdomain. This may be important for your website optimization.Since, most of the times, they enable this Add-on domain option in cpanel, by creating a sub-domain of the main site and then pointing that sub-domain to the newly created Add-on domain. So in a way, the Add-on domain is joined together with the subdomain, and doesn't work without it.

Problem Description: For example, you have registered your account with the main site named www.main-domain.com. Now you want to host another site, named www.another-domain.com, from the same hosting account. This can only be done using the Add-on domain option. When you add this new domain with the Add-on domain option, they will automatically create a subdomain of the main site (e.g. another-domain.main-domain.com). Now both the newly added domain (www.another-domain.com) and the sub-domain (another-domain.main-domain.com) will actually point to the same location; thus the web site content is accessible from both the addresses.

Now, you may not want this for multiple reasons:

1. You may not want other people to know that you run both the sites www.main-domain.com and www.another-domain.com and specially that you run www.another-domain.com as an Add-on domain of www.main-domain.com.
2. You don't want search engines to tag your site with two different addresses (www.another-domain.com and another-domain.main-domain.com), which may decrease your site's ranking for duplicate contents, divide your site's traffic and even worse - the sub-domain (another-domain.main-domain.com) may get better ranking than the original site (www.another-domain.com).
3. If you run Blog software like WordPress, your site will still be accessible from both the sub-domain and the main domain, But the sub-domain will send erroneous contents, which may carry a negative point to your site.
4. There can be many other unforeseeable reasons, But the main point is: You don't want people to visit one of your site as a sub-domain of another site.

Solution:

I use an htaccess solution that works both in Hostmonster and CirtexHosting; And it should work in any other hosting site that allows .htaccess with mod_rewrite capability.

So if you have the same problem, then just put a .htaccess file in the Add-on domain directory with the following CODE:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} main-domain\.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ "http\:\/\/www.another-domain\.com\/" [R=301,L]

</IfModule>

Note that, here, main-domain.com is the main site registered with your hosting account, and www.another-domain.com is the new domain you've added to the same shared hosting, using the Add-on Domain option.

Of course, you may already have an existing .htaccess file. For example, a tipical WordPress installation will have a .htaccess file with the following CODE:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On

RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

</IfModule>

In that case just modify the .htaccess file with the following code:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} main-domain\.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ "http\:\/\/www.another-domain\.com\/" [R=301,L]

RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

</IfModule>

Now, with this new .htaccess file, your new Add-on domain will essentially be visible from its original domain only. If anyone tries to access it with the sub-domain, then he will be redirected to the main domain. So the browser will always show your main site's address, instead of the sub-domain. Besides, with the new code in place, search engines will never tag your site with the sub-domain. So most likely, no one will even try to access your site with the sub-domain.

So, with this new .htaccess code, fell free to add as many Add-on domains as you like, with just one hosting account.

If, Google is already showing your unwanted sub-domains, then following this process will eventually remove them. Although if you want them to be removed quickly, then you'll have to create a webmaster account in Google, verify the sub-domain as you own and request to remove it.

Also you might always want others to access your site as www.another-domain.com, instead of just another-domain.com. Since, to search engines, they are two different sites. So, it's always better to fix your site as either www.another-domain.com or another-domain.com.

So, now it's time to update the previous solution, to the one, that does both:

1. Removes the subdomain access from your addon domain.
2. Fixes your site to just one address: either to the one with www or to the one without www

Assuming that you'll use www.another-domain.com as your fixed site address, following will be the most optimized htaccess rewrite code to accomplish both the goals:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !www\.another-domain\.com
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ "http\:\/\/www\.another-domain\.com\/" [R=301,L]

</IfModule>

Of course, just as before, for an existing WordPress installation (assuming you have default WordPress htaccess code), the code will look like:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !www\.another-domain\.com
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ "http\:\/\/www\.another-domain\.com\/" [R=301,L]

RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

Also, I'm not sure, but for some people (with multiple hosting from a single account), this Hostmonster KB article may also be helpful.

[This update is attributed to Mahbub vai, as he pointed out a similar solution in Hostmonster Knowledge base. Although code here is more optimized than that of Hostmonster Knowledge Base, still their code actually helped me thinking of a different approach; And from that different approach, I found this even better solution.]

Another blog post suggested a slightly different solution, which will allow to soft-link your addon-domain with the main site's sub-domain. That's a different solution, but not necessarily the correct one. Since, the main goal is to remove all sorts of soft-linking from the sub domain; and in essence, deny anyone to use your site from the sub-domain. So the bottom line is: it is always better if you remove the ability to soft-link any of your perma-links (e.g. a perma-link to a blog post) from the sub domain and force your user to use your site  from its original site address.

Buy me a cup of Coffee & encourage me to continue sharing interesting information (pay securely through PayPal) →

Or Share | Bookmark this article (Use the buttons below) ↓
Or Use your imagination