Thinking of web hosting as a plot of land is one of the easiest ways to make sense of all of the components that make up hosting, domains and websites.
Access to web hosting is like having a plot of land or a physical space. A website is like a house to be built on the land. And a domain name (the main part of a web address or URL) is like having a postal address.
On your plot of land (web hosting) you can have multiple websites.
Each of these websites will sit under your hosting account. Your main website will sit on your root domain (e.g. janedoe.example.com). You can then have additional websites on subdomains and directories. The image above shows a website on a root domain with three additional websites on directories and subdomains, all sharing the same root domain name.
In the image above there is a separate website a course blog (e.g. courseblog.janedoe.example.com) and then another separate website for a portfolio space (e.g. janedoe.example.com/portfolio). You can choose how these seperate sites link to one another and choose a different web application and design independently for each website. The main website on the root domain could link to the /project-test and /portfolio websites to direct the owner’s audience between the three websites.
You may also want to test a new idea and create this as a separate space away from the websites you already have and only share with people that you want to see your work in progress (e.g. janedoe.example.com/project-test). In this case, you can choose not to link /idea-test to the other three websites, and only copy and the paste the link to send to friends, lecturers and colleages.
Find out about root domains, subdomains and directories online here.
Now that you have your own space on the web, what do you want to do with it?
