How to Add Domain & Subdomain in cPanel with InMotion?

cPanel is the most popular web hosting control panel solution for PHP+MySQL hosting and Apache servers. A great number of web hosts provide cPanel to their clients for website management, notably GoDaddy, Bluehost, InMotion. In this guide, we will show you how cPanel can help users easily add new domains, create subdomains to their hosting account. We will use InMotion web hosting service in this example which is famous for SSD faster servers, reliable small business hosting. It works similarly with other cPanel hosting service providers.

How to Add Domain in cPanel?

Log on your hosting account with InMotion hosting, find and open cPanel. Alternatively you can also log in inmotion hosting cPanel by visiting http://www.yourdomain.com/cpanel/. This link will take you to the cPanel login page directly.

From the home screen of cPanel, locate the Domains section. You can find various options from there, such as Subdomains, Addon Domains, Parked Domains, Redirects, Simple DNS Zone Editor, Advanced DNS Zone Editor, Order New Domain.

Click Addon Domains under Domains section, you will open a new page like below.

From the above Addon Domains page in cPanel, you can create an addon domain or modify addon domain. To add a new domain to your hosting account with InMotion hosting, you need to type in your domain name in the “New Domain Name” box; then click in the “Subdomain or FTP Username” box, cPanel will then automatically use your domain name to fill up this “Subdomain or FTP Username” box and the “Document Root” box; enter your FTP password twice in both the “Password” and “Password (Again)” boxes; finally click Add Domain button to add the new domain to your hosting server through cPanel.

If you like to modify domains in cPanel, scroll down to the page bottom, you can find the “Modify Addon Domain” section where you can change domain directory, remove domain, manage redirection, etc.

Domains do not work?

Domains will not function unless you register your domain and configure it to point to the correct DNS servers. That’s to say you can add a non-existing domain or a valid domain belongs to someone else to your hosting account, cPanel will not check whether your domain is registered or not, who is the owner. For example, you can add www.betterhostreview.com to your hosting account. Another thing web hosting and domain registration can be separated. You can buy the domain from A company, while host the domain and your site with B company. If you do so, you need to point your domain from your registrar to your hosting service provider. For example, you can refer to this guide to change DNS server with GoDaddy. Other than forwarding the domain name and subdomains from your registrar to the web hosting, you can also edit the DNS A records to selectively point domain or some subdomains to your web server. Check out this guide to add or change DNS records with GoDaddy.

Another issue you may encounter is the DNS propagation. Sometimes when you updated the nameservers of a domain name, it can take up to 24 hours for the domain DNS to propagate across the web. During this DNS propagation period, public visitor or your site audiences can’t visit your website properly. You can ping your domain name see if it resolves to the right server IP. This guide shows how to ping domain or IP on Windows 10 PC. As the webmaster, you do not have to wait for the DNS propagation to complete. You can emulate the DNS change through the Hosts file on Windows PC, and start working on your website immediately.

How to find web server IP?

If you choose to point your domain DNS A record to your web server, you need to find out your server IP address first. If you want to ping your website or domain and verify whether it resolves to the right server or note, you will also need to know your server IP. You can follow this tutorial to find out your server IP address in cPanel. Only with this info, you can point your domain or subdomain to your web server.

What are my DNS name servers?

There are different ways you can find out the name servers with InMotion hosting. For example, you can find them from your order confirmation or welcome email when you sign up an hosting account with them. You can also find the domain name servers from your hosting account with them, it is called AMP (Account Management Panel) with InMotion. Log on your account with them, locate the “Account Technical Details” from the home page of your hosting account, click to open this page, you can find your primary domain, cPanel username, cPanel password, hostname, temporary URL, temporary control panel, shared secure server, control panel link address, webmain link address, name servers, name server IPs, etc.

From above screen, you can see the current Nameservers are:

• ns.inmotionhosting.com – IP Address: 74.124.210.242
• ns2.inmotionhosting.com – IP Address: 70.39.150.2

How to Add Subdomain in cPanel?

From cPanel >> Domains section, click Subdomains, you will then open the page to create a subdomain or modify an existing subdomain in cPanel. See below screenshot.

Creating a subdomain in cPanel is extremely easy. Firstly input the subdomain prefix, such as wordpress, blog, forum and so on; then choose the main domain name; click the Document Root box, cPanel will automatically input the sub-domain folder or directory for you; click the Create button to add a new subdomain to your domain name in cPanel.

If you like to modify sub-domains in cPanel, scroll down to the page bottom, you can find the “Modify a Subdomain” section where you can change subdomain directory, remove subdomain, manage redirection, etc.

Subdomains do not work?

You can ping your subdomain see if it resolves to your web server IP. If you are not sure how to do that, scroll up to the domain not working and troubleshooting paragraph and find the linked guide to ping a site or IP in Windows 10. Double check the DNS name servers of its main domain (top level domain), sometimes you may need to check DNA A records of subdomains.

How to upload website pages and other content to web server?

cPanel has the File Manager you can use to upload and download web pages and files. You can also upload website pages and other content to hosting account or web server using a FTP client. As you may already noticed when we add an extra domain to cPanel or create a sub-domain, we have already created a FTP account associated with the domain or sub-domain, you can connect your web server using the FTP account and upload files to the FTP account. You can see the steps to create FTP account in cPanel and upload files here. Make sure to upload site pages to the right directory of the domain or subdomain as they have their own directory settings.