How to Set Up a Subdomain for Memberships

July 31, 2024•2 min read

In this article, we'll explore the process of setting up a subdomain for membership portals within the context of BILT. By following these steps, you can ensure a seamless experience for your users and prevent potential conflicts related to domain management.

Defining Subdomains

A subdomain is a subset of a larger domain, allowing for specific sections of a website to have unique addresses. In our example, we recommend using a subdomain like members.yourtestwebsite.com for membership portals. In this example, the “members” portion is the one that makes this a subdomain, and the root domain is “yourtestwebsite.com”.

Keep these concepts in mind while following this guide to how to connect a subdomain to the membership area.

Step 1: Access Site Details

Navigate to the Membership section.
Hover over the courses dropdown and select Settings.
Click on Site Details.

Step 2: Configuring Default Subdomain

In the Site Details, locate the default subdomain field for memberships.
Enter your desired subdomain text (e.g., members).

Save your changes.
Regenerate magic links if necessary and ensure that the complete URL directs users to the membership login page.

Step 3: Adding Custom Domains

Still, within the Membership section, go to Settings and select Custom Domains.
Enter the dedicated subdomain for memberships in the domain field.

Add the required DNS records as instructed on the page in your domain’s DNS settings.
Click save to validate the records.
If you encounter errors, double-check the records and reach out to support if needed. Wait for 24 hours if everything appears correct before saving again.

Note: We recommend using a subdomain, typically, using the main website root domain or main website www subdomain is not, unless you want that domain to be only for memberships

Ensure Site Details are Updated

After you have successfully added the subdomain, navigate back to membership settings and click on Site Details.

Verify that your domain name is present in the field titled “Site URL” under Advanced details.
Click on Generate Magic Link to refresh links and reload the page if you've made domain changes.

Best Practices and Recommendations

Domain Management: Consider having one domain in BILT (e.g., testsamplewebsite.com) and redirecting the other (non-www or www) using your DNS manager, like Cloudflare with page rules. This prevents conflicts and streamlined user experience.

Subdomain Usage: Reserve subdomains for specific purposes, such as memberships (e.g., members.yourtestwebsite.com), to maintain organization and clarity in your web structure.

Moe Ameen | BILT CRM

Moe Ameen is a real estate investor, software creator, and general over-caffeinated human who somehow made automation cool (or at least tolerable). He built a cutting-edge real estate CRM because manually chasing leads is so last century. Specializing in creative finance, deal structuring, and making things unnecessarily efficient, he helps investors close more deals while doing less actual work. When he's not automating the real estate world, he’s probably pretending to work while staring at spreadsheets or convincing himself that buying another domain name is a good idea.

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