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Upgrades

Domains » Map a Subdomain

On WordPress.com, you can use a subdomain of a domain that you already own as your blog’s domain. For instance, if you already have a website up at yourgroovydomain.com, and your WordPress.com blog is at yourgroovydomain.wordpress.com, you can put your blog in a subdomain of that website, such as blog.yourgroovydomain.com. This is called Domain Mapping. Your old WordPress.com address will still work, but we will automatically redirect traffic from your old address to your new one.

Mapping a subdomain with the Domain Mapping Upgrade costs $13.00 per subdomain, per blog, per year.

If you don’t yet have a domain registered, you can register one directly through WordPress.com. If you already have a domain but want to map it directly to your blog, not through a subdomain, read the instructions for mapping an existing domain to your blog.

Before Upgrading – Important Notes

WordPress.com automatically removes the “www” from all URLs. Mapping the “www” subdomain is not supported. Also, we do not currently allow mapping to subdirectories, such as example.com/blog.

Same Rules Apply – The Domain Mapping Upgrade does not enable the permission to use advertising, any kind of prohibited code, or upload additional themes or plugins. With the upgrade, your blog will still be hosted here at WordPress.com, which means that you will not have FTP access to your files and you will still be required abide by our Terms of Service.

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Instructions for Mapping Subdomains

  1. Add a CNAME record through the registrar where you purchased your domain or through your DNS provider. You should NOT change your Name Server information if you wish to only map a subdomain. The CNAME should look something like the following (please note the fullstop character at the end of each domain name):

    subdomain.yourdomain.com. IN CNAME yourblog.wordpress.com.

    Instructions on how to add a CNAME record can vary between domain registrars. If you’re unsure of how to do this, we recommend contacting your domain registrar for assistance with this step.

  2. Once the CNAME record has been added and verified, go to Store -> Domains and add the subdomain to your blog. If everything is configured correctly, you will be prompted to pay for the upgrade and complete the mapping process.
  3. After you have made your purchase, go to Store -> Domains, select the radio button next to your custom domain, and click the Update Primary Domain button.

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Adding a Subdomain if your Domain is Mapped to WordPress.com

Occasionally even if your primary blog is hosted with WordPress.com you may wish to have a subdomain with us as well. For example, you already own the domain mycat.com, which you have mapped to your WordPress.com blog at mycat.wordpress.com.

Now you want a new domain called kittens.mycat.com.

  1. Register a new WordPress.com blog (e.g. kittens.wordpress.com) which will hold the content at kittens.mycat.com. Be sure to do this while logged in as the same user that owns the primary domain.
  2. Once the new blog has been created, while still in your kittens.wordpress.com Dashboard, register your new subdomain directly through WordPress.com. So in this example, you would purchase kittens.mycat.com as a brand new domain.
  3. Be sure to set your new subdomain kittens.mycat.com as your primary domain in Store>Domains in your kittens.wordpress.com Dashboard.
  4. Note: if your domain is already registered with WordPress.com or mapped to a WordPress.com blog, you do not need to worry about the CNAME record.
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