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dnshttp-status-code-301setup-deploymentsubdomain

What's the optimum setup for a subdomain to an existing site hosted separately? 301? DNS?

I'm creating a project microsite for an existing site which I want to run on a subdomain and be hosted on a totally separate infrastructure. They admins of the main site own the DNS & will administer and run:

http://www.client.com ( and http://*.client.com - all on their IIS servers)

I will administer and run:

http://project.client.com (hosted elsewhere on my Linux servers)

I think I can accomplish this via either HTTP 301 or via DNS but I need to know what the optimum solution is for integrating the DNS/URL mappings that I require. I can easily set up a 3rd party domain such as:

http://www.projectclientalias.com

and ask them to create a redirect on the subdomain sending users here but this isn't acceptable as I want:

  • http:// project.client.com to appear in the browser address bar during use
  • http:// project.client.com to be the canonical URL of the project site
  • http:// www.client.com/project to 301 redirect to the canonical URL of the project
  • I need the solution to leave me as self sufficient as possible (ideally minimal requirement to edit or amend their existing infrastucture or setup as I can't guarantee this will be available/timely)

I suppose my main questions are:

  • What are the various approaches one could use in this situation?
  • What are the implications for S.E.O amongst the various approaches?

Any input on this would be greatly appreciated and hopefully I've kept it generic enough to also be useful to others. Thanks in advance for any answers and for reading

Solution

  • Just get the admin guys who have access to the DNS to create an A Record "project" pointing to the IP of your Linux server. Create a virtual host on that box and you're good to go. It'll be lovely.