Adding Wildcard Subdomains (Linux)

Use wildcard subdomains to redirect visitors from non-existent subdomains to one of your websites, commonly, to your main website. The typical use cases of this feature are:

  • Improve website organization and run marketing campaigns.

    For example, you do not have the vps-limited-offer subdomain but wish to forward users from limited-vps-offer.example.com to example.com.

  • Help users reach your website even if they mistyped a subdomain name.

    It is a widespread mistake to mistype a website name if it has the leading www prefix (for example, typing ww.example.com).

  • Finally, some website applications (WordPress) use wildcard subdomains to create dynamic subdomains for convenience and better user experience.

Note: Traffic to existent subdomains will not be affected in any way if you add a wildcard subdomain.

How to Add Wildcard Subdomains

You can add one wildcard subdomain per each of domain names under a subscription. For this, go to Websites & Domains and add a subdomain which name is "*" to one of your domain names. Example: *.example.com. If you wish this subdomain to have a custom set of scripts or website content, specify a custom document root for this subdomain.

Limitations of Wildcard Subdomains

Wildcard subdomains act like typical subdomains with the following exceptions:

  • Linux-only feature. Currently, wildcard subdomains are supported only on Plesk for Linux.
  • Renaming is not available. It is not possible to rename such subdomains.
  • No DNS zone. This type of subdomains does not have own zone record in the Plesk's DNS server. Instead, they have the A record that points to the IP address associated with a corresponding domain name.
  • Installation of APS apps is not allowed. Plesk users are unable to install APS apps to wildcard subdomains.
  • No Presence Builder sites. Plesk users are unable to edit and publish sites to these subdomains.