Why do we need subdomain mapping?
Before delving into the reasons for needing domain mapping, it’s important to address the issue we are aiming to resolve.
In recent years, the disabling of third-party cookies by browsers like Safari and Firefox, and Google Chrome’s announcement of a similar plan for 2024, has significantly impacted digital marketing efforts. Third-party cookies were commonly used by marketing platforms to track user behavior and deliver personalized experiences. However, these cookie restrictions have posed challenges to effective digital marketing strategies.
Furthermore, the rise in the usage of ad blockers has further exacerbated the problem. Ad blockers prevent requests from passing between client websites and marketing platforms (technical considered third-party by browsers), significantly impeding the scalability of digital marketing campaigns. To overcome these challenges. the solution involves creating tracking user behavior through first-party data. creating a subdomain and routing requests through it before reaching the marketing platforms.
The main differentiation between two type of cookies is that third-party cookies are created by a piece of code which is loaded on the website from a domain which is different from that of the website itself. On the other hand, first-party data is tracked by a piece of code which is loaded from the same domain as of the website or it’s subdomain.
By implementing this approach, all cookies stored using the client’s subdomain will be considered first-party cookies. This ensures that the cookies are not disabled by browsers, as they are associated with the primary domain. Additionally, ad blockers do not block requests to internal subdomains since they are considered internal and not external requests.
This can be achieved by having the event collection script load from a subdomain of the website’s main domain. Datahash’s solution provides the technology to load the event collection script from a managed server on behalf of the advertiser. This can be enabled by mapping a subdomain to Datahash’s server and installing the event collection script pointing to the subdomain.
Why are NS records required?
Nameserver (NS) records are required for domain mapping to delegate the DNS (Domain Name System) management of the subdomain to Datahash’s DNS servers. When a client adds NS records in their domain registrar, they are essentially instructing the DNS infrastructure to look to Datahash’s designated DNS servers for resolving DNS queries related to the subdomain.
By doing so, Datahash gains control over the DNS settings of the subdomain and can accurately map it to their product’s hosting infrastructure. NS records are essential for proper domain delegation, ensuring that DNS requests for the subdomain are correctly directed to Datahash’s servers, enabling the seamless operation of the Saas product under the client’s subdomain.
Redundancy and fault tolerance: NS records allow for the distribution of DNS resolution across multiple authoritative DNS servers. By specifying multiple NS records, you can ensure redundancy and fault tolerance in case one of the servers becomes unavailable. This helps to maintain the availability and reliability of DNS services for a domain.
Load balancing: NS records also enable load balancing of DNS queries. By specifying multiple authoritative DNS servers in the NS records, DNS resolver can distribute the query load across those servers, helping to distribute the traffic and prevent overload on a single server.
Zone transfers: NS records are necessary for facilitating zone transfers between DNS servers. Zone transfers allow authoritative DNS servers to synchronize their DNS database and ensure consistency across multiple servers. NS records specify which servers are authorized to request zone transfers from the primary DNS server.
In summary, NS records are required for proper delegation of DNS authority, redundancy, fault tolerance, load balancing, and facilitating zone transfers. They play a crucial role in the functioning and reliability of the Domain Name System.
Follow the instructions for NS records set-up basis the Domain Manager where your domain is set up:
NS records set-up on Godaddy DNS Manager
