Custom domain doc improvements

docs/user/custom-domains.rst

@@ -1,105 +1,57 @@
 Custom domains
 ==============
 
-You can serve your documentation project from your own domain,
+By configuring a *custom domain* for your project,
+your project can serve documentation from a domain you control,
 for instance ``docs.example.com``.
 This is great for maintaining a consistent brand for your product and its documentation.
 
 .. _default-subdomain:
 
 .. rubric:: Default subdomains
 
-*By default*, your documentation is served from a Read the Docs *subdomain* using the project's :term:`slug`:
+*Without a custom domain configured*,
+your project's documentation is served from a Read the Docs domain using a unique subdomain for your project:
 
-* ``<slug>.readthedocs.io`` for |org_brand|
-* ``<slug>.readthedocs-hosted.com`` for |com_brand|.
+* ``{project name}.readthedocs.io`` for |org_brand|.
+* ``{organization name}-{project name}.readthedocs-hosted.com`` for |com_brand|.
+  The addition of the organization name allows multiple organizations to have projects with the same name.
 
 .. seealso::
 
-    :doc:`/guides/custom-domains`
-        Information on creating and managing custom domains,
-        and common configurations you might use to set up your domain
+   :doc:`/guides/custom-domains`
+      How to create and manage custom domains for your project.
 
-How custom domains work
------------------------
+Features
+--------
 
-To use a custom domain, two actions are needed from you:
+Automatic SSL
+   SSL certificates are automatically issued through Cloudflare for every custom domain.
+   No extra set up is required beyond configuring your project's custom domain.
 
-#.  Enter the domain in your Read the Docs project's :guilabel:`Admin`
-#.  Update your DNS provider with a new DNS entry. The name and value of the DNS entry is found in Read the Docs' :guilabel:`Admin`.
+CDN caching
+   Response caching is provided through a :doc:`CDN </reference/cdn>` for all documentation projects,
+   including projects using a custom domain.
+   CDN caching improves page response time for your documentation's users,
+   and the CDN edge network provides low latency response times regardless of location.
 
-Once the new DNS record has propagated,
-Read the Docs automatically issues an SSL certificate through Cloudflare and starts serving your documentation.
+Multiple domains
+   Projects can be configured to be served from multiple domains,
+   which always includes the :ref:`project's default subdomain <default-subdomain>`.
+   Only one domain can be configured as the canonical domain however,
+   and any requests to non-canonical domains and subdomains will redirect to the canonical domain.
 
-.. image:: img/mermaid-custom-domains.png
-   :alt: Diagram of the process of adding a custom domain on Read the Docs
-
-..
-   We have generated an PNG version of the following diagram using mermaid.live
-   Firstly, we generate an SVG, then we render it in a browser, then we take a screenshot,
-   then we paste it into GIMP or similar and make the background transparent.
-
-   If you wish to sketch diagrams locally, you can add sphinxcontrib-mermaid to
-   this project's extensions and keep using the below code.
-
-   SVG does not work because it embeds fontawesome from CDN (which is blocked by CSP)
-
-   PLEASE KEEP THIS SOURCE CODE UPDATED
-   .. mermaid::
-
-       graph TD
-           subgraph rtd [On Read the Docs]
-             A(fa:fa-pencil Add docs.example.com as Custom Domain)
-           end
-           subgraph dns [On your domain's DNS administration]
-             B(fa:fa-pencil Edit/add a DNS entry for docs.example.com<br>making it point to Read the Docs)
-           end
-
-           rtd & dns-->C(fa:fa-spinner Wait for DNS propagation.<br>Usually just a few minutes)
-
-           direction LR
-           subgraph automatic [fa:fa-paper-plane The rest is handled automatically]
-             direction TB
-             D(fa:fa-spinner The next time your project is built,<br>its Canonical URLs use docs.example.com)
-             D-->E(Visit https://docs.example.com)
-             E-->F(fa:fa-lock Correct SSL Certificate <br>automatically used)
-             F-->G(fa:fa-check Read the Docs knows<br> to serve your project <br>at docs.example.com)
-           end
-
-           C-->automatic
-
-
-Your documentation can have multiple secondary domains but only one **canonical** domain name.
-Additional domains or subdomains will redirect to the canonical domain.
-
-To make this work, Read the Docs generates a special text that you are responsible for copy-pasting to your domain's DNS.
-In most cases, the ``CNAME`` record is used.
-This is all that's needed for a web browser to resolve your domain name to Read the Docs' servers and for our servers to match the right documentation project.
-You can find step-by-step instructions for this in :doc:`/guides/custom-domains`.
-
-Read the Docs uses a :doc:`/reference/cdn` to host and serve your documentation pages.
-This final step isn't changed by a custom domain
-and therefore the response times are unaffected as the delivery of resources happens through the same CDN setup.
-
-Considerations for custom domain usage
---------------------------------------
-
-Some open source projects have seen their domains expire.
-Even prominent ones.
-**It's important that you give the responsibility for managing your domain to someone reliable in your organization.**
-
-The **canonical domain** feature allows you to have several domains and the canonical domain will be indexed by search engines.
-The domain that you choose as your canonical domain is by far the most important one.
-If you lose the canonical domain,
-someone else can set up a website that search results will end up referring to.
+Canonical domains
+   The canonical domain configures the primary domain the documentation will serve from,
+   and also sets the domain search engines use for search results when hosting from multiple domains.
+   Projects can only have one canonical domain,
+   which is the :ref:`project's default subdomain <default-subdomain>` if no other canonical domain is defined.
 
 .. seealso::
 
-   In a URL, both the domain and the path (``https://<domain>/<path>``) are important.
-   In combination, they are referred to as the *canonical URL* of a resource.
-
-   Most documentation projects are versioned.
-   Therefore, it's important to ensure that incoming links and search engine results point to the canonical URL of the resource
-   and not a specific version that becomes outdated.
+   :doc:`/canonical-urls`
+      How canonical domains affect your project's canonical URL,
+      and why canonical URLs are important.
 
-   To learn more about canonical URLs, see: :doc:`/canonical-urls`
+   :doc:`/subprojects`
+      How to share a custom domain between multiple projects.