Better to have one subdomain or multiple subdomains?
-
We have quite a bit of content we are considering subdomaining.
There are about 13 topic centers that could deserve their own subdomain, but there are about 2000 original articles that we also want to subdomain. We are considering
a) putting the 13 centers (i.e. babies.domain.com, acne.domain.com, etc) and the 3000 articles (on a variety of topics) on one subdomain
b) putting the 13 centers on their own subdomain and the remaining 3000 articles on their own subdomain as well (14 subdomains total)
What do you think is the best solution and why?
-
We are considering experimenting with this as a Panda solution (worked for hubpages), that's why we don't want to put it in subfolders. We can't move to an entirely new domain, so are considering experimenting with subdomains.
I understand there is quite a bit of disagreement about whether subdomains work or not, but we want to try it.
The content topics are different (beauty vs asthma).
-
Hi Michelle,
Without further information, you're asking us to choose between two bad solutions, so that's a choice we can't make.
What is the piece of information missing that explains why you don't want to put them in subfolders?
How different are the content topics?
If you go with (b), what content is left on the primary domain?
-
Thank you for your feedback. I agree with you, I know subfolders are better. But, if you had to choose one of the above options, what would you choose?
-
I agree.
Zero subdomains here.
-
Hi,
agree 100% with Kane it is also recommended by google for localizations
etc...
It increases domain authority and this is what everyone site owner wants
-
Without knowing anything else, none of the above.
9 times out of 10 I'll recommend the use of subfolders instead.
Is the content dramatically different (babies, acne, race cars, etc.) or is there an overall purpose to the site that makes sense?
To quote myself from some other Q&A answer:
Subdomains are treated slightly differently by Google. Essentially they are seen as less connected to the rest of your content than a subfolder. So, when you get a link to one subdomain, it doesn't count as much towards the other subdomains.
Take wordpress.com as an example:
- surferdude.wordpress.com has little relation to www.wordpress.com
- surferdude.wordpress.com has little relation to skaterguy.wordpress.com
- surferdude.wordpress.com has lots in common with surferdude.wordpress.com/surfboards/***
By using subfolders, you'll retain more value across the single subdomain rather than spreading it among multiple subdomains.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
If I redirect a subdomain, does this affect the parent domain?
Hi I have a company for example: abc.com and they have a subdomain def.abc.com with a lot of errors. These errors i believe affect the parent domain abc.com. So my company would like to redirect the subdomain to another domain altogther ex: xyz.com Can i redirect the subdomain def.abc.com to another website domain? Would this affect the parent domain in a good or bad way? Or should i be using an external links to point to a new domain for the subdomain? Trying to think what's best for SEO and the parent domain. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | crodriguez890 -
Title Tag Verses H1 Tag. Is having both the same better than different if there's only one clear winner in keyword search volume
Hi Mozzers, I am going through my categories on my eccomerce hire site trying to improve things and just wanted to check this query with you My understanding is that if I have the same H1 and title tag, then that would give more weight for that keyword phrase? Would I also be correct in assuming that the H1 is more important than the title tag or should both be treated as equals in terms of SEO. My dimemla is that for certain products we hire, there's only really one clear winner in terms of keyword phrase. The others I find in keyword planner are way down the volume list , so I have tended to put the H1 and title tag as the same and then have H2 tag and a slightly different heading. Is that the best philosphy or should I really mix them up , so the the title tag, h1, h2 are different ? Also Currently My on page content mentions the the H1 tag near the beginning of the content. Is this correct or should I really be using the H2 tag phrase near the beginning of the content. For example - One of the products we hire out is carpet cleaners. Therefore the main keyword phrase is carpet cleaner hire
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PeteC12
and for our local pages its' carpet cleaner hire <city name="">.
This is my title tag and H1 tag and then for my h2 tag , I have something like "carpet cleaning equipment" with the content
mentioning carpet cleaner hire near the beginning.</city> I don't want to look likes its over optimization or mention the word hire to much but being a hire website, it's difficult not to and other keywords that don't mention it in it, are to varied so could increase bounce rates ?. When I look in GWT against my content keywords - the word hire shows a full bar. Just wondered what peoples thoughts are if what I am doing it okay?
thanks
Pete0 -
Pagination on a product page with reviews spread out on multiple pages
Our current product pages markup only have the canonical URL on the first page (each page loads more user reviews). Since we don't want to increase load times, we don't currently have a canonical view all product page. Do we need to mark up each subsequent page with its own canonical URL? My understanding was that canonical and rel next prev tags are independent of each other. So that if we mark up the middle pages with a paginated URL, e.g: Product page #1http://www.example.co.uk/Product.aspx?p=2692"/>http://www.example.co.uk/Product.aspx?p=2692&pageid=2" />**Product page #2 **http://www.example.co.uk/Product.aspx?p=2692&pageid=2"/>http://www.example.co.uk/Product.aspx?p=2692" />http://www.example.co.uk/Product.aspx?p=2692&pageid=3" />Would mean that each canonical page would suggest to google another piece of unique content, which this obviously isn't. Is the PREV NEXT able to "override" the canonical and explain to Googlebot that its part of a series? Wouldn't the canonical then be redundant?Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Don340 -
Multiple Ecommerce sites, same products
We are a large catalog company with thousands of products across 2 different domains. Google clearly knows that the sites are connected. Both domains are fairly well known brands - thousands of branded searches for each site per month. Roughly half of our products overlap - they appear on both sites. We have a known duplicate content issue - both sites having exactly the same product descriptions, and we are working on it. We've seen that when a product has different content on the 2 sites, frequently, both pages get to page 2 of the SERPs, but that's as far as it goes, despite aggressive white hat link building tactics. 1. Is it possible to get the same product pages on page 1 of the SERPs for both sites? (I think I know the answer...) 2. Should we be canonicalizing (is that a word?) products across the sites? This would get tricky - both sites have roughly the same domain authority, but in different niches. Certain products and keywords naturally rank better on 1 site or the other depending on the niche.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AMHC0 -
Subdomain or subfolder for each country
Hi all I have a great .com domain but the cctlds are not available so I plan on using the .com for all the countries and languages. What is the best approach for SEO: subdomains like wikipedia does (de.greatdomain.com) or subfolders (greatdomain.com/de)? I know this question comes up frequently on other websites but I would like to hear the Moz forum.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AndersDK0 -
Multiple Domain Names Pointing to One URL
Hi! A company I work with has purchased several (70-something) domain names that are relevant to their business. According to their IT pro, they're currently using DNS to point those domains to our IP address, with a catch-all header on IIS for that IP address. Essentially, we have 70-something domain names that direct to the homepage. I noticed that some have been indexed by Google and are pulling in the meta of the homepage they're being directed to. Is this potentially an issue? If so, would 301 redirects fix this or are we okay with the status quo and the indexing is no big deal? Thanks in advance!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | 199580 -
My OSE stats have never been better but my rankings are tanking
For some reason my traffic to [Antique Banknotes] has declined drastically over the past month even while my OSE metrics have gone up. A typical example is this 1892 five dollar bill. I used to rank first for this search but now I am 3rd. Worse, a search for ten dollar bill used to have me near the top which brought a lot of traffic. Now I am way out in the weeds. Can anyone help me understand what is causing me to drop so much? I know there is a new competitor who outranks me with the url [Antique money] he is likely the cause of my fall in the ratings. I don't know why but OSE loves his site even though I seem to beat him in most areas OSE measures. His Page authority for instance is 45 while mine is 37 but I have higher scores in every category. I don't understand that. Thanks in advance for any advice.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Banknotes0 -
Domain Links or SubDomain Links, which is better?
Hi, I only now found out that www.domain.com and www.domain.com/ are different. Most of my external links are directed to www.domain.com/
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeytzNet
Which I understand is considered the subdomain and not the domain. Should I redirect? (and if so how?)
Should I post new links only to my domain?0