Domain and subdomain comparison - a deeper look into the subdomain metrics
-
Hi all,
As I'm doing an analysis on our site and our main competitor (both sites are quite big, with active forums), who is much larger than we are, I have found out that :
-
Our site has the strongest domain authority: 34, competitor: 33.
-
Competitor beats us on 6 out of 8 areas in the sub categories for the "domain authority" category
-
We beat our competitor in 8 out of 8 sub categories for the category "sub domain metrics"
Now, as the title for this question suggests, I would like to hear what your thoughts is on this. Remember that our competitor is way bigger than us - how can they do so bad on the sub domain metrics, compared to us (and everybody else, I guess)?
What are your thoughts on this?
Please be aware that the domain shown to the left in the screen shot is our competitor.
Thanks a lot - all comments are very much appreciated!
-
-
Hi MPO,
The competitor has a lot of points pointing to his root domain, but for whatever reason they do not point to the subdomain that you are comparing.
For example, if I point a link to example.com (no www), then the root domain metrics for the url www.example.com would be strong, but for the specific subdomain www.example.com they would be weaker.
(boy, this is so confusing when you try to explain it on paper. Here's a post from Rand on subdomains - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites
Does it matter? Probably not much. It depends where exactly those links are pointing, and what's ranking in the search results. Keep doing what you're doing - getting good links from good sources, and you'll come out on top either way.
-
I wouldn't worry about it to much to be honest, your better off spending your time building great content and getting people to link to it rather than watching what your competitions stats say. Focus on getting your own stuff right, and you'll soon be leaving the competition wondering what happened.
-
From what I have read, I don't disagree. We have always (until very recently) been focusing solely on "honest" links (links that real people actually make on their site or in a forum), in comparison to "links that you build" / pay for / do something to get - that philosophy (or lack of philosophy, one might say) has changed, and slowly we are starting to get (build) better and more links.
To be honest, I'm not sure if your reply answered my question: Why has our competitor such a weak score on the "sub domain metric" and does this matter (at all)?
Or put in another way, the question simply is: does it make any sense to spend time on wondering about this?
-
To be honest a DA in the 30's is pretty low. If you concentrate on getting a 30-50 good quality links you should easily get into the 40's.
-
Hi, and thanks for your answer - you are right about that, yes. When you look at the example shown in my initial post, what do you think about those two site-profiles. Does it tell whether one of the sites is in "good" or "bad" shape, does it really not say anything, etc.? Also: Is it important to beat your competitor on the "sub domain metrics", or does this question really not make much sense to ask?
Any one who has an opinion about this?
-
It all depends on where links are pointing to - remember a www. is also subdomain.
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
-
Looking for a Tool to Assist with Site Optimization. Does it already exist?
I'm looking for a tool that can help us quickly identify web pages on a client's site that contain a selected keyword phrase.
On-Page Optimization | | RosemaryB
I would like to enter say 100 keyword phrases and the client's URL and receive a report that shows - for each keyword - the client URLs that contained that exact phrase. Does anyone know of a tool that can do this? Thank you, Rosemary Brisco0 -
Is it redundant to include a redirect to my canonical domain (www) in my .htaccess file since I already have the correct rel="canonical" in my header?
I've been reading the benefits of each practice, but not found anyone mentioning whether it's really necessary to do both? Personally I try to stay clear of .htaccess rewrites unless it's absolutely necessary, since because I've read they can slow down a website.
On-Page Optimization | | HOPdigital0 -
Blog on Subdomain vs. Subdirectory - Best Practices
Hi, I have recently been told that it no longer impacts authority or rankings if a blog is set up on a subdomain (blog.domain.com) rather than a subdirectory (/blog). However, I am reluctant to do so because I remember learning how blog subdomains did not adhere to SEO best practices. Would anyone be able to shed some light on the latest SEO best practices regarding this topic? Many thanks, Erin
On-Page Optimization | | HiddenPeak0 -
How to fix duplicate issue among multiple root domains
Hello, I’m doing SEO for one E-commerce website which name is Lily Ann Cabinets & I’ve around 300 different root domains which having same linking structures, same design & even same product database for all 300 websites, but currently I’m focusing only on Lily Ann Cabinets website & trying to get ranking on some targeted keywords, but website is not performing well in Google.com For Example: http://www.lilyanncabinets.com/ (Main Websites)
On-Page Optimization | | CommercePundit
http://www.orlandocabinets.com/
http://www.chicagocabinets.org/
http://www.miamicabinets.org/
http://www.newyorkcabinets.org/
http://www.renocabinets.org/ So please can anyone tell that Will it create duplicate issue in search engines or may be due to this reason website doesn’t have good ranking in search engines, then how can I fix this issue? Do I have to make different structures for Lily Ann Cabinets?0 -
I have 90 domains at Godaddy and would like to transfer them to a new registrar - Moniker
Will the the transfer to a new registrar hurt my domains in the SERPs if all contact information for the domain stays the same and DNS stays the same and site hosting remains the same?
On-Page Optimization | | jeff.interactive0 -
Blog outgoing links to a certain domain?
Hi Mozzers, I am working with a website with very decentralized ownership. There are two different languages, each with a different owner. Owner A keeps linking to crap sites, that hurt the entire site. My question is this: Is there a way - through .htaccess or robots.txt - that Google can be asked NOT to crawl the links to external crap sites? The problem is that Owner B cannot control Owner A's html, and thus not implement rel="nofollow" on links. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | ThomasHgenhaven0 -
Generic domain for SEO versus Brand name
I am currently building a retail e-commerce site in a highly competitive area. We have a generic brand name; e.g. kitchen-knives.com and we also have another brand name, e.g. 'slycers.com' We have 3 options that I can see and I would like to know which is better for SEO. Build generic.com as a blog site. Link to brand.com 301 redirect from generic.com to brand.com. Use generic.com as anchor text in all links 301 redirect from brand.com to generic.com . Use generic.com as anchor text in all links Also, if there are other better options, then I would appreciate the input! thanks
On-Page Optimization | | cestor0 -
Domain authority
Wondering why my domain authority has dropped after about three months of trying to implement the best practices suggested on this site. Can anyone help?
On-Page Optimization | | MauiCoffee0