How to correctly move subdomain to subfolder (google webmaster)?
-
Hello,
This is my first post in here
I just wondered what is the correct way to move a subdomain to subfolder?
I've moved it, re-done sitemap, so that main website would include a subfolder, as they are part of one big website now (it was something like a blog on a subdomain).
Subdomain now does correct 301 redirects.
Submitted new sitemap to google, asked google to re-fetch the whole domain (thus subfolder should be re-fetched too, as it's part of main nav).
The areas i'm in doubt:
I can tell google that the domain got moved, however it is moved to the one that is already approved in the same account, but is in a subfolder, so should i do this? Or should i simply somehow erase it on webmaster?
The blog was launched about a month ago, and it isn't perfectly optimized yet, it wasn't on google SERPs pretty much at all, excluding googling it straightly, and there are pretty much 0 traffic from google, almost all of it is either direct either referral, mostly social,
Thanks,
Pavel
-
I'm just made a similar move, moving my blog from blog.domain.com to domain.com/my-blog.
I don't think I can use the Google change of address - it is throwing me an error when I get to that step in the change of address because I'm going to a sub directory, not to the root. "The old site redirects to www.domain.com/my-blog, which does not correspond to the new site you chose."
Should I care? I'm getting organic traffic already on the blog URLs, and Google has indexed about half of the URLs that I submitted via the sitemap.
-
Yep! Sounds like that'd be the right thing to do. : Given the situation you'd probably be fine just resubmitting your XML sitemap—your main domain isn't changing; it's just getting a new subfolder—but I can't imagine it'd hurt.
-
Thanks for such a quick response!
0 Traffic isn't an issue, as it's for blog only, and i'll solve it
The thing that concerns me is that on google change of address - it refers to subdomain movement to another domain, so i.e. in google webmasters i got:
Now blog was moved to mywebsite.com/blog
So i should submit new address to mywebsite.com, thus the one i already have in google webmaster console?
Thanks :S
-
Here are some best practices based on your situation:
- Make sure you've used the change of address tool for the subdomain - "Request an address change.
Use the **Change of address **tool when your site move entails a domain or subdomain change, such as changing from http://fish.example-petstore.com to http://example.com or http://example-petstore.com." See https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/83106?hl=en - Also - one thing to do with your XML sitemaps is to ensure that both your old and new XML sitemaps are still submitted to Search Console. This will allow Google to read the old and the new. When it reads the old XML sitemap it will follow those URLs and redirects to find and index the new URLs. You can remove the old sitemap only when all of your new URLs are indexing to your standards.
- If you're getting 0 traffic from Google, check your Search Analytics in Search Console to make sure you're actually ranking for at least long tail keywords. 0 traffic means there's a problem. Check your robots.txt and Meta Robots to ensure everything is properly set up. Do a "site:yoursitename.com/blog" search in Google to make sure your blog URLs are ranking. Also search for your website name to make sure the blog is ranking for the site name at least.
Good luck!
- Make sure you've used the change of address tool for the subdomain - "Request an address change.
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
-
How about a No-index backlink in the eye of Google
I have a doubt - when I create a backlink as a part of SEO in some website when I rechecked the same couple of days after. It hasn't indexed and I checked its robots file. It showing **User-agent: ****Mediapartners-Google ****Disallow: ****User-Agent: * ****Disallow:**However, is this create any backlink support or just this for the purpose of not indexing in google.I make it simple -"Is this kind of backlink creation support my SEO activity or Not?" In this No-index website.
Local Website Optimization | | LayaPaul0 -
Need sitemap opinion on large franchise network with thousands of subdomains
Working on a large franchise network with thousands of subdomains. There is the primary corporate domain which basically directs traffic to store locators and then to individual locations. The stores sell essentially the same products with some variations on pricing so lots of pages with the same product descriptions. Different content All the subdomains have their location information address info in the header, footer and geo meta tags on every page. Page titles customized with franchise store id numbers. Duplicate content Product description blocks. Franchisee domains will likely have the ability to add their own content in the future but as of right now most of the content short of the blocks on the pages are duplicated. Likely limitations -- Adding City to page titles will likely be problematic as there could be multiple franchises in the same city. Ideally it would be nice if users could search for the store or product and have centers return that are closest to them. We can turn on sitemaps on all the subdomains and try to submit them to the search engines. Looking for insight regarding submitting all these sites or just focusing on the main domain that has a lot less content on it.
Local Website Optimization | | jozwikjp0 -
Does having an embedded Google Map still count as a positive SEO signal?
I know this was true a few years ago, however is there still an advantage to having an embedded map vs. a pop up map in 2017?
Local Website Optimization | | BigChad21 -
Collapsing Location-Specific Subdomains
My client has 24 separate subdomains for its nationwide business, one for each specific location. Much of the content is very similar, as the site serves as a lead-generator for rental reservations. After years of suggesting the approach of using one domain, we have finally gotten the client onboard to eliminating the subdomains and maintaining a subdirectory/page approach for location-specific content and allowing universal content to live at the root domain. I've been looking for any case studies that have any watch-outs or demonstrated benefits when collapsing domestic subdomains (phoenix.client.com; albuquerque.client.com, etc.) into the root, and have been fairly unsuccessful so far. We will be setting up a rigorous 301 redirect tree to ensure we retain as much link juice as possible from any existing subdomain-specific inbound links. Any advice/guidance to help set expectations of what will shake down from this change? It feels like we should see increased domain authority and less cannibalization, as the client ranks nationally for important broad-level keywords, with significantly higher DA at the root level than any tracked competitors, but I'm a little nervous about how localized search results will be affected. Thank you!
Local Website Optimization | | ClassicPartyRentals1 -
2 clients. 2 websites. Same City. Both bankruptcy attorneys. How to make sure Google doesn't penalize...
Hi Moz'ers! I am creating 2 new websites for 2 different bankruptcy attorneys in the same city. I plan to use different templates BUT from the same template provider. I plan to host with the same hosting company (unless someone here advises me not to). The content will be custom, but similar, as they both practice bankruptcy law. They have different addresses, as they are different law firms. My concern is that Google will penalize for duplicate content because they both practice the same area of law, in the same city, hosting the same, template maker the same, and both won't rank. What should I do to make sure that doesn't happen? Will it be enough that they have different business names, address, and phone numbers? Thanks for any help!!
Local Website Optimization | | BBuck0 -
Google Panda 4.0 update - Good for Small businesses?
Hi guys, We recently did a post on Google Panda 4.0 release. Check this here. Have you seen any notable changes in rankings for your website? Do you think that this update will benefit small businesses/websites? Looking forward to your comments.
Local Website Optimization | | FRL2 -
Google ranking wrong page
I have a client where google is ranking the homepage for a term that I want a specific landing page to rank for. The landing page is filled with great keyword focused content, gets a perfect score on the moz keyword target grader. And the home page is not even about the keyword it is ranking for. Any advice on how to get google to stop ranking the wrong page?
Local Website Optimization | | Atomicx0 -
International Site Geolocation Redirection (best way to redirect and allow Google bots to index sites)
I have a client that has an international website. The website currently has IP detection and redirects you to the subdomain for your country. They have currently only launched the Australian website and are not yet open to the rest of the world: https://au.domain.com/ Google is not indexing the Australian website or pages, instead I believe that the bots are being blocked by the IP redirection every time they try to visit one of the Australian pages. Therefore only the US 'coming soon' page is being properly indexed. So, I would like to know the best way to place a geolocation redirection without creating a splash page to select location? User friendliness is most important (so we don't want cookies etc). I have seen this great Whiteboard Friday video on Where to Host and How to Target, which makes sense, but what it doesn't tell me is exactly the best method for redirection except at about 10:20 where it tells me what I'm doing is incorrect. I have also read a number of other posts on IP redirection, but none tell me the best method, and some are a little different examples... I need for US visitors to see the US coming soon page and for Google to index the Australian website. I have seen a lot about JS redirects, IP redirects and .htaccess redirects, but unfortunately my technical knowledge of how these affect Google's bots doesn't really help. Appreciate your answers. Cheers, Lincoln
Local Website Optimization | | LincolnSmith0