Subdomain vs root which is better for SEO
-
We run a network of sites that we are considering consolidating into one main site with multiple categories. Which would be better having each of the "topics / site" reside in subdomains or as a sub-folder off of the root? Pros and cons of each would be great.
Thanks,
TR
-
This might shed a little more light on the subject.
The sites are per video game. So they could be completely different from one another.
I like the way a subdomain looks and for this purpose, I've seen other sites doing it this way for a long time.
From where I sit subdomains seem to be the "right" way to go about this but if sub-dirs are going to be BETTER for SEO then I want to do that.
I don't mind SEOing multiple sites and I would somewhat prefer to keep things separated out like that.
I guess what I really want to know is, Is this a personal preference thing if workload isn't my concern? Or is one going to be objectively better than the other.
Thanks for the replies so far. Much appreciated.
-
Agree with Irving - it's better to have subfolders most of the time. The essential question is who will be controlling the SEO? If it's one person or company, use subfolders. If multiple people will each control their own content, use subdomains. Think about this like Wordpress.com does.
Subdomains are somewhat treated as a separate website. So if you split them, you end up doing the SEO work more than once. Subfolders are considered part of the domain so http://mysite.wordpress.com is separate from Wordpress.com while http://www.wordpress.com/info/index.html is considered part of Wordpress.com Make sense?
So if you use subdomains, each subdomain needs its own SEO. If you use subfolders all the work can be done to one site, which is usually much more efficient. The best use of subdomains is if you had say a franchise (boston.yoursite.com, chicago.yoursite.com, melbourne.yoursite.com) where each of the franchisees would be responsible for their own marketing or a site like Wordpress that allows you to build your own content (thus under many people's control.) That would be site.wordpress.com, site2.wordpress.com etc.
Wordpress doesn't "care" to SEO all those sites nor necessarily do they want to pass their own SEO juice onto those sites as subfolders so they've made them subdomains.
-
directories are better than subdomains. subdomains are seen as different sites, directory allows you to have one main site and pass the PR throughout the entire site to create a stronger enterprise.
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
-
SEO Menu Question
I have a question regarding to the SEO benefits of different types of menus. Recently, I have noticed an increasing number of websites with the sort of menu like at www.sportsdirect.com, where there is only one main dropdown and then everything is a sub-menu of the sub-menus if that makes sense. Is this approach more, less or equal beneficial to what you see at http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ where there are multiple initial dropdown menus? Appreciate the feedback.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | simonukss0 -
SEO question
Hi there! I'm the SEO manager for 5 Star Loans. I have 2 city pages running. We are running our business in 2 locations: Berkeley, CA & San Jose, CA. For those offices we've created 2 google listings with separate gmail accounts. Berkeley (http://5starloans.com/berkeley/) ranks well in Berkeley in Gmaps and it shows on first page in organic results. However the second city page San Jose (http://5starloans.com/san-jose/) doesn't show in the Gmaps local pack results and also doesn't rank well in organic results. Both of them have authentic backlinks and reviews. It has been a year already and it's high time we knew the problem 🙂 any comment would be helpful. thanks a lot
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | moonalev0 -
International Domains for SEO
My company is international and we have websites for each country with Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLD). I am in the US and I am seeing that other countries such as Costa Rica and Germany are ranking above us in search results. I thought Google automatically geo-targeted users by default and therefore I should only get .com or US results. Any idea why other countries would rank above our site?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | fastlaneus0 -
SEO Priorities for Ecommerce Sites
Hello All! What is the best way to rank SEO tasks by PRIORITY for Ecommerce sites to improve?? It can be quite overwhelming with all the types of projects/tasks needed to improve organic rankings... How would you rank the most CRITICAL tasks to spend the MOST TIME on to the tasks you spend less on. Appreciate your input in advance 🙂 Thank you! Mark
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | wickerparadise0 -
Subdomain or Subfolder for Locations?
I have a client who is ranking #1 for every term related to "bathroom renovations (main city)". They have now started to take on dealers/franchisees in neighbouring cities, and each location would now like to be ranking for THEIR cities. Is it better to use bathcompany.com/location or location.bathcompany.com? Considerations: The site has the address and phone number of the main location listed in the header, so if we do /location you will still see the main NAP. Using /location, If someone browses beyond the location landing page, they will venture into pages that target the main city (ex. "Bath Remodelling (Main City)") Using a subdomain will mean that we will need to duplicate content such as their image gallery, and we will have to create new content for their service pages or risk duplicate content. (ex. "shower remodelling (city)") Questions By using /location they will benefit from the strength of the subdomain, while using a new location-based subdomain will this mean we will have to start from scratch in terms of domain authority / link-juice? Will the NAP in the header affect the ranking of these location pages?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ATMOSMarketing560 -
SEO and Pictures tool
Hello, I need to share pictures albums. I would like to know if any of you have an opinion on the best tools available to share pictures on the web? When I say 'the best tool' I mean from an SEO perspective. So, based on your experience, is there tools with which I have better chances to get my pictures indexed? Thanks !! Note: CNET has created a great article that present the major players
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | EnigmaSolution0 -
Do 404 Errors hurt SEO ?
I recently did a crawl test and it listed over 10,000 pages, but around 282 of them generated 404 errors (bad links) I'm wondering how much this hurts overall SEO and if its something I should focus on fixing asap ? Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RagingBull0 -
SEO from Godaddy How Good is it?
http://www.godaddy.com/search-engine/seo-services.aspx?ci=44163 it said "Includes Standard Search Engine Visibility to Improve Search Rankings" it begs for question... Search Engine Visibility??? Improve SERP?!?!!? is it really that good? O.o; or have i successfully been eaten my promotional messages? Can anyone with experience with them share some information with me ? 🙂 (The price tag is mighty interesting)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | IKT0