Which domain/subdomain strategy would be better?
-
I have multiple subdomain based news website. Each subdomain is in the format languge1.newsdomain.com, language2.newsdomain.com etc. These are not mere translation of one site into another but giving content tailored for the language and culture of the audience it serves. In essence they are related but different.
When it comes to "english" I have two options.
Option1. Create english.newsdomain.com using the same format and use the main www.newsdomain.com as a launching pad (navigation site) which allows the user to choose language and goto appropriate site. This gives the advantage of creating a common brand of newsdomain.com for all languages. There won't be any other content on this www.newsdomain.com
Option2. Use www.newsdomain.com for english content and only allow the list of other sites as footer or part of menu. This gives the advantage of having main domain with content (and links and other benefits) but makes it a bit difficult for users who do not speak english, to find their destination.
Any thoughts which is better or worse?
-
Theoretically it might be better from an SEO to have English on the root. If there's already something established on the root, it could be the right choice. Google sees subdomains as brand new domains, so you're starting from scratch.
If you have a lot of other languages that already visit the site, though, you msystem turn off more people than you attract.
-
Good answer.
I am leaning towards english as subdomain. Currently the majority is English speaking but the demography shift is occurring with more non english speaking audience getting online and expected to surpass english speaking.
But would like to explore a little more. In this scenario, are there any SEO wise pro/cons for choosing english as main root domain vs as a subdomain if other things are equal?
-
I think both options are viable, and it comes down to your demographic split in analytics.
If the majority of your audience in English-speaking, then the best option would be option #2. This eliminated an extra step and gives the majority of your users what they want, faster.
If there's a more even split in the traffic for languages you write for, a landing page to decide on a language may be more useful.
It's also possible to auto-detect the language and automatically direct users to the appropriate page, so you might want to consider that as an option as well.
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
-
Considering Moving to New Domain and SEO
Hello, One of our sites has been using a domain since 2005 and is shown below. The domain is terrible for multiple reasons, hyphens and doesn't even reflect our actual company name. Not to mention its embarrassing when telling a customer to email us at support @ pro "dash, yes the hyphen" gift.... I wanted to change it long ago but feared it would hurt my SEO rankings. After taking Bruce Clay's training class back in 2004, we managed to rank top 10 for most targeted keywords. My ranking have slowly dropped over time due to neglect and decaying IBL's. We still rank for a few targeted keywords but it was just August of 2017 we were still top 10 but something happened and we dropped out of the top 100 right before our holiday season. We had to run Adwords and BingAds to supplement traffic this holiday season. So I am wondering before I restart my SEO efforts should I move the domain now before trying to build new content, IBL's, etc? I was always under the impression Google used domain trust a major factor which wasnt only IBL but also domain age. Our preferred domain I purchased from another owner and it has ZERO links to it. It was basically a parked domain with the "domain for sale" stuff. I am a little nervous about moving it over because Google didnt even have it in its index. I put up a coming soon page and hosted it on my server, same C Block, and requested a crawl from my webmaster console. I added some text to the new domain index page and it appears Google is showing results for our old domain! At first I thought it was duplicate content but its not Google obviously has deciphered current site is my old domain and is displaying the title and meta data from the old domain. I have never seen this before. Google cache shows the current domain the new domain url. A few questions: Will my site get sandboxed after 301 redirecting and going webmaster console move features etc? Does this reset the trust factors? I have read examples in my research where some people say it only took a few weeks and everything was back to normal and others that have said it took years. Any experience or insight is greatly appreciated. I am currently relearning SEO and going over the SEO tutorial articles provided on moz. Thanks again! New Domain - matches our company name, no hyphens, better branding http://www.giftbasketpros.com/ Google index https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Awww.giftbasketpros.com Current Domain, since 2005, has ranked well for years until this summer http://www.pro-gift-baskets.com/
Branding | | DMAC441 -
Organic Brand Clicks/Traffic Drop - Why?
Hi Moz Community, I've been reviewing Search Console and have been noticing that there has been a consistent drop in brand clicks. The overall number of keywords (especially for the top 2 pages) have been increasing, according to SEMRUSH, however, traffic and sales are still in decline. There are no algorithmic and manual penalties, in addition, paid search activity has been increasing in the leadup to Christmas. Has anyone experienced this and potentially advise how to diagnose and resolve this issue?
Branding | | rec1230 -
Mentions if domain slightly different to brand name
Hi, Just a question/discussion regarding mentions. I have read for the last few years that Google is able to give credit to websites who get mentioned without a link. Even a few months ago there was a big article on the Google update at the end of last year saying how mentions would become an even stronger signal than a link. My question is, if anyone knows, is there any evidence that Google and other search engines are able to give ranking credit to websites whose brand name is slightly different from the domain? Can the search engines figure out that it is the same thing? If not, then there must be a lot of brands missing out. Thanks.
Branding | | Brian_Dowd0 -
Examples of Domain Change for Big Brands
Hi I am trying to put together a case study with big brands that have changed their domain names over the last 2 years. So far I have: t-mobile.co.uk -> ee.co.uk guardian.co.uk -> theguardian.com Are there any others you could think of? It'd be much appreciated! Thanks, C
Branding | | Carlos-R0 -
Can we use SEOMOZ to get insights/data on the members of a twitter list?
It would be so useful if we could get insights into the members of a twitter list in the same way we can get statistics on the people we search through the "search twitter bio" options (following/followers/RTs/Social Authority/etc). This is possible through the twitter api but it limits to 20 list member which is useless. Anyone know of a solution? Thanks!
Branding | | VGRRI0 -
Moving Blog from www.topic.domain.com to www.domain.com/blog
Hi Fellow Mozzers, Just started off here on seomoz.org and am super happy to have joined the community! I've recently started a new job as web optimization manager for an education company. There is a lot to do and one of my first tasks is to figure a better strategy for our current blog. I've convinced our management to move our blog from topic.domain.com to domain.com/blog. My research has shown that this is a better strategy so that our blog can receive the DA of our root domain, get more people to click through our site, and even receive more natural searches (PLEASE, someone correct me if I'm wrong on this). Anyway, our blog is currently hosted as a Wordpress blog and we're wondering if it's more worthwhile to build a blog platform ourselves or continue using Wordpress. I am not a technical guy and don't know the backend stuff to make it happen, but my concern is primarily for the optimum search capacity. Also, our bloggers frequently put links to different portions of our website - does this hold any negative SEO value in terms of too much internal linking? I personally wouldn't assume so, but then again I could be wrong. Finally, we also track our main website using Google Analytics- currently, the only tracking we have installed on our blogs is the default provided by Wordpress (yes yes I know, but that's why i'm here -- to fix these weaknesses). I'm assuming we will be able to better track using GA when the switch is made. So, I guess my questions are: (1) Is my research correct in that it's better to have our blog hosted as domain.com/blog over topic.domain.com (2) Are there any best practices in making this switch and/or any negative implications with continuing to use Wordpress or should we build our own platform (we have the internal resources to do so, but would prefer to take the easiest and best route in terms of SEO and community building). (3) Will it still be just as easy to track using GA. Thank you!! Pedram
Branding | | CSawatzky0 -
How do can I compete with 60-80 Domain Authority?
As the title says, how can I compete with competitors that have a domain authority of 60-80? (Only around 2-3 major competitors) However I would like to compete with them. Is anyone else in this situation? What did you do? I've read a lot about building backlinks etc etc but surely theres more to it. I've got to rank 1500+ subcategories for my niche and it's nearly impossible to do so. Thanks to all who reply!
Branding | | Superinks0 -
301 or 302 for one of our domains
We have one of our sites that we got rid of and incorporated into our "main" site. We left a 302 redirect from the old sites URL to a landing page on the new site. It act as a branded stub page before registration. We are currently using a 302 to redirect from www.oldsite.com -> www.newbigsite.com/old-site Should I change this to a 301? I loose my google SERP ranking for www.oldsite.com if I do the 301 and it will be replaced by www.newbigsite.com/old-site correct? Thanks
Branding | | GeorgeLaRochelle0