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I have no problem whatsoever with the removal of the thumbs down and think it's a good move for all the aforementioned reasons.

Another thing that I think could be improved is the star rating system attributed to users. I have always assumed star ratings denote a scoring system that follows something similar to 1 star=poor, 2 stars=below average, 3 stars=average, and so forth. I think, when applied to a users contribution and experience, the star rating system is confusing and misleading. If I see someone who is, say, 2 stars out of 5, I automatically assume their ability to respond to a question as "below average", when in reality it may simply mean they are new to the forum or only post sporadically.

If I could suggest an alternative system, I would instead like to see one similar to the Whirlpool forums where you are given a user title that correlates to your participation and experience levels.

Just a thought

Hi Matt and Patrick,

Correct me if I'm wrong but is the general consensus that there is no definitive answer on this topic - that a subdomain's impact on a root domain is indeterminate?

Thanks

• Very good question Patrick!

  The parts website was developed first as our parts business is quite successful and management was looking for a more efficient way of supplying parts to our customers. The other e-commerce website was conceived shortly after and was rushed to completion - this website is the one with the most issues from an seo perspective. The marketing team did not have a significant hand in the development of these sites (you might notice they are quite different to our main website).

  To answer your question, yes, we also acknowledged that one subdomain would be better and the parts website will shortly be migrated to the main e-commerce website. We are pooling all our resources into fixing up the shop.caps.com.au site. It was only last Friday that we realised that the two new sites are actually subdomains of the root domain (why we didn't realise this earlier is beyond me) and could be a factor in why it has suffered declining rankings and traffic.

  I have read conflicting accounts on whether or not subdomains directly affect root domains - some schools of thought said no, they are ranked independently and are viewed as separate sites by Google, while others said yes or maybe. Could you perhaps provide me with a reference of where you base your view that it can/does affect the root domain?

  If the subdomains are the cause of our main site's declining performance, would it be best that we move them to a different domain or should we leave it as is and continue with our plan to migrate the parts site (this will happen regardless) and focus on fixing up the shop.caps.com.au site?

  Sorry for bombarding you with questions - this entire thing has been quite confronting and confusing considering this is my first marketing role out of college!

  Thanks

Hi Matt-POP,

This has played on my mind as well. That is where my doubts that our issues are solely caused by our subdomains stem from.

I guess, in a sense, I am hoping that it is the subdomains because it would present a simple solution.

I am afraid of making any grand decisions, like removing the subdomians, without considering the possibility that we are doing something else wrong, but I'm yet to discover another clear cause.

Thank you so much for your response Patrick.

We have no manual actions on the main website and our MOZ spam score is 2/17. Our main website is full of original, good-quality content and we have been very careful to avoid any black hat seo strategies. We have had a professional seo expert audit our site and their feedback has been positive. In short, it seems like we have been doing everything right. We are mindful that the website might be affected by the current market for our industry, but have seen a very noticeable decline in our stats that seem to go beyond the usual market fluctuation backlash.

It is the two subdomains (e-commerce sites) that have duplicate content issues. I probably should have mentioned earlier that the decline coincided with the launch of the subdomains.

Keeping in mind that I am open to the possibility the cause of the decline could be isolated within the main website itself, I nevertheless would like to know if it is possible that subdomains can affect a root domain?

Thanks again for your detailed response - really appreciate it.

Amy

Hi,

Late last year the company I work for launched two new websites that, at the time, we believed were completely separate from our main website. The two new websites were set up externally and were not well-planned from an SEO perspective (LOTS of duplicate content) - hence, they have struggled to rank on Google.

Since the launch of the new websites we have also noticed that our main website (that previously ranked very well) has suffered a decline in visitation and search engine rank. We initially attributed this to a number of factors, including the state of the market, and ramped up our SEO efforts (seeing minor improvement). We have since realised that these two new websites have been set up as subdomains of our main website, with MOZ displaying the same domain authority and root domain backlink profile.

My question is, do poor quality subdomains affect the ranking performance of a root domain? I have not yet managed to find a definitive answer.

Please let me know if more information is required - I am quite new to the whole SEO concept.

Thanks!

Amy