Is it a good idea to use sub-domains?
-
Hello everyone!
I have a question about whether we should be using sub-domains. We are currently in the process of redesigning our site so this would be the time to do it. We are a reseller of brand name IT equipment (servers, storage, etc...) should we create a sub-domain for each brand for example:
or should we just use folders instead like:
does one have any more SEO value than the other?
Thank you!
-
In terms of SEO, subfolders are almost always the better option. If your brand pages are in a subfolder, they will receive more of a boost in rankings because they are considered part of the main site by search engines. More of the link authority and trust will be passed to pages in a subfolder. Subdomains are considered as a separate site by search engines - for example the blogs like sitename.blogspot.com or sitename.wordpress.com and receive little trust and authority from the rest of the site.
-
301 redirect is a permanent redirection. If you set up a 301 redirect and a search engine requests the page, the search engine is sent a reply that says the page has permanently moved to a different location. So Google will consider the new page as the one to be indexed. Google will also transfer the value of any links to hp.domain.com to www.domain.com/hp.
In most situations, I believe it is best to optimize one domain than several. Search engines will consider a subdomain as a complete separate domain. And yes www.domain.com are considered two different domain names (although I suspect Google tries to sort that one out). Using the 301 redirects to the folder transfers the value of the links of the sub domain to the file in the folder, which is also a link in to a place on the domain www.domain.com.
Search how to do redirects, there are many tutorials for different platforms. It is not difficult. However if you are using one of those free hosting sites, you are not going to have any luck.
-
Hello Christopher,
Thanks for a quick reply! I'm a newbie to SEO so if you don't mind I'd like to pick your brain about 301 redirects ( I will have to research this subject in more detail). However from what I understand:
Create a subdomain hp.domain.com and do a 301 redirect to www.domain.com/hp
Now my question is this, so my content for hp.domain.com technically resides on www.domain.com/hp correct? or it resides on hp.domain.com ?
Question #2, why would I want or why is it recommended to do a 301 redirect on a subdomain to a folder on a main/root domain?
Thanks!
-
I like subdomains for usability, but maintain 301 redirects to folders. Humans may prefer the subdomain, so they are useful.
hp.domain.com has a 301 redirect to www.domain.com/hp
Search engines will consider hp.domain.com a different domain than www.domain.com.
I do this most commonly for mobile.
m.domain.com has a 301 redirect to www.domain.com/m
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
-
Having a Subfolder/Subdirectory With a Different Design Than the Root Domain
Hi Everyone, I was wondering what Google thinks about having a subfolder/subdirectory with a different design than the root domain. So let's say we have MacroCorp Inc. which has been around for decades. MacroCorp has tens of thousands of backlinks and a couple thousand referring domains from quality sites in its industry and news sites. MacroCorp Inc. spins off one of its products into a new company called MicroCorp Inc., which makes CoolProduct. The new website for this company is CoolProduct.MacroCorp.com (a subdomain) which has very few backlinks and referring domains. To help MicroCorp rank better, both companies agree to place the MicroCorp content at MacroCorp.com/CoolProduct/. The root domain (MacroCorp.com) links to the subfolder from its navigation and MicroCorp does the same, but the MacroCorp.com/CoolProduct/ subfolder has an entirely different design than the root domain. Will MacroCorp.com/CoolProduct/ be crawled, indexed, and rank better as both companies think it would? Or would Google still treat the subfolder like a subdomain or even a separate root domain in this case? Are there any studies, documentation, or links to good or bad examples of this practice? When LinkedIn purchased Lynda.com, for instance, what if they kept the https://www.lynda.com/ design as is and placed it at https://www.linkedin.com/learning/. Would the pre-purchase (yellow/black design) https://www.linkedin.com/learning/ rank any worse than it does now with the root domain (LinkedIn) aligned design? Thanks! Andy
Web Design | | AndyRCWRCM1 -
We added hundreds of pages to our website & restructured the layout to include 3 additional locations within the sub-pages, same brand/domain name. How long could Google take to crawl/index the new pages and rank the keywords used within those pages?
We added hundreds of pages to our website & restructured the layout to include 3 additional locations within the sub-pages, same brand/domain name. The 3 locations old domains were redirected to their sites within our main brand domain. How long could Google take to crawl/index the new pages and rank the keywords used within those pages? And possibly increase our domain authority hopefully? We didn't want our brand spread out over multiple websites/domains on the internet. This also allowed for more content to be written on pages, per each of our locations service's, as well.
Web Design | | BurgSimpson0 -
Can forwarding users from one domain to a different domain damage rank and authority of first domain?
Preliminary Explanation: We launched a new website a couple months back but haven't had much luck in Google taking notice. One of the main attractions to our site is an old flash app that was made nearly a decade ago. As the original developer has long ago moved on and we are unable to figure out how to integrate it with our new site, we've been stuck hosting the flash app on a different domain. As such, users who come to our site and want to use the app must immediately navigate away from our site to this other domain. This has caused our primary domain's bounce rate and average site time to plummet while raising it for the other domain. My question: is this damaging our search rank and page authority with Google for this primary domain/site and counter-acting any other positive SEO changes we can make? How much weight does Google give towards bounce rate/average site time spent by users in its overall calculations for search rank and page authority? Our average site time for this primary domain is resting currently at 50-60 seconds, while for the secondary domain that hosts the old flash app it is 4-5 minutes.
Web Design | | Closetstogo0 -
We use bigcommerce platform and want to access the bigcommerce server to change the way our product images display
Hi We use bigcommerce and want to chage the way we display multiple images for our products. At the moment in bigcommerce you switch between images by clicking the next image, we want the images to change when we hover the curser over the image. Does anyone know how to do this ? Regards Adrienne
Web Design | | CostumeD0 -
Interlinking using Dynamic URLs Versus Static URLs
Hi Guys, Could you kindly help us in choosing best approach out of mentioned below 2 cases. Case. 1 -We are using: We interlink our static pages(www.abc.com/jobs-in-chennai) through footer, navigation & by showing related searches. Self referential Canonical tags have been implemented. Case. 2 -We plan to use: We interlink our Dynamic pages(www.abc.com/jobs-in-chennai?source=footer) through footer, navigation & by showing related searches. Canonical tags have been implemented on dynamic urls pointing to corresponding static urls Query 1. Which one is better & expected to improve rankings. Query 2. Will shifting to Case 2 negatively affect our existing rankings or traffic. Regards
Web Design | | vivekrathore0 -
Using a 301 vs. 302?
I'm running into a very confusing situation - and while I think I've worked through the answer, I'm hoping someone can help provide their insight. I have a client who is in the process of rolling out a responsive site. Because we need to host both Responsive and legacy versions of product pages on the domain we are using the following URL pattern. New Responsive Product Page exampleurl.com/product (existing URL structure) Older Product Pages (redirected to) exampleurl.com/legacy/product The rollout will be approximately 2 months to complete. The question becomes - should a 302 redirect be applied from the existing URl to the /legacy/ URLs until the new designs are launched? Given that the timing will be so short this seems reasonable. Or should a 301 be applied until the new responsive designs are rolled out?
Web Design | | JonClark150 -
HTML to Wordpress - a good idea?
I have an HTML site that is 12 yrs. old and ranks well in Google. I want the more user friendly Wordpress format to update content myself. Should I, and how do I make the transition. Thanks.
Web Design | | Stuttering0 -
Setting a Preferred Domain
Should you set a preferred domain? www.domain.com or domain.com Does this influence your SEO strategy?
Web Design | | HMCOE0