Why are my sub-domains ranking higher than my Root Domains?
-
I have just noticed that my sub-domains are ranking higher in Mozrank and Moztrust than the root domain - that seems nuts. Am I doing something wrong?
-
Glad to help anytime Simon.
I know it's probably hard to believe right now, but I'm sure it won't be long and you'll be explaining stuff to others here in Q&A!
Once all the pieces start to fall into place everything becomes much easier to understand and if you spend some time around the SEOmoz community you'll be flying in no time!
Here's a post with links to all of the most important resources here are SEOmoz which might help you find your way around.
Look forward to catching up with you around the community
Sha
-
Thankyou Chris and Sha for your feed back - I now have it clear in my head. You have been of great help. Thank you also for the link Sha.
Warm Regards
Simon
-
Hi again waspman,
No worries...it takes a little getting your head around when you start out
As Chris confirmed, the root domain is waspkilluk.co.uk.
The most common subdomain is the www, which is standard, but you can also create other subdomains if you wish.
Perhaps the most visible real world example of a site that uses subdomains is Google - which uses subdomains to manage each of its specific products within the site. If you take a look at the URLs when you are using Google products you will see examples like places.google.com, maps.google.com, blogger.google.com, webmasters.google.com, www.google.com etc.
A subdomain is referred to as a "third level" domain, created within another domain. As a rule, each level of a domain is defined by the dots (.) appearing in reverse order within a URL.
So, in the Google Maps example:
the Top Level Domain (TLD) is .com
the second level domain is the chosen domain name google
the third level domain (or subdomain) is maps
In your case it is a little more complicated. You have an extra level in your domains because your Top Level Domain is the country designator .uk so your second level is actually .co, but for the purposes of understanding subdomains it won't hurt for you to think of .co.uk as your top level domain.
Generally, most small sites don't require extra subdomains, so often the only subdomain in play is the www.
Matt Cutts has a simple tutorial on the parts of a URL that makes it much easier to understand what is going on at a glance.
Hope that helps,
Sha
-
That's right wapkilluk.co.uk is the root domain and www.waspkilluk.co.uk is your sub-domain
-
Thank you Sha for answering.
I am new to this - but I thought "www.waspkilluk.co.uk" was my root domain.
So have I got this a little mixed up - is "waspkilluk.co.uk" my root domain and "www.waspkilluk.co.uk" classed as a sub-domain?
Sorry if this sounds a little basic - be gentle.
-
Hi waspman,
No, you are absolutely not doing anything wrong
The simple answer is that you are acquiring links primarily to the sub-domains and not the root domains.
To explain:
"mozRank is SEOmoz's global link popularity score. It compares the relative link value (ranking power) between URLs on the Internet. It is similar in premise to Google's original PageRank metric but is updated more frequently and offers greater precision."
You can read more about all of the SEOmoz Metrics at the Open Site Explorer explanatory page.
So, if you go to Open Site Explorer and run a query for your sub-domain you will see the number of external links to that URL. If you then remove the www and run the query for the root domain you will see that there are 0 links to that URL.
Since mozRank = link popularity - it should be higher for the sub-domain because that is where the links are pointing, and of course you want to ensure that your links are always consolidated to just one domain. So, things are exactly as they should be.
Hope that helps,
Sha
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
-
Mobile SEO Rank Tracker - Hourly
Hello folks! Does anyone have a suggestion for a rank tracker that can track high-profile keywords, in mobile specifically, on an hourly basis? Thanks!
Moz Pro | | rvseo0 -
Search Volume in Keyword Rankings Page
Is there a way to show search volumes for keywords in the Keyword Rankings tab page? A lot of times keywords we are ranking for are added to our campaign, and it would be very useful to see the search volumes within that grid. That way we could sort by the search volume and determine which keywords are worth targeting and optimizing for. I've had this ability with other software in the past and would be a great option for either Moz Pro version or the new Beta that is coming out. Which I'm still waiting for my invite BTW:)
Moz Pro | | agencypromogroup0 -
What's the best way to switch a campaign from sub-domain tracking to root domain tracking?
I realized after the fact that one of my campaigns also has a mobile website sub-domain that I'd like to track (ex: http://m.website.com). How can I switch this campaign over to root domain tracking without deleting everything and starting over?
Moz Pro | | CFW-SEO1 -
Sudden decrease in Moz Page rank
Hello, We have a serious issue with 404s and recently saw our Moz Page rank fall from 53 to 47. 1. OSE Inbound links no longer shows any of our Linked In posts, did Linked In stop passing juice? 2. Does SEO Moz reduce your ranking when there's a sudden increase in 404s? 2a. WP Yoast SEO - I accidentally checked the box on this plugin to "Strip the category base (usually /category/) from the category URL" which basically caused all of our blog post categories and Datafeedr categories to disappear. Didn't realize till too much time had passed that I accidentally clicked that box. Datafeedr is a plugin for our estore that parses the data feeds from affiliate vendors and allows you to create a saved search that auto updates old products every 3 days. I had a no index/follow parameter on the category items, but seeing the # of 404s continue to increase, I temporarily removed this parm last week to see if it reduces this now static number of 404s. Google Webmaster tools started showing a ton of soft 404s that kept increasing, while SEO Moz didn't show any of those 404s. I didn't pay much attention to GWT since Google kept saying it won't affect our rankings, and nothing was showing up on SEO Moz. Last week a fraction of those 404s showed up and I am not sure if that's what lowered our Moz rank or what looks like a possible delinking from Linked In and a higher ranking complimentary website directly related to our field itsallaboutyoga. Looking at the Moz graph of "Total Linking Root Domains Over Time" all of our competitors took a similar % hit since between June and the end of July, so I am thinking its more wide based than fat fingered mistake. I fixed # 2, (have to still figure out what to do with most of those 404s, thinking of submitting a request to Google vs 1,000s of 301s) so in doing my review of this sequence of events and using it as a learning experience, where would I assign max destructive value as a percentage? A. Ignoring GWT soft 404s in favor of SEO Moz campaign reports B. No follow from Linked In and related industry site C. Datafeedr, thousands of indexed products through Datafeedr that are no longer available mostly due to WP Yoast SEO fat finger error. I did have the D. WP Yoast SEO, "Strip the category base (usually /category/) from the category URL" E. Global Google algo change Cheers, Michael
Moz Pro | | MKaloud0 -
A competator ranked higer thank me although all my seomoz factors are significantly higher.
Hey, I'm new to seoMoz and this is my first question (so far it's been great!). Short summery, I got a website in a specific nitch in google IL, my website is 2 years old.
Moz Pro | | Ace.biz
All my opensiteexplorer params are far higher than my competitor. On the exact keyword I'm ranked #3, wikipedia ranked #2, he's ranked #1. Cant figure out why is that. I've tried copying his links profile, linking from same site he does. Had partial success but my links profile is far larger in terms of quality and content. My page is graded "A" by seomoz tools. Attached my OpenSiteExplorer screenshot. I'm wondering what are your thoughts on that. Regards,
Oleg. factors2.png0 -
Root or subfolder campaign for e-commerce
Hi there, New to Moz and have just signed up to the pro package. I run a menswear website in the UK, and I want to start a campaign looking at 1 or 2 brands (Money Clothing and Cruyff Trainers). What I would like to know is, when starting a campaign for say Money Clothing, should I use my root domain www.designerboutique-online.com/ or should I use my Money Clothing domain (www.designerboutique-online.com/all-clothing/money-clothing/ ? Then once I do this, do I use my competitors subfolder pages or do I use their root domain? I tried to use 1 competitor as a subfolder and I think it gave an error saying I cannot use / after the domain? Any help on what would be the best approach for me to begin targeting my specific brands and how to compare them against my competitors. Cheers
Moz Pro | | WillBlackburn
Will0 -
How Long For New Keyword Rank Data?
I have a PRO account and added the initial keywords and got the immediate rankings for those. Then I added new keywords and those have not been updated. How long do I have to wait to get Keyword Ranking data on those keywords. I know it says they are updated every Friday, but does that mean I have to wait until next Friday for my first run of data on new keywords?? I ask because I have to present to a client before then and I require the data for that meeting. Any insight is appreciated.
Moz Pro | | mc418720 -
How can I increase my domain authority score?
We've jumped up in our rankings, page authority scores, and our toolbar PR over the past year, but our domain authority score remains the same as it was this time last year. I have noticed that for most people's sites, domain authority is typically higher than page authority, and my suspicion is that our domain authority score staying static is capping our page authority potential to some degree. Our SEOmoz scores are quite low for our toolbar PR. I've looked at the SEOmoz page relating to domain authority, and it rather vaguely says 'improve SEO generally across your site'. Other than age, the only thing I can think of is that maybe we have backlinks ranging across too broad a spectrum of topics. Being a web hosting company, we get a lot of links from our customers' sites that aren't related to our industry. Anyone got any specific advice? To provide some context, it's a PR7 website that's around a decade old with links in the hundred thousands. We score just 59 for domain authority. Thanks in advance, Jenni
Moz Pro | | Jenni_HeartInternet0