Does a subdomain hurt/help a domain?
-
My organization's website currently hosts research databases on a subdomain. We're relatively new to MOZ and when I ran a crawl of my site, it came back with 30K issues.... 98% of which are on this subdomain. I wish I could just remove it and call it a day, however, real and active researchers use it regularly.
My question is: Does a subdomain hurt/help a domain?
I'm seeing mixed results via Google search and browsing this forum. I'm concerned that I will not be able to fix these 30K issues as I do have access to maintain this database... and just by looking at it you can tell it was built in 2005 and hasn't been updated from an SEO perspective since. Any suggestions?
-
As long as the subdomain is on a good host, has good UX/content and links well w/the parent. It also requires more maintenance than the parent. But if you can maintain everything then it's ok.
-
Hi there, in a similar vein to Kevin's comment - Google has said that subdomain/subdirectory isn't really a distinction they draw and that it's more to do with how much linking there is between the different parts whether they consider it to be the same website. That said, we don't have a good idea of what the threshold is or what historic data Google is using to make that call.
I would say this comes down to how people are using this subdomain. Do you get researchers landing on it from Google? Or is it something that they only use once they are already on your site? If you find enough researchers are coming to this subdomain from organic search then it's probably worth fixing it up because, entirely aside from the question of whether this subdomain is dragging your site down this could be a way to really strengthen your site and take advantage of a very popular resource to boost Google's respect for your site and help you rank for other things (not to mention giving your users what they want). If, on the other hand, you don't get users landing on this subdomain from organic search (you can check by going into Google Analytics for the subdomain and checking the source and medium of sessions landing on those pages) then it could be worth noindexing the subdomain. If, as you say, it's riddled with errors, you don't want Google to see it/waste time on it and users don't get there from search then by noindexing it you're saying "we don't want you to pay attention to this".
We can't know for sure how Google will treat the main domain based on this subdomain but we can plan a strategy based on use, which is often what Google tries to push webmasters towards.
-
Google says that they really don't care if the content is on a subdomain or subfolder & this is debated. I find that they both can rank well, but subdomains require more effort to maintain. As long as the subdomain is on a good host, has good ux/content and links well w/the parent, I wouldn't worry that much and I would leave as is. Good luck.
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
-
1500 Domains... Where to begin? & Web Structure Question.
So, as the title says, I am stuck. I recently have been brought on as the SEO guru for a small-mid size company with the task of rebuilding their web presence. Their website is in pretty unfortunate condition. The more research I do, the farther and farther I am going down the rabbit hole of chaos. Essential the previous CEO was doing all SEO work. He purchased 1500 domains, all keyword specific. Installed wordpress on roughly 1,000 and then began pumping out content. Of the 1,000 roughly 300 of them have about 600-2,000 characters worth of content that is absolute fluff. From there the linking began. Now the content is different enough that Google doesn't seem to notice that its the SAME FREEKIN THING on each domain, but I am very concerned. The company has their main multi-page domain which has other links and sources of traffic, but in essence the previous owner created a micro link web. My advice is to cut those links ASAP and remove the previous work. At the same time, I also don't want them to lose rank. So I guess I am asking a whole slew of questions... Am I right in thinking that we have to build a bridge before we burn a bridge? Is it worth fixing up some of those other domains to have original content to try and bolster what we already have? Would it be better to combine everything into one website, or try and have different domains represent different things. For example Envato.com is an umbrella website with 8 separate websites operating under the same roof using different domains.? Where do I begin? I feel like I have started this project numerous times. I know the keywords, I know where the duplicate content is, I know the structure of the main domain, I am getting the structure of the entire link web. Lastly, any thoughts you all have would be greatly appreciated. I realistically have minimal experience in this realm. I am a a major nub. I understand SEO in theory, sorta. So I'm getting there!
Moz Pro | | HashtagHustler0 -
Finding Related Keywords and/or Phrases
I'm diving into unknown territory and looking for keywords and phrases related to a prospective new clients business. He knows some of the general terms, for example, water removal. What tool works best to find related search terms and the number of searches for those keywords/search terms. I usually use the Google Keyword Tool but going to give moz a try. Love to be able to get local search data as well. Thanks!
Moz Pro | | DFLsports1 -
What could cause your Domain Authority score to drop?
We have 3 websites that are on 3 different campaigns. Our flagship website is www.cannontrading.com. The Domain Authority score on it was 42. When I first (Mid November 2012) started, we had 295 keywords allocated for Cannontrading.com and 5 other keywords for allocated to our other websites... e-futures.com and e-mini.com. What I wanted to do was optimize the other two pages and I did this by taking taking 50 the keywords that were not ranked in the top 50 from Cannontrading.com and assigned them to the our other two sites. Could this have caused the drastic drop in the score? Our keyword rankings for the "Top 3" has dropped from 93 to 34 since November 2012. We did have a company that did article submissions for us up till October 2012. Could this have caused our drop in the Domain Authority Score and our Keyword Rankings? I didn't make any other changes to Cannon website beside taking away those keywords and given them to our other sites. Any suggestions or thoughts would really help me. Regards, David
Moz Pro | | ACann0 -
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 -
Why can't I change the domain being tracked in my campaign?
Apologies if this has already been answered a million times and/or if I'm posting this in the wrong place... I did look, but couldn't find the answer anywhere... I just realized that all this time I have been tracking www.mydomain.com in my campaign for a long time now, while I should probably have been tracking *.mydomain.com. I wanted to change this, but it looks like I can't. If I have to set up a whole new campaign, with all of the same keywords, competitive sites to track, etc., that will take forever. Why can't I just change it so that my campaign starts tracking *.mydomain.com instead of www.mydomain.com from now on? Thank you!
Moz Pro | | ScottShrum0 -
404 Page/Content Duplicates & its "Warning"
My website has MANY duplicate pages and content which are both derived from the MANY 404 pages on my website. While these are flagged in SEOmoz as "Warnings," should this be of concern to SEO effectiveness?
Moz Pro | | dhk50180 -
Http://dev.visualwebsiteoptimizer.com
Hello. http://dev.visualwebsiteoptimizer.com seems to be hanging all the pages. Most pages will not load for me. Even your contact page will not load. The forum seems OK. Alan
Moz Pro | | loopyal0 -
Can you help me get started using the crawl diagnostics report?
After getting the crawl diagnostics report for the first time my boss and I looked over it and we have tried to fix the problems but we are stumped.I have tried and watched videos , read books, etc.. but have found nothing to help. I need assistance getting started on improving my website. Can you help?
Moz Pro | | WVInjuryLawyer0