Subdomains for niche related keywords
-
I wanted to know how efficient using a subdomain is, taking in consideration all the updates Google has made lately.
I am looking to use a subdomain for a well branded website for a niche specific part of their website. The subdomain will end-up having more than 100 pages.
I'd like to see in what cases do you guys recommend using a subdomain? How to get the same benefit out of a subdomain as i am getting from the actual main domain?
-
I agree with you and thank you for your answer but at the same time i am more worried abt the structural standpoint - as i responded above to one of the replies - use the example with the hospital
A hospital may target very general related keywords but then it may offer very specific services and programs that are all indirectly related. Now those programs are very niche related and specific for certain types of surgeries and services offered, they contain a lot of information and can be expanded way above the 10 pages mentioned.
Now the question is what do you do in that case? You'd rather have 5 sub folders divided in other 20-30 categories and subcategories? Or you would rather have them structured in a better way on a sub-domain? What would be your choice in this case?
-
ok the main website targets 5 very competitive niches. They are different niches and they all offer different types of services.
as a good example would be a hospital that offers a couple of different programs and surgeries. Each program offers a different service, and targets different niche related keywords. But because the main site offers all of those its hard to categorize them in subfolders.
-
You will be doubling your workload, essentially starting a brand new website from scratch in the same niche. I feel I need to make that very clear.
You asked about efficiency and that's pretty much the core of what I'm talking about, subdomains are inefficient.
Niche subdirectories are by far the better option.
-
Cary,
In my opinion sub-domains should be used for completely different content. If your niche has anything to do with the current site then a sub-folder is the way to go. Can you provide more info on the current site and the new niche?
DD
-
Ok so my understanding is that if you don't mind doing the extra work for a sub-domain then you do recommended it being used. Do you see sub-domains as achieving better placements down the road if the necessary extra work will be put into these?
-
I can't speak for the Panda update, but I do agree with Daniel Deceuster, subdomains have been treat historically as separate sites. So unless things have changed dramatically you will essentially be starting from scratch link and work wise.
Subfolders may not be as neat or compartmentalised as sub-domains, but they are unambiguously under the ownership of the domain in question. Search engines can trust that.
Almost all of this work is about reducing ambiguity for the search engines, and sometimes that is at the cost of elegance.
-
how about from a category standpoint - on the main site if you are creating a subfolder you are limited to how deep u structure your categories as opposed to a subdomain you have more flexibility and are able to categorize those 100 pages much cleaner and user friendly
how about if you target a different geo location? wouldnt that be optimized better with a subdomain?
-
SEO rule #1: Never use subdomains. Ever. For any reason.
Ask yourself this, what's the difference between putting these 100 pages on a subdomain as opposed to a subdirectory? None? Then why bother? Make it a subdirectory!
99 times out of 100 you will say no difference to the question above. In the random instance that you do have some kind of reasoning for using a subdomain that will get you something different, then sure, why not, but I doubt you can find a reason. Subdomains are treated as separate domains by Google. Why would you hinder your SEO efforts for no reason? Just put your 100 pages in a subdirectory of the domain and link to it from your website internally. That's all I would do.
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
-
Does a root domain get SEO power from its subdomains?
Hi there! I'd appreciate your help with the following case: a) Current 10-year-old website (community) on root domain "example.com" (250,000 incoming quality-backlinks) will move to the new subdomain "newsub.example.com" (301 redirects to the new subdomain for all current subfolders) b) A new website (shop) will launch on the root domain "example.com" Question: Will the new website on "example.com" get SEO power from the old website on "newsub.example.com"? SEO power = linkjuice/authority/trust/history/etc. from the 250,000 backlinks. What I'm trying to achieve: Maintain the built-up SEO power for the root domain "example.com" Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this! P.S. Plenty has been written about subdomains inheriting from their root domains (so please don't share input on the subdomain vs. subfolder debate). But I can't find satisfactory info about the other way around (root domains inheriting from their subdomains), e.g. if wikia.com gets SEO power from its subdomains superman.wikia.com, starwars.wikia.com, etc.)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ebebeb0 -
Two sites targeting same keywords (but with different owners)
Hi Guys So we manage a client website doing their seo and ppc The site has become a success so the client has now asked if we would like to create our own site and become an affiliate of theirs The idea is target the same set of keywords etc. My question is - in the world of google is this ok? I know about google penalising same business owners for having two websites targeting the same keyword.... But in this case - the websites are owned by different owners, different hosting, different domain ownership, different analytics code, different code development, different about us Everything is different but I am just a little paranoid that google knows we SEO the clients website Does anyone have any advice? Thanks Duncan
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CayenneRed890 -
Example of secondary related keyword
Hello, Can someone give me an example of primary and secondary related keyword for the keyword "Provence bike tour " ?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoanalytics0 -
H1 tags and keywords for subpages, is it best practice to reuse the keywords?
So let's say I have a parent page for shoes, and I have subpages for dress shoes, work shoes, play shoes, then inside each of those pages I have dress shoe cleaning, dress shoe repair, same for work and play shoes. Would it be ok to use h1 tags like this: Shoes > Dress Shoes > Dress Shoe Cleaning Dress Shoe Repair Work Shoes > Work Shoe Cleaning Work Shoe Repair Play Shoes > Play Shoe Cleaning Play Shoe Repair Would these be considered duplicate h1 tags since cleaning and repair are used for each subpage? In certain niche companies, it's rather difficult to use synonyms for keywords. Or is it ok to just keep things simple and use Shoes > Dress Shoes > Cleaning and so on? Especially since we have urls and breadcrumbs that are structured nicely using keywords, for this example both breadcrumbs and urls read like sitename.com/shoes/dress-shoes/cleaning. Any advice?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Deacyde0 -
Should I Forward Niche Site To Main Domain?
I have a niche site that was hit by penguin. I was never hit with a manual penalty, but it is obvious the algo update hit the site. I have submitted a disavow file, but it doesn't seem to have made an impact. The site does have good rankings on Yahoo and Bing. Should I close this site and 301 to the category page on my main site (i.e tshirts.com forwarded to mainsite.com/tshirts.html)? The main site had a drop after penguin, but is now receiving more traffic than pre-Penguin. The impact is mainly keyword specific (i.e keywords that appeared in anchor text dropped). Appreciate thoughts.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | inhouseseo0 -
Different rankings for same keyword in different geo locations
I am listed at # 11 in google.com.pk for a same keyword but listed 4th when I use &gl=us in the same query or use a US ip address. Could this be because google's recent update and maybe they are taking time to push the update towards other countries or something else? In any case I see decent rankings when I use the query in google.com or when I use gl=us, but lower quality results in google.com.pk so please guide what is going on. Thanks in advance for guidance (y)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | hpk0 -
Google’s Hummingbird and Keyword Cannibalization
My client wants to have keywords added on every product with the product name , apparently some seo guru told him that hummingbird is all about key phrases and long tail keywords. As i know hummingbird lends to understand the intent and contextual meaning of the query. The issue is if I add the keywords on for e.g oak furniture on all of my product title,And we are using zen-cart platform and it will change the internal anchor text on the product listing page. It will cause a Cannibalization issue. Question1. I just need help to reply to client that adding keyword can cause detrimental to ranking. Question 2. If i am wrong then do we need to re optimise the site. I have read http://moz.com/blog/how-to-solve-keyword-cannibalization Many thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Adnan.Hassan.Khan0 -
Keyword Selection - Long Tail or not long tail keyword
Hi Friends, We have a keyword "plus size clothing" but we used this as "plus size clothing 2012" to Cover the both keywords "Plus size clothing" and "Plus size clothing 2012" My question is, are we still focusing on "plus size clothing" when use "plus size clothing 2012" instead of the main keyword.? What strategy do yo suggest that when to use long tail and when to not. (when I talk to use a long tail than it means use it prominently on the page as main keyword should be used.)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | alexgray0