Skip to content
    Moz logo Menu open Menu close
    • Products
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Pro Home
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Home
      • STAT
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Home
      • Compare SEO Products
      • Moz Data
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis
      • Keyword Explorer
      • Link Explorer
      • Competitive Research
      • MozBar
      • More Free SEO Tools
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO
      • SEO Learning Center
      • Moz Academy
      • SEO Q&A
      • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Agency Solutions
      • Enterprise Solutions
      • Small Business Solutions
      • Case Studies
      • The Moz Story
      • New Releases
    • Log in
    • Log out
    • Products
      • Moz Pro

        Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

      • Moz Local

        Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

      • STAT

        SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

      • Moz API

        Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

      • Compare SEO Products

        See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

      • Moz Data

        Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Free SEO Tools
      • Domain Analysis

        Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

      • Keyword Explorer

        Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

      • Link Explorer

        Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

      • Competitive Research

        Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

      • MozBar

        See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

      • More Free SEO Tools

        Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
      Moz Pro

      NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

      Learn more
    • Learn SEO
      • Beginner's Guide to SEO

        The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

      • SEO Learning Center

        Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

      • On-Demand Webinars

        Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

      • How-To Guides

        Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

      • Moz Academy

        Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

      • MozCon

        Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
      Moz API

      Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

      Find your plan
    • Blog
    • Why Moz
      • Small Business Solutions

        Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

      • Agency Solutions

        Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

      • Enterprise Solutions

        Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

      • The Moz Story

        Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

      • Case Studies

        Explore how Moz drives ROI with a proven track record of success.

      • New Releases

        Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

      Surface actionable competitive intel
      New Feature

      Surface actionable competitive intel

      Learn More
    • Log in
      • Moz Pro
      • Moz Local
      • Moz Local Dashboard
      • Moz API
      • Moz API Dashboard
      • Moz Academy
    • Avatar
      • Moz Home
      • Notifications
      • Account & Billing
      • Manage Users
      • Community Profile
      • My Q&A
      • My Videos
      • Log Out

    The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. Home
    2. Moz Tools
    3. Moz Pro
    4. Root domain or sub domain

    Moz Q&A is closed.

    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    Root domain or sub domain

    Moz Pro
    3
    4
    910
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
    • tanveer1
      tanveer1 last edited by

      When I crawl my site as a root domain, I get more errors is my campaign than when I set my site as a sub domain.

      Which one is the correct way: root domain or subdomain. My site is www.aa-rental.com

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • RyanKent
        RyanKent @vivekrathore last edited by

        I can't agree with Anirban's suggestion. A 301 redirect would be the superior solution.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • vivekrathore
          vivekrathore @RyanKent last edited by

          You should put a canonical tag on http://aa.rental.com point to http://www.aa.rental.com. When search engines bot sees the canonical tag it will crawlyour main site http://www.aa.rental.com and hence no dulicate content issue.

          RyanKent 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote -1
          • RyanKent
            RyanKent last edited by

            Your site is published under multiple domains:

            http://aa-rental.com/

            http://www.aa-rental.com/

            Notice both of the above links brings up the same content on your site but under different URLs. That should not happen.

            http://seomoz.org/q/root-domain-or-sub-domain

            Notice if you try the above link for this Q&A response, the URL is changed to add the "www." subdomain. That is what should happen if you have a site presented on the www subdomain.

            You need to decide how you wish to present your site, with or without the www subdomain. Once that decision has been made, it needs to be enforced with server side code. Once that issue is resolved, the particular crawl issue you mentioned should be resolved.

            vivekrathore 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • 1 / 1
            • First post
              Last post

            Got a burning SEO question?

            Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


            Start my free trial


            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.

            • See all categories

            Related Questions

            • HayleyBowyer

              Moz Domain Authority [Megathread]

              domain authority da

              Hey Moz Community, We've noticed that there are questions about Domain Authority, what it is, and how to positively impact it. We're here to answer your questions! For a full overview, please see our help hub article here: https://moz.com/learn/seo/domain-authority First, it's important to keep in mind that Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine result pages (SERPs). It is not a Google ranking factor. Domain Authority scores range from one to 100, with higher scores corresponding to a greater likelihood of ranking. Since DA is based on machine learning calculations, your site's score will often fluctuate as more, fewer, or different data points become available and are incorporated into those calculations. For instance, if facebook.com were to acquire a billion new links, every other site’s DA would drop relative to Facebook’s. Because more established and authoritative domains like Facebook will have increasingly larger link profiles, they take up more of the high-DA slots, leaving less room at the higher end of the scale for other domains with less robust link profiles. Therefore, it's significantly easier to grow your score from 20 to 30 than it is to grow it from 70 to 80. For this reason, it’s important to use Domain Authority as a comparative metric rather than an absolute one. The best way to influence your DA is to improve your overall site health with a focus on the quality and quantity of external links pointing to your site. Check out this video for more details on how to impact DA Happy analyzing!

              Moz Pro | | HayleyBowyer
              0
            • Nor123

              I bought a 5 year old domain and has a spam score of 23%.....

              A few months ago i bought a 5 year old domain and when i went to check in Moz pro the spam score, it shows its at 23%. DA is 1 everything else is 0. The spam score shows 23% but there are no links at all for this website (see image) https://imgur.com/a/3lHjLEh I don't understand, there are no links at all going to this website. I checked google search console, analytics and tried looking for any links linking to this domain and there is none. Even Moz isn't showing any links in the picture i provided above. Is this a glitch? Can i reset my spam score on this domain? Does that mean i wasted my money on this domain and now i can't rank with it? Is there something im missing here. I also checked is there are any warnings or manual actions and it clearly says "No issues detected". A few months earlier i bought a brand new domain very close to the 5 year old domain (new domain has a z instead of an s) and the spam score on that is 0 and DA is 1. Given that the 5 year old domain has a 23% spam score, does that mean i should use the other new domain instead and redirect the 5 year old domain to the new website?

              Moz Pro | | Nor123
              0
            • mlb7

              Removing Domains From Disavow File

              We may have accidentally included the wrong domains in our Disavow file and have since removed most domains leaving the only very highly rated spammy links (using moz's new spam score)in the file. How long can it take for to google to recognise this change?ThanksMike

              Moz Pro | | mlb7
              0
            • MozAddict

              Can increasing website pages decrease domain authority?

              Hello Mozzers! Say there is a website with 100 pages and a domain authority of 25. If the number of pages on this website increases to 10,000 can that decrease its domain authority or affect it in any way?

              Moz Pro | | MozAddict
              0
            • apo11o177

              Comparing Domain Authority Scores

              Since your scale (like PageRank) is a logarithmic scale, it makes it hard to judge the distance between 2 scores.  Can you give me a rule of thumb.  For PageRank,  each jump is an exponential jump - so that a PR6 is perhaps 10 times stronger than a PR5. What is the log base that SEOMoz uses.   Should I assume that a 60 is 10 times stronger than a 50? This is important when it comes to measuring progress because growth is going to get more difficult as you move up the scale and I need to communicate the distance between our current Authority score and our goal. Thank You!

              Moz Pro | | apo11o177
              0
            • MichaelCorfman

              How is domain authority related to country top level domains?

              I've noticed that for some country top level domains (tld) the domain authority returned by open site explorer is based on the domain that has been registered within the tld. For example, domainname.co.uk provides a domain authority specific to the domain. However, for some other country top level domains, this does not appear to be the case.  Examples I have found include: domainname.co.nr domainname.co.pt domainname.co.ee For these top level domains the domain authority seems to be the same for every domainname, seemingly implying the domain authority is for the top level domain itself rather than for the domain. Is this a common situation for many country top level domains, so that what I see going in here is the tip of a large iceberg, or does this situation just apply to a very isolated set of country top level domains?

              Moz Pro | | MichaelCorfman
              0
            • simonberenyi

              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?

              Moz Pro | | simonberenyi
              0
            • Caseman

              What Exactly Does "Linking Root Domains" mean??

              What Exactly Does "Linking Root Domains" mean?? And how does it affect your ranking for certain Keywords?? Thanks

              Moz Pro | | Caseman
              57

            Get started with Moz Pro!

            Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

            Start my free trial
            Products
            • Moz Pro
            • Moz Local
            • Moz API
            • Moz Data
            • STAT
            • Product Updates
            Moz Solutions
            • SMB Solutions
            • Agency Solutions
            • Enterprise Solutions
            Free SEO Tools
            • Domain Authority Checker
            • Link Explorer
            • Keyword Explorer
            • Competitive Research
            • Brand Authority Checker
            • Local Citation Checker
            • MozBar Extension
            • MozCast
            Resources
            • Blog
            • SEO Learning Center
            • Help Hub
            • Beginner's Guide to SEO
            • How-to Guides
            • Moz Academy
            • API Docs
            About Moz
            • About
            • Team
            • Careers
            • Contact
            Why Moz
            • Case Studies
            • Testimonials
            Get Involved
            • Become an Affiliate
            • MozCon
            • Webinars
            • Practical Marketer Series
            • MozPod
            Connect with us

            Contact the Help team

            Join our newsletter
            Moz logo
            © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
            • Accessibility
            • Terms of Use
            • Privacy

            Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.