Root Domain v Subdomain
-
Hi,
Just doing some analysis on a domain, and the (external) linking root domains show as:
21 to Root Domain
4 to SubdomainThe site is hosted under the www. subdomain version and there is no 301 from domain to www.domain
Should the site be:
- Hosted on the root domain instead of subdomain
- 301 all incoming requests on domain to point to www.domain (subdomain)
Any comments and experience on this type of situation appreciated!
-
Agree with Justin, There is no right or wrong (www. vs none) pick one which suits you and go from there.
You can learn setting preferred domain on webmasters here - https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/44231
301 redirects depend on your CMS but don't forge to redirect to each relevant page.
Best of luck BJS.
(in short)
1) Hosted on the root domain instead of subdomain
This is your preference
2) 301 all incoming requests on domain to point to www.domain (subdomain)
Yes 301 so you're only using one site not both (e.g use www. or htttp:// but not both) but it doesn't have to be the www.
-
Hi
It depends on your preferred domain going forward, in truth 25 linking route domains isn't enough to be concerned about (unless they are from very high authority sites), so I would chose the variant which works best for you and 301 to that version.
Going forward you should build new links which point the chosen variant (www or non-www).
Justin
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
-
Site Title When Your Domain name is the keyword
Hello, I've been struggling with an issue for years. I own UsedCubicles.com. I'm ranked very well, the site generates leads and income on a regular basis. However, I never know what to name the site on the home page. The main keyword I go after is obviously "Used Cubicles". I also have product category named "Used Cubicles". I know google doesn't recognize my Used Cubicles product category as conical and reverts to the home page. I would rather Google use my categories more effectively to rank content or pages. My current site title on the home page is NOT GOOD. Used Cubicles | Usedcubicles.com. Im nervous to change it, however because Im not sure if its helping me rank for the keyword, which I do. For years I was #1 across the country but lately its been dropping. Any advice is appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Grant06970 -
How Can A SubDomain Out Perform A Root Domain?
Hi guys! I have a rather strange SEO question. It may not be that strange at all actually. If a site has a subdomain or a shopping cart that is on a subdomain through a third-party shopping cart provider, can the third party shopping cart transfer value to the subdomain causing the subdomain to have greater domain authority than the main site or root domain? Another question, this subdomain, up until yesterday, blocked google from crawling it with robots txt, however it has a much higher domain authority than the root domain. The root domain has a really low domain authority, despite not blocking google from crawling it. How is this possible? I hope these questions make sense. I am a little stumped & trying to figure out why the subdomain is out-performing the main site despite being hidden from search, if that's even the case. Please let me know if I have it all wrong..
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Prae0 -
Nice Domain Authority but Not Ranking
Hi, A client of mine who owns a website reached out to me. He got penalized a while ago and has long since recovered (not sure exactly, but for sure a year). His domain authority is in the upper 30s but is still not ranking for many of his keywords that he ranked on the first page. I am not so familiar with the technical aspects of penalties and such, but is this a common scenario? Why is his domain authority great but his ranking downright awful? Does he have a chance if he builds great links, or is something else wrong that we can't figure out?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Rachel_J0 -
SEO connectivity between domains and sub-domains
Hi, My web site georgerossphotography.com and my ecommerce site store.georgerossphotography.com each reside on different servers. georgerossphotography.com has a domain authority of 30 store.georgerossphotography.com has a domain authority of 30 Clearly, they are considered two individual sites but is there any way that I can boost the performance of the primary domain by passing along some for that good SEO juice from the sub-domain? Any input would be gratefully received. Regards,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | sirgeorge0 -
Multiple domains?
I do own a domain for my business right now, and would have a few questions, regarding the increase or traffic for my website and getting new business 1. Is it worth to purchase multiple domains, keyword search relevant, to my business? 2. If so how is the best way to use it? : have them redirect to my own website? a specific type of redirect? do I make a separate website for each of them? 3. for ex if the keyword is " tile and grout". I figured would be best to own "tileandgrout.com". How about "tile-and-grout.com"? thank you in advance
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DavidIRC0 -
How do I list the subdomains of a domain?
Hi Mozers, I am trying to find what subdomains are currently active on a particular domain. Is there a way to get a list of this information? The only way I could think of doing it is to run a google search on; site:example.com -site:www.example.com The only issues with this approach is that a majority of the indexed pages exist on the non-www domain and I still have thousands of pages in the results (mainly from the non-www). Is there another way to do it in Google? OR is there a server admin online tool that will tell me this information? Cheers, Dan
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | djlaidler0 -
Redirecting Powerful Domains
What do you do if you have a client that never implemented a 301 redirect on their domain? For example here are the OSE stats for the URLs; http://url.com PA: 48 DA: 50 LRD: 65 TL: 1,084 FB: 178 FB: 14 T:5 http://www.url.com PA: 51 DA: 50 LRD: 165 TL: 2,271 FB: 178 FB: 14 T:5 G+1:3 My first instincts are to redirect the first one to the second one, but is it too late for that? Will that screw up all of their established stats? Any input or examples of past experiences with this would be great.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MichaelWeisbaum0 -
Article + 2 links to the same root domain
I am writing an article that has 2 links: The fist one is to : http://xxx.net/the-be... The second one is to : http://xxx.net/ The links are with different ancor texts and I am wondering about the link power they will bring to my website. Will both links count? Will the first one send significantly more PR than the second one ? I am asking this because my MAIN objective is the second link. Much Thanks Alex
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | IamSharp0