Can "poor" subdomains drop PR of the root domain?
-
The page rank of my company's website has dropped from a 6 to a 4 over the past year or so. In that time, we implemented subdomains for development sites to show clients progress on their websites. I noticed that our "dev" sites are being indexed while in development and my question is, will Google drop pagerank of our root domain purely off of these "dev" subdomains?
Example - our site is www.oursite.com
Dev site - development1.oursite.com
I just began investigating the drop and this came to my mind yesterday but am not too sure what type of impact these non-credible subdomains will have on our root domain. Any thoughts?
-
I agree.
I have seen posts on SEOmoz and elsewhere throughout the SEO community that others are noticing drops in PR with no impact on traffic. I am not seeing a noticeable drop in traffic so the PR isn't concerning me too much but I am curious.
Have you noticed anything like this post Panda and do you think the panda update has any impact on the PR directly (I see how it would with poor content --> harder link building)? Again, I appreciate the feedback!
-
Another thought....
robots.txt shouldn't be used much but dev sites are a perfect example of where it should be used. Block crawlers from those dev sites.
-
Thank you, didn't even think of it in that sense (kind of have blinders on in this case and am looking for an easy answer, which probably doesn't exist). Appreciate the feedback!
-
Your subdomain is seen as a completely different site. Google does not assume your subdomain is related to your main site.
For example, if you visit wordpress.com you will see someone probably has the URL seo.wordpress.com. Whatever happens on that subdomain should not have any impact on any other subdomain or primary domain for wordpress.com.
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
-
Https pages indexed but all web pages are http - please can you offer some help?
Dear Moz Community, Please could you see what you think and offer some definite steps or advice.. I contacted the host provider and his initial thought was that WordPress was causing the https problem ?: eg when an https version of a page is called, things like videos and media don't always show up. A SSL certificate that is attached to a website, can allow pages to load over https. The host said that there is no active configured SSL it's just waiting as part of the hosting package just in case, but I found that the SSL certificate is still showing up during a crawl.It's important to eliminate the https problem before external backlinks link to any of the unwanted https pages that are currently indexed. Luckily I haven't started any intense backlinking work yet, and any links I have posted in search land have all been http version.I checked a few more url's to see if it’s necessary to create a permanent redirect from https to http. For example, I tried requesting domain.co.uk using the https:// and the https:// page loaded instead of redirecting automatically to http prefix version. I know that if I am automatically redirected to the http:// version of the page, then that is the way it should be. Search engines and visitors will stay on the http version of the site and not get lost anywhere in https. This also helps to eliminate duplicate content and to preserve link juice. What are your thoughts regarding that?As I understand it, most server configurations should redirect by default when https isn’t configured, and from my experience I’ve seen cases where pages requested via https return the default server page, a 404 error, or duplicate content. So I'm confused as to where to take this.One suggestion would be to disable all https since there is no need to have any traces to SSL when the site is even crawled ?. I don't want to enable https in the htaccess only to then create a https to http rewrite rule; https shouldn't even be a crawlable function of the site at all.RewriteEngine OnRewriteCond %{HTTPS} offor to disable the SSL completely for now until it becomes a necessity for the website.I would really welcome your thoughts as I'm really stuck as to what to do for the best, short term and long term.Kind Regards
Web Design | | SEOguy10 -
Responsive Site has "Not Found" Errors for mobile/ and m/ in Google Search Console
We have recently launched a new responsive website for a client and have noticed 2 "Not Found" errors within Google Search Console for /mobile and /m Both these URLs are not linked from anywhere within the site. However Google is reporting them as being linked from the homepage. This is not the first site we have seen in which Google has reported this error, however the other site was not a mobile friendly site. My thoughts are to 301 them back to the Homepage. Anybody else have any thoughts on this? or have recently received the same errors?
Web Design | | JustinTaylor881 -
Is it possible to move a couple of posts and comments from one WP domain to another
Hi, We want to move a couple of dozen articles from one of our self-hosted wordpress website to another self-hosted Wordpress website. Is there a way to this such that the following content is also included in the migration:
Web Design | | seocuppa
1. Post content (including images and meta if possible)
2. Comments Do note the older site from which we want to move out the content has more than 2000 posts and we just want to move 60-70 posts. Thanks.0 -
Can anybody recommend a good UK based SEO
Looking for a company or person willing to work on a small company website in other words not expensive 🙂 I looked on the recommended list on the MOZ website but they mostly in America and mostly only too willing to work on large company websites. There wasn't anything catering for a one-man band business like mine which is letting holiday cottages www.endeavourcottage.co.uk. I have just started talks with a responsive web designer, but if I got the right SEO company maybe they could do both but not necessary.
Web Design | | WhitbyHolidayCottages1 -
Can't Hyperlink After the WP 4.0 Update?
Anyone else who runs a WP site have problems hyperlinking after the 4.0 update? I read I could deactivate all my plugins, and go through them one-by-one, but before I go to that step, I want to know if there's either an easier way to regain this functionality or if there is a specific plugin that's known to cause the problem. Thanks, Ruben
Web Design | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Domain Consolidation & Proper Linking Strategy?
We have a client that operates 5 gyms in 5 different part of Miami, and each gym has its own website. All sites rank well and have a a good pagerank. For the purpose of their marketing and brand they would like 1 website developed which includes all of their gyms which we are launching later today. Each gym will have it's own landing page within the website Should we redirect the URL's of the different websites to the individual landing pages on the new site or how should that work to minimize any penalties on our SEO. For example (these are fake url's): www.gymA.com, www.gymB.com, www.gymC.com, www.gymD.com The new url: www.gym.com New landing pages:
Web Design | | POPCreative
www.gym.com/gymA, www.gym.com/gymB, www.gym.com/gymC, www.gym.com/gymD Should we do a redirect from: www.gymA.com to www.gym.com/gymA www.gymB.com to www.gym.com/gymB www.gymC.com to www.gym.com/gymC www.gymD.com to www.gym.com/gymD Thank you in advanced. If there is a better way to do this, or anything extra I need to know, that would be great. Thanks!0 -
Does listing my customer's address, phone number, and a contact form on "every page" count as duplicate content that they'd be penalized for?
I work with small local businesses (like Tree Farms, Feed Stores, Counselors, etc) doing web design, seo, etc. I encourage them to have their contact information visible at all times on their websites. I'm also delving into the world of contact forms. I want to have this info on every page - is this detrimental? Here's an example: http://www.trinityescape.net/marriage-couples-counselors-therapy-clermont-florida/ Thank you!
Web Design | | mikjgens1 -
Changing the domain - To do or not to do - that is the question
Hello, I am in the process of updating my website (hopefully to improve SEO). It is a major update as we are going from 20,000 product line to 200,000 product lines and hiring two marketing people to work on more content. Unfortunately, I think my domain isn't the best i.e. www.direct-tractorparts.com Some of the parts have long part numbers and I am worried that my URLs will be too long i.e. I will lose link juice from the search engines. typical url www.direct-tractorparts.com/6XY41210TTTAZCAz2 I am thinking of launching the new site with a shorter domain name rather than updating the old site. My site doesn't have that many backlinks but generates a decent level of business for my company. Not sure if it would be worth setting up another brand or not Anyone got any advice?
Web Design | | DavidLenehan0