Yes, absolutely. If the subdomain (e.g. xyz.domain.com) was migrated, using appropriate permanent redirects, to a subdirectory (e.g. domain.com/xyz) then this would support the overall site in terms of visibility and reputation on Google

Hi,

No... in my opinion

Traffic to a subdomain will not be associated with the website in general (i.e. the root domain). If the subdomain does not share navigation with the root domain then it will be treated as a standalone website by Google. A domain, sub or root, is nothing more than an address for locating a webpage.

That said, tools like Open Site Explorer will provide you with a Domain Authority at a root domain level, so use the Page Authority score at a subdomain level to understand your potential to rank and reputation.

Hope that helps!

Hi Mozzers,

I'm thinking republishing content from my own website's blog on platforms like LinkedIn and Medium. These sites are able to reach a far bigger (relevant) audience than I can through my own website, so there's strategic reasoning for doing this.

However, with SEO being a key activity on my own website, I don't want to be at risk of any penalties for duplicate content. However, I've just read this on Search Engine Journal:

"there is confirmation from Google... Gary Illyes has stated that republishing articles won’t cause a penalty, and that it’s simply a filter they use when evaluating sites. Most sites are only penalized for duplicate content if the site is 100% copied content."

So, what do people think - is republishing blog content, on LinkedIn and Medium safe? And is it a sound tactic to increase reach?

Thanks Alick300,

It's interesting to hear a mix of view points. In my industry (cloud software) it's more commonplace, and as @Robert Cairns states above, it can work well.

As with most areas of digital marketing, I think I'll tread carefully with a test and learn approach

Hi Alick300,

Thanks for getting back to me.

I'm talking about quality score when running an Adwords campaign, and landing page relevance being a factor for each keyword. So if I'm bidding on 'Competitor X' as a keyword, talking about 'Competitor X' on my landing page will increase relevance and quality score.

Thank you for sharing the article... really useful!

Hi Mozzers,

I'm seeing more and more companies improving their quality score by including information about their competitors on their website, when driving traffic from competitor brand terms. For example, for 'Yahoo Mail' related terms, Zoho drive traffic via an ad to this page:

https://www.zoho.com/mail/yahoo-mail-alternative.html

I'm planning a new campaign targeting competitor keywords and wondered what people think about this approach, and the legalities around talking about and comparing yourself to competitors on your own website?