Will errors on a subdomain effect the overall health of the root domain?
-
As stated in the question, we have 2 sub domains that contain over 2000 reported errors from SEOMOZ.
The root domain has a clean bill of health, and i was just wondering if these errors on the sub-domains could have a negative effect on the root domain in the eyes of Google.
Your comments will be appreciated.
Regards
Greg
-
Hi Greg - short answer is, it depends... Which means, of course, there's a long answer
In Google's eyes, subdomains are often, though not always, treated as separate entities from the main domain, meaning if content or issues on them is giving Google trouble, that won't necessarily extend to the other parts of the domain. However, this isn't always the case. We've certainly seen times when having spam or manipulative behavior on a subdomain meant the root domain and content on it suffered as well.
In the case you're describing, if the crawl issues are things like missing meta descriptions or long titles or other less-than-critical errors, I wouldn't be too worried. But if it's lots of 404s or duplicate content or infinite redirect loops, those could cause issues.
If you're really not worried at all about what Google thinks of the subdomains or the content on them, you could always use robots.txt to block them from accessing it, which should cause Google to not weight that content when judging the site as a whole.
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
-
I have a blog on a sub domain, would you move it to the rood domain in a directory?
I have a blog that preforms fairly well on a sub domain, but after reading a post that Rand made to the Q & A I am thinking about moving it to the main domain in a sub directory. What are your thoughts on this? Here are some stats on it. The blog currently gets about 5 x the traffic of the main domain. The domain is older, 2008 creation date. They pretty much register for the same keywords.
Technical SEO | | LesleyPaone0 -
During my last crawl suddenly no errors or warnings were found, only one, a 403 error on my homepage.
There were no changes made and all my old errors dissapeard, i think something went wrong. Is it possible to start another crawl earlyer then scheduled?
Technical SEO | | KnowHowww0 -
Domain Hosting
I'm currently working with a client who provides products in Ireland Is it massively beneficial for the sited to be hosted on an irish server or will there not be much difference with it being hosted in England?
Technical SEO | | Sandeep_Matharu0 -
Domain Registrar
Looking for opinions on some good domain registrars since I have decided to transfer from Godaddy. A question while I'm here discussing the topic. Does the reputation of a Domain Registrar affect SEO in any form?
Technical SEO | | greenfoxone0 -
Redirect non www. domain to WWW. domain for established website?
Hey guys, The website in question has been online for more than 5 years but there are still 2 versions of the website. Both versions are indexed by Google and of course, this will result in duplicate content. Is it necessary to redirect the non-www domain to the www. domain. What are the cons and advantages? Will the www. links replace the non-www links when it comes to keyword rankings? Thanks.
Technical SEO | | BruLee0 -
How to increase your Domain Authority
Hi Guys, Can someone please provide some pointers on how to best increase your Domain Authority?? Thanks Gareth
Technical SEO | | GAZ090 -
What should I set my domain setting to?
In Google Wemnaster tools, I have the option to set it to either have as default the "www" or without it. What are the pros and cons of one way or the other . . . or is this a way more complicated question/can of worms I have opened?
Technical SEO | | damon12120 -
Exact match domains
I know buying new websites hoping to 301 redirect them to achieve higher rankings before they’re established is not a good idea, but what about uploading a info pages + on-page SEO + some link-building and when the site is established (it ranks) direct visitors to a landing page? Buying a new domain for the SINGLE purpose of 301 redirecting won’t boost the rankings (don't think it would get penalties either, unless it’s the only link building activity). Not planning to redirect to the homepage, but to the related sub page on our main site (specific landing page). Will this pass the appropriate anchor text and link authority to the right page on our website and help those pages to rank for their keywords? Only thinking of a few pages (no more than 3).
Technical SEO | | Diana.varbanescu0