Subdomains seen as one site
-
Earlier this month Google announced that sub-domains are now
be treated as one site. At first I thought this was good news as I like to use
sub-domains for separation of categories and the like. But what about links
from one sub-domain to the other, they uised to be external links now they are
internal links. If you don’t have many external links, I would say that the
cross sub-domain links would have been important, if you have a lot of external
links then the flow of link juice would be of more benefit. I think overall its
is a good thing.Does anyone have any opinions about this or know of any writings
on the subject since this announcement?http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/08/reorganizing-internal-vs-external.html
-
Well you want to see them as they are considered for ranking. If for ranking a subdomain link is considered an internal link then yes, thats how WMT should report it.
-
I am not a legal expert but it is my understanding if you own the root domain, then you own the subdomains. Even if you use sites like wordpress.com or blogspot the legal owner of the subdomains is the root domain owner. If you violate their terms of service, the main company will kick the subdomain user off and take control over the account.
With respect to Google WMT, I think it's a convenience thing. In most cases, you want to know what other sites are linking to your site. It is usually not helpful to know your own subdomain is linking to your root domain. You expect that as you do other internal linking. It makes the analysis of external linking a bit easier to remove all internal links.
-
Exactly so I am thinking they will basically just aggregate any sites that use the same domain under the same webmaster account.
-
Yes i did not read too clearly, the comments explaned much more.
but it makes one think,about the old question about how google handles subdomains(for rankings). when does it see them as the same site and when does it see them as seperate.
I am guesisng they already do rank sites using the rules in article. I look after a site that has nothing more then a home, about, search and contact page on root domain, with several sub-domains. yet the home page ranks well for all the subdomains catgories. -
The announcement is informative but in my opinion highly misunderstood.
Dr. Pete asked the key question which was answered in a reply from the original author:
"This update only changes how links are displayed in Webmaster Tools. It doesn't affect how links are valued in relation to the search algorithm or ranking. It has nothing to do with Panda, nothing to do with keywords, nothing to do with PageRank."
In short, nothing has changed. The only difference iis how links are displayed when you are viewing the root domain in Google WMT.
-
I get your point, what they dont make clear is if you only list the root domain then how do they know you own the sub domains also, aer you to put the same verification code in each site?
And if they are going to see then as the same site are they going to sdee them that way for ranking? or do they already for that reason?
-
From reading that article it looks like they are doing this for their webmaster tools, but don't mention if they are combining subdomain links and primary domain links into their SERP calculations as if they were the same site.
Knowing if it affected SERP calculations is more important. Have you seen any articles on that (going to search shortly for that ;))
That would be more interesting to me as our site currently has at least 6 subdomains for publicly accessible sites, and while I would love to move them all under sub folders it requires a decent bit of effort on our side. If Google just counted them all under the same link profile for rankings then it would save time and money, and give Google a better view of our web presence as a whole. This would be better for the end user as the end user would be able to get to our blogs, forums, portal, and API knowledgebase easier from search results when just searching for our company name. So I can see it being useful for Google since it is useful for users.
For that article (webmaster tool purposes) I think it makes sense as it helps simplify reporting for the "www" subdomain. It makes it easier to aggregate your data, and see it how Google really sees it (especially if you have a rewrite from www.example.com to just example.com or vice versa). So it sounds good to me
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
-
Backlink Query. Unranked pages of High Ranking sites.
Hi, So I was just wondering if someone with more knowledge than myself can answer this question for me. I have a site - currently sat on page 2 of google. On-site optimisation is done, however I am struggling to get backlinks that are from highranking pages. I am new to SEO so need a hand. My understanding of backlinks is that the higher the PR of the site that links to your 'money' site, the better that link is, and that these links are very hard to come by. (something that I am finding). Many times I have found sites that have a high rank and offer for a free listing, only for me to fill in details and get listed on a sub-page that has no ranking whatsoever. So my question is, are these kind of links worth the effort? Do they actually have any effect on rankings? And generally would anyone have any tips on the best sites to get links? Thanks
Industry News | | Chstphrjohn0 -
What's an example of an SEO firm's site that lists their SEO packages excellently
Hello, I'd like to make a packages page on the site I'm still building bobweikelseo.com What's an example of a firm or SEO that lists their packages in a way that is appealing, useful, and all around excellent? I'm thinking of having a first package for analysis at $440, a second package for analysis and on-site SEO for $880, and a third package for analysis, on-site SEO, and link building for $2000-$4000/month depending on how fast they want the link building to go. Looking for some input on how to create a packages page, if my prices are appropriate (I want to be affordable), and an example of a website that does an excellent job at presenting their packages.
Industry News | | BobGW0 -
Help seems like google is punishing our site and I don't understand why
I would love some helpMy anme is Suzanne Diamond our web site is WWW.thefutonshop.com we have been on line for years, 10 brick and mortar stores, had a strong ecommerce web site but in the past 4 months we have been dropping like a leaf. Organic search has been dropping since November 2012 but now total traffic seems to be slowing We are working on our SEO but I feel it has to be something more direct that we are being punished by google Perhaps it s obvious but not to me Can anyone help me please or give me a direction. suzanne@thefutonshop.com thanks in advance for any direction
Industry News | | FUTONSHOP0 -
Get Google To Crawl More Pages Faster on my Site
We opened our database of about 10 million businesses to be crawled by Google. Since Wednesday, Google has crawled and indexed about 2,000 pages. Google is crawling us at about 1,000 pages a day now. We need to substantially increase this amount. Is it possible to get Google to crawl our sites at a quicker rate?
Industry News | | Intergen0 -
So, Google is the best site on the internet.. Right? Or is that just what most people tend to think off-face?
LOL woah, put the guns away. I'm not about to rant, I just have a question and wanted to present it well. Then again, I might have actually found some easy fixes to some of Google's tools that they could make. So here's the thing. I noticed how annoyed I always getting when I have to sign in every time I go to the adwords keyword tool, or analytics. Why do you have to sign in a million times? I think it is a problem that can be fixed because if you go to check your webmaster tools, you go straight into your account, where you can then select which site you want to explore. It knows that I am already signed in to Google Accounts when I go to webmaster tools, but it doesn't recognize that fact when I go to my Analytics account, or to use the Adwords Keyword Tool. Now, every site has things that they need to work on, but not necessarily that need to be 'fixed'. Google being so commonly accepted as the best site on the net, I thought it was funny/interesting at the least to point out the problem. Even funnier is the fact that I could submit it as a problem to see if they could fix it or not, but they do such a good job of making it hard for people to contact them, that A) I don't feel like wasting my time trying B) I don't even really know if it is possible to do that. Also, why is there no official Google Analytics App / Mobile site?? Google has been pushing how important mobile is to us webmasters, but then it doesn't seem to be very high on their priority list for the tools that we use. I mean you can't view graphs on phones / tablets (mine at least), in webmaster tools, OR google analytics. Also, its a pain in the but to click the sign in button on Google Analytics when using my phone / tablet, it disapears really fast for me (needs more research from others to see if everyone has the same problem) Thanks for the interest / answers everybody. Look forward to hearing from you guys. Also, tips and help would be nice if anybody knows a solution to my sign in issue
Industry News | | TylerAbernethy0 -
Sitelinks Disappeard For My Site
Hi Guys I noticed that all the sitelinks for my site has disappeared. Could it be because of recent changes that I made to the site or maybe because I submitted a new sitemap for my site? Should I ask the googlebot to fetch my site now again after I submitted my sitemap and also ask to re-index it? I also read somewhere else that Google could be re-indexing my site and thus still needs to determine what my sitelinks is going to be. If somebody could please give me some advice on this I would appreciate it. Thanks Dave
Industry News | | DavidZA10 -
Chrome blocked sites used by Googles Panda update
Google's Panda update said it used Chrome users blocked sites lists as a benchmark for what they now term poor quality content. They said the Panda update effectively took about 85% of them out of the search results. This got me thinking, it would be very nice to discover what are the exact sites they don't like. Does anyone know if there is an archive of what these sites might be? Or if none exists, maybe if people could share their Chrome blocked sites on here we might get an idea?
Industry News | | SpecialCase0 -
Which one is THE BEST seo book
For you guys which one is the best SEO BOOK?? Maybe this one? http://www.amazon.com/Ranking-Number-One-Essential-Results/dp/1452849900/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1309247497&sr=8-4 Thanks in advance!
Industry News | | augustos1