Flat vs. subdomain web structure
-
I am building a site which sells a product in 50 states and in each state we will have independt partners. From an SEO perspective, what are the tradeoffs in using a single domain vs. having each state a subdomain? Each state also has varying regulatory issues that are specific to that state.
-
I agree that with 50 subdomains i cant see you having enouth content, i was speakng in general.
i was refereing to that link, Rand said it is his personal belief that most of the time it is better to keep to one subdomain.
-
I agree. When I use subdomains, I start thinking about FTP. I also think about the user having the best user experience. If he wants to make one site that markets 50 states, then using a CMS would be the answer. But creating 50 subdomains would be repetitive. I his case I would use folders and if the independent partner needs access to the site, then add them as a user with limited site access.
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites
-
This is an old argument, subdomains v subfolders,
Matt cutts said there is no difference. see comments
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/subdomains-and-subdirectories/google web master blog said there is no differnece.
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/01/feeling-lucky-at-pubcon.htmlRand recomends sub folders, but said it was his personal choice.
I have seen SERPS with sitelinks, and in theh site links are links in subdomains, so i would say that google sees them as the same site.
If you register a root domain in wmt, the links from subdomains are seen as internal links. If somone verifies the subdomain under another account, then you will no longer see stats for the subdomain.
i have never seen any evidence that they are any different.
-
Use craigslist.org as an example. Every city has it's own subdomain. It's not in a subfolder where link juice is passed. Using a subdomain is almost like having a different domain.
Your choices will be state.example.com or example.com/state. I personally would use subfolders instead of subdomains to keep link juice. No "if" I was going to GeoTarget each state and I did NOT want to be in other states, then I would use subdomains the way Craigslist is set up.
A better question is this. You state you want to sell "a" product in 50 states. The way I read that is you are going to have 50 pages of duplicate content (whether it's one product or 1,000 products). How do you mean independent partners? You have to explain that a little further. Do you mean affiliates? Do you mean independent contractors like MLMs (network marketing). Your website should be structured around your business objectives. What if you have two partners within one state?
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
-
Does a root domain get SEO power from its subdomains?
Hi there! I'd appreciate your help with the following case: a) Current 10-year-old website (community) on root domain "example.com" (250,000 incoming quality-backlinks) will move to the new subdomain "newsub.example.com" (301 redirects to the new subdomain for all current subfolders) b) A new website (shop) will launch on the root domain "example.com" Question: Will the new website on "example.com" get SEO power from the old website on "newsub.example.com"? SEO power = linkjuice/authority/trust/history/etc. from the 250,000 backlinks. What I'm trying to achieve: Maintain the built-up SEO power for the root domain "example.com" Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this! P.S. Plenty has been written about subdomains inheriting from their root domains (so please don't share input on the subdomain vs. subfolder debate). But I can't find satisfactory info about the other way around (root domains inheriting from their subdomains), e.g. if wikia.com gets SEO power from its subdomains superman.wikia.com, starwars.wikia.com, etc.)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ebebeb0 -
Subdomain Place Holder
So long story short - we are rolling out a new website earlier than expected. Unfortunately, we are being rushed and in order to make the deadline, we have decided to create a www2. subdomain and release our HTML only version of the site for the next 2 weeks. During that time, the HTML site will be ported over to a Drupal 8 instance, and resume its www. domain. My question is - will a temporary (302) from www to ww2 and then back to www screw the proverbial pooch? Is there a better way to implement a temporary site? Feel free to probe with some questions - I know I could be clearer here 😉 Thanks community!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BDS20160 -
Wordpress Blog in 2 languages. How to SEO or structure it?
Hi Moz community, I have got a wordpress blog currently in the spanish language. I want to create the same blog content but in english version. (manually translate it to english instead of using translation service such as Google Translate). How should i structure the blog for SEO? How will it work? Any structure markups i should know about? Any examples? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | WayneRooney0 -
We are switching our CMS local pages from a subdomain approach to a subfolder approach. What's the best way to handle this? Should we redirect every local subdomain page to its new subfolder page?
We are looking to create a new subfolder approach within our website versus our current subdomain approach. How should we go about handling this politely as to not lose everything we've worked on up to this point using the subdomain approach? Do we need to redirect every subdomain URL to the new subfolder page? Our current local pages subdomain set up: stores.websitename.com How we plan on adding our new local subfolder set-up: websitename.com/stores/state/city/storelocation Any and all help is appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SEO.CIC0 -
How would you structure this content?
We have a site where we write about our son who was born with Down syndrome. I had a question regarding some content I'm trying to create and structure and hoping you guys can point me in the right direction. One of the things we are often asked by new parents is what toys we suggest for people to buy for their child with Down syndrome, or as gifts for a friend who has a child with Down syndrome. So I'd like to write some posts that suggest great toys for each year of a kids life (and continue that as Noah grows.) However, there are some variations of key words that I would like to rank for as well and it gets a little messy, which is where I need the help. For example for each year I could have a post titled: Top Ten (I could also change out top ten for Best, etc..)Toys For A One Year Old with Down Syndr Top Ten Christmas Gift Ideas For A One Year Old With Down Syndrome Top Ten Birthday Gift Ideas For a One Year Old With D.S. Top Ten Learning Toys For A One Year Old With D.S. Top Ten Toys Under 25 Dollars For A One Year Old with DS Top Ten Developmental Toys for a One Year Old With DS Top Ten Fisher Price Toys for a child with ds Best Light Up Toys For a one year old with ds best muscial toys for a one year old with ds I could also think of other variations as well. Also I can make each of these with the various ages. 2 year old, 3 year old, etc... So I'm not sure what the best way to go is. I could easily have a ton of content that is all virtually the same (birthday gifts / christmas gifts..although I could suggest different toys) so I'd have a ton of different toys pages trying to rank for one term each that is good for google searchers but probably not so great for folks coming to my site as I would have toy pages scattered all over the site. I also don't know how landing pages would fit in to all of this. Would I want a "Down Syndrome Toy Guide" landing page, or "Down Syndrome Gift Guide" ... or both...or something else, and then link all of those other pages on that page? I have a few pages on my site now that I wrote before I started to think about all the different combinations I wanted to rank for: http://noahsdad.com/gift-ideas-down-syndrome/ and http://noahsdad.com/best-fisher-price-learning-toys/ I'm open to any feedback you guys may have on this. I'd also like to do some posts on "Down Syndrome Books" and hope to use the same info that you guys give me and apply to books. (Therapy books, touch and feel books, resource books, new parents books, etc..) Hoping some folks chime in as your help would really be appreciated.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | NoahsDad0 -
Link juice site structure?
If we have a top nav with contact us, about us, delivery, FAQ, Gallery, how to order ect but none of these we want to rank and then we have the usual left hand nav.are we wasting juice with the top nav and would we be better either removing it and putting them further down the page or consolidating them and adding an extra products tab so the product pages are first.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BobAnderson0 -
On Page vs Off Page - Which Has a Greater Effect on Rankings?
Hi Mozzers, My site will be migrating to a new domain soon, and I am not sure how to spend my time. Should I be optimizing our content for keywords, improving internal linking, and writing new content - or should I be doing link building for our current domain (or the new one)? Is there a certain ratio that determines rankings which can help me prioritize these to-dos?, such as 70:30 in favor of link-building? Thanks for any help you can offer!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Travis-W0 -
Site Structure Question
Hi All, Got a question about site structure, I currently have a website where everything is hosted on the root of the domain. See example below: site.com/men site.com/men-shorts site.com/men-shorts-[product name] I want to change the structure to site.com/men/shorts/[product-name] I have asked a couple of SEOs and some agree with me that the structure needs to be changed and some say that as long as I dictate the structure with internal links and breadcrumbs the URL structure doesn't matter... What do you guys think? Many thanks, Carlos
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Carlos-R0