Are multiple domains for my website hurting my Google ranking?
-
Hello,
I currently have two domains showing up in google search:
These domains are currently ranked in the #2 and #3 spot, however my page is much more trafficked than the current #1 ranking. I am wondering if the fact that I have two domains competing for the #1 spot is hurting my search ranking. If so, what is the best way to remedy this issue and get back my #1 spot?
I'm rather new to SEO and teaching myself as I go, so I appreciate the feedback!
-
Here's the post on Search Engine Roundtable that discusses Google's comments about this not being a ranking change.
http://www.seroundtable.com/google-subdomains-webmaster-tools-13968.html
-
FYI, it looks like you're 302-redirecting the "shop." sub-domain to a deeper page on the root domain. This can be the worst of both worlds, in some cases. I'm not clear on the reasoning, but if "shop." is the e-commerce/store sub-domain, I'd rather see you 301-redirect it to "/shop" or something like that.
I realize you may have technical constraints that require the e-commerce site to be on a subdomain. There are ways around that, like a reverse proxy.
From a purely SEO standpoint, you can potentially rank 2 sub-domains (Google keeps changing their mind on that, it seems), but you're also potentially splitting the link-juice between those sub-domains. In most cases, I don't find the sub-domain approach to be a good long-term strategy. On the other hand, if you're ranking #2 and #3 and aren't seeing a downside, you've got to consider that data.
-
Google hasn't been clear on this - they stated later (I can't recall where, unfortunately) that this change was only an accounting change in Google Webmaster Tools. It didn't change how they actually pass link-juice across subdomains. I've found it can go both ways. Some subdomains fragment and get treated as separate domains, and others seem to get more tightly integrated. It depends a lot on the site, structure, duplication, etc.
-
Glad to see you also sorted out the non-www to www permanent redirect on shwoodshop.com. I would say that this is the quickest way to get site wide content duplication.
Now that you have these redirects put in place your site will be ok. Just make sure you don't delete the redirects!
-
Perfect! Thanks again for your input. I really appreciate your help!
-
These are 2 completely different pages so you should be fine now. As for the question "will it hurt if Google indexes both?", not at all. Actually it's every SEOs dream to get 2 pages from one site indexed on 1st page. Although, it's best practice to make sure that each page's content and meta tags are unique to each other. The reason is that sometimes these can also battle for serp position if they are closely alike in terms of content and meta tags. Just make sure there unique and focused on what that specific page has to offer. But then once again if your already have a keyword ranking on 1st page for both urls then its probably best to leave them as is and see what the result 301 redirect will accomplish for you. Allow for it to be re-indexed by Google again.
-
Thanks so much for your response! I went ahead and used the 301 redirects to direct everything to www.shwoodshop.com.
Now that everything is pointing to the same place, is there any harm in having both www.shwoodshop.com and www.shwoodshop.com/collections/all show up in a google search? These pages aren't competing now, correct?
According to the SEOmoz data, my page www.shwoodshop.com is much stronger than my competitors' when googling "wood sunglasses" so I just want to see if there are any obvious factors limiting my search strength.
Thanks again everyone!
-
Hi Taylor, As I had done some of the analysis for your both domains. If you use both domain then it will hurt your ranking according to google.
The analysis that I had done as below:
This is website that have Page rank =5
Google Indexing Backlinks=274
Secondly your shop.shwoodshop.com is redirect to http://shwoodshop.com/collections/all these page which have following factors:
This is website that have Page rank =4
Google Indexing Backlinks=274
One of the most important issue that I found that your website does not have 301 redirect error set up.
This would results that there are two separate domains i. e http://www.shwoodshop.com/ & http://shwoodshop.com/, so it is better to redirect it to the one & only single page according to their preferred domain.
Below there is a link which tells you that multiple domain are bad for SEOm& website too:
http://www.seo.com/blog/multiple-domains-seo/
&
http://blog.ineedhits.com/tips-advice/why-owning-multiple-domain-names-is-bad-for-seo-02539442.html
I hope that your query had been solved.
-
This use to be the case but recently Google now treats the sub domain as internal links see the changes here: http://searchengineland.com/new-google-classifies-subdomains-as-internal-links-within-webmaster-tools-91401
Overall I do not think this will be a problem having your sub domain and your main url rank for a term, that been said if both the sub domain and main website have unique content and are well linked it can be a good strategy.
I remember one website in a local insurance niche doing this well for a long time
-
Hello Taylor,
Is this a trick question? The reason I ask is because the shop.shwoodshop.com you are talking about already redirects to http://shwoodshop.com/collections/all. Also I notice an important factor that might help your site rank better. I recently suggested this to a client and within a few days his site moved to 1spot from 4th position. I am not guaranteeing it will work but its actually an issue that needs to be resolved anyhow. If your utilizing the SEOMOZ software then the first thing you will notice if running a campaign is a notification from the software stating the following:
We have detected that the domain www.shwoodshop.com and the domain shwoodshop.com both respond to web requests and do not redirect. Having two "twin" domains that both resolve forces them to battle for SERP positions, making your SEO efforts less effective.
I suggest that you fix this by either 301 redirecting the non www to www or vice versa. It all depends for which version you already have keywords ranking on. In other words if your already ranking for keywords on the www version then you will want to redirect the non www to it. If it's the non www that you are already ranking for then you will benefit from directing the www to the non www.
I hope that helps
-
As far as I know Google will treat content on a subdomain as a separate website, so chances are you're splitting the domain authority over the two websites.
As far as PageRank is concerned this is on a **per page basis (n**ot per site). Every page is ranked on its own individual merits.
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
-
Huge difference between GSC ranking and browser ranking for certain keywords: How to proceed?
Hi, There is a huge ranking difference between the GSC and browser for our primary keyword. As per GSC, our ranking is around 15 and when checking on the multiple different incognito browsers it's around 50. How to handle this? Which is the accurate one? Product expert from Google forums claim that what I see on browsers are the personalized results; but I tried on different browsers with different connections. Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Descriptive domain vs business name domain
I originally set up my domain as "overlandparkphotographer.com" and then have my "jpshots.com" pointing to it. What I recently discovered is that even though the pages of my I set Yost SEO Title to be "JPShots Senior Pictures | Wedding Photographer" When you search "overland park photographer" the snippet tile is just "overland park photographer" which sounds super sketchy. I don't know if this is something to do with yost, or if my sneaky Domain isn't worth much, and I should simply use my regular jpshots.com domain as the primary. I know it works like a charm with yahoo, but I'm not sure how much the domain name factors google these days.
Algorithm Updates | | JPRichardson0 -
Can 'Jump link'/'Anchor tag' urls rank in Google for keywords?
E.g. www.website.com/page/#keyword-anchor-text Where the part after the # is a section of the page you can jump to, and the title of that section is a secondary keyword you want the page to rank for?
Algorithm Updates | | rwat0 -
Anyone Notice Google's Latest Change Seems to Favor Google Books?
I've noticed a change in the search results lately. As I search around I notice a lot of results from books.google.com Seems a little (ok a lot) self serving... JMHO
Algorithm Updates | | get4it0 -
Why does this website rank so well?
We've just taken on a new client who wants to rank well for 'Emergency dentist' related keywords in the London area and they have identified a website that they would like to compete with rankings wise. www.valedental.com I've done a backlink analysis with Open Site explorer and it says that the domain only has 2 inbound links? I've also done a who-is lookup and the domain was only registered in December 2012. Any idea why it is ranking so well for 'emergency dentist' 'emergency dentists' 'emergency dentist london' 'dental emergencies' (when searched for in the london area) thanks in advance for any help Marcus
Algorithm Updates | | dentaldesign0 -
Half my ranks have gone missing
I have a site that was rankly very highly for gaming walkthrough phrases. I was ranking #3 for the phrase skyward sword walkthrough Then it began to drop, despite me building more links (non spammy links) through guest blogs and emailing people requesting they just link to it from their site. I went in and added more text to the page and it went up a few places but is now gone from the first 5-10 pages. This has also happened to all of my walkthrough related ranks. My other ranks are still there but these accounted for a large portion of my traffic and is very odd. My on-page grade is near if not perfect my page Some insight would be nice
Algorithm Updates | | webfeatseo0 -
Very Erratic Ranking
Over the last month our ranking for "Web Design in Cumbria" has fluctuated from position 2 to position 10 a couple of times a week on Google UK.It tends to go to position 10 on a Friday but bounces back to position 2 on the Saturday. Then it goes back to 10 on Monday / Tuesday then back to 2 the next day. Does anyone have any idea why, cause it is confusing the hell out of us? Thanks Fraser
Algorithm Updates | | fraserhannah0 -
Classifieds and Google Panda
It seems Google's Panda update is targetting low quality sites with little unique content (I know there's more to it than that). It makes sense that they may want to do this but what about classified sites. They may use some scraped content as well as unique ads, and the ads may lack content as they rely on the users writing the ads. However, they are helpful to the people that use classifieds. Because of these factors, these sites are suffering with the release of the latest Panda update. Any advice for classified sites and how they can combat the rankings drops???
Algorithm Updates | | Sayers0