Subdomains, duplicate content and microsites

[mdorville]

I work for a website that generates a high amount of unique, quality content. This website though has had development issues with our web builder and they are going to separate the site into different subdomains upon launch. It's a scholarly site so the subdomains will be like history and science and stuff. Don't ask why aren't we aren't using subdirectories because trust me I wish we could. So we have to use subdomains and I'm wondering a couple questions.

Will the duplication of coding, since all subdomains will have the same design and look, heavily penalize us and is there any way around that? Also if we generate a good amount of high quality content on each site could we link all those sites to our other site as a possible benefit for link building? And finally, would footer links, linking all the subdirectories, be a good thing to put in?

[Chris.Menke]

Matt,

The duplication of template won't hurt you at all. It would be worthwhile to vary the images, though.

As for the linking between subdomains , If the content is good and unique on both sites, link between them in a manner  that is appropriate for the user and the subject matter. I wouldn't link between directories from the footer if you already have navigation that has links to those directories.