ECommerce Sites: Sub domain vs. Unique Domains
-
Hello everyone!
I manage 3 large eCommerce sites that sell textbooks, digital learning solutions, electronic teaching resources, etc., to three different markets in the education space (K-12, College, and Post-College/Career Search).
Currently, the 3 sites live on three different sub domains of the companies main domain. Is this best practice? I assume we want all three under the same domain to consolidate domain authority. But...
What if I told you that we have dozens of sub domains of the companies main domain? Some are for marketing sites, some are for digital products, some are customer-specific sites, etc. We probably have close to 100 sub domains that are used regularly.
Then what if I told you that the company doesn't hardly even use the root domain (other than a handful of old pages)? Even the root domain redirects to a sub domain.
Just looking for some insight on this, as I will be doing an SEO/marketing/conversion overhaul going forward.
On a side note, we use Magento as an eCommerce platform, and it's rampant with duplicate content, duplicate page titles, pages with too many links, and so on and so forth. That's another problem for another day...
-
Unfortunately, several of the sub domains are _extremely _large sites that require a lot of processing power on the server. Nearly every single one of these sites has it's own dedicated server.
Holy smoke!
but I will see what we can do about moving some.
I run a site that gets a lot of traffic... It is on a dedicated server and when I needed more capacity they have added drives, memory, new processors... You can have multiple boxes running a single site.
Have you talked with any hosts who specialize in running really busy sites?
I've been pushing to take back the root domain, but have so far hit resistance.
I would say... If we are BigCompany.com then why are we sending our traffic to outhouse.BigCompany.com?
I used to work at a place that did this (I was not on the web team)... they would move important stuff all of the time, abandon URLs without redirects... it was really rude to the institutions who linked to them. All of these moves were done on whim... Without thinking of how it impacted visitors, partners and the bottom line.
-
Thanks for your response
I've been pushing to take back the root domain, but have so far hit resistance. Perhaps I can convince people to at least give it a try.
As far as moving everything into sub-folders of the root domain, as opposed to an obscene amount of sub domains, we could give that a try for some of the sub domains, but not all of them. Unfortunately, several of the sub domains are _extremely _large sites that require a lot of processing power on the server. Nearly every single one of these sites has it's own dedicated server. I think it would be heinous to move them all - but I will see what we can do about moving some.
Thanks again!
-
I assume we want all three under the same domain to consolidate domain authority.
I agree with this - 100%.
What if I told you that we have dozens of sub domains of the companies main domain? We probably have close to 100 sub domains that are used regularly.?
I'd say that you guys ran wild with subdomains.
Then what if I told you that the company doesn't hardly even use the root domain (other than a handful of old pages)? Even the root domain redirects to a sub domain.
- slaps forehead *
OK.... Here's what I can say from experience.
I had a site with a few subdomains. One of them was much more powerful than the root domain. I 301 redirected them to folders in the root domain. The results were kickass. Kickass. Rankings were up everywhere because the strength of the subdomains seemed to be united into the root after the merger.
Now... the guys who did your site created an obscene number of subdomains. If you had ten I would say merge them with confidence. But, this is a wild ass site.. so I am not betting on anything.
If you want to experiment, get rid of the redirect that sends the root into a subdomain. When that gets into the index and stable then start redirecting other subdomains into folders of the root. I would do it a few at a time to see what happens.
On a side note, we use Magento as an eCommerce platform, and it's rampant with duplicate content, duplicate page titles....
Are you sure that you want to work at this place?
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
-
.re or .com domain
I am thinking about changing the name of my site. The new name is available with .re domain (that spells the name) or a .com. I have registered the .re and the .com is parked and for sale so my question has 2 parts. Is it worth buying the .com or do I really not need it? How much does it matter in terms of losing traffic and other factors? If I do buy it which should I use as the primary domain? Thanks!
Branding | | yojimbo230 -
Moving to new domain - Social and Branding Questions?
Hi, We are moving to a new domain because our rankings drastically dropped and we want to "start over". For example - If my company is called Joes Computers and the domain was JoesComputers.com and the new domain which will hold our e-commerce website will be completely different for example - BestComputers.com - which do I brand? Which do I put as suffix in all titles?
Branding | | BeytzNet
COOL TITLE FOR PRODUCTS | Best Computers
or
COOL TITLE FOR PRODUCTS | Joes Computers Which name do I take for social profiles? Company or Domain?
(We currently have for the company since it was the same). Please note that our company name is already a little bit known... and therefore inside the website it will be labeled in Logos etc. We would also state "Best Computers by Joes Computers" (as if it is a sub brand or daughter company). Thanks,0 -
How do I improve the ranking of a site, which already receives huge volumes of traffic?
I have taken over the SEO campaign for one of our largest clients. They already receive over a million visits a year due to the brand itself. However, I'd like to start targeting some new search terms to diversify the incoming visitors. Any advice on this type of situation, beyond traditional SEO best practices? Thanks in advance!
Branding | | underscorelive0 -
Do Dashes in Domain names hurt SEO ranking?
I have found conflicting reports online whether or not dashes in domain names hurt/help ranking. Example yourbrandonline.com vs your-brand-online.com? I found Rand's write up on how to select a domain and he suggests staying away from hyphens but mainly because its hard to remember or people my enter it in wrong. Here's his comment. "Reject Hyphens and Numbers
Branding | | JoshKimber
Both hyphens and numbers make it hard to give your domain name verbally and falls down on being easy to remember or type. I'd suggest not using spelled-out or roman numerals in domains, as both can be confusing and mistaken for the other." Aside from people possibly struggling to get there directly because of the domain name, are they OK to use? Or, are domains with hyphens considered spammy? Thanks in advance.1 -
Hotel website domain
I work on a project for a hotel website and look up domain names right now. But I am now not sure wether I should go for a branding of the hotel name in the domain name (e.g. "bellavistahotel.com") or pick the location ("berlinhotel.com") or a mix (e.g. "bellavistaberlin.com). What would be your recommendation? The content (text, photos, videos) I have is a lot about the location and the hotel itself. I want to connect the Hotel page afterwards with Knowem to hundreds of social networks. My tendency is to go for a branding. Is that a good idea? Thanks for the help.
Branding | | reisefm0 -
What are some good ways to market a used car sales site?
I have thought of using craigslist and other classified ads, social media and of course good old SEO. What else can be done to drive traffic to a used car website?
Branding | | MangoMan160 -
Domain Name Value?
Hi, I am going to start a new website What I want to know is: www. keyword1 and keyword2 . com If I buy www. keyword1and . com And I put /keyword2 will this get any value? Or is it better to find a shorter more branded domain name.. rather than chasing for value from Google.
Branding | | mosaicpro0 -
301 or 302 for one of our domains
We have one of our sites that we got rid of and incorporated into our "main" site. We left a 302 redirect from the old sites URL to a landing page on the new site. It act as a branded stub page before registration. We are currently using a 302 to redirect from www.oldsite.com -> www.newbigsite.com/old-site Should I change this to a 301? I loose my google SERP ranking for www.oldsite.com if I do the 301 and it will be replaced by www.newbigsite.com/old-site correct? Thanks
Branding | | GeorgeLaRochelle0