Getting mixed signals regarding how Google treats subdomains
-
All the posts I've read here and elsewhere regarding subdomains come to a similar conclusion, avoid using them because they are treated as a separate site -- and everything that goes along with that.
But on my site we have a subdomain on a separate server and it's treated as internal. Also this from Hubspot -
"**Use a subdomain of your website like Blog.HubSpot.com. **This is a great idea and this is what we do currently at HubSpot. Many companies have their blog on a subdomain, and it seems to be starting to be somewhat of a standard. The search engines are treating subdomains more and more as just portions of the main website, so the SEO value for your blog is going to add to your main website domain."
Any help clarifying this would be greatly appreciated!
-
I don't know. I have been making websites for a long time. I've seen google treat subdomains like gold and stack them in the SERPs so that subdomains on a single domain will fill the top ten and push all competitors down. Then I've seen google treat subdomains like crap, then like gold again.
So, don't bet on today's flavor. Keep in mind that lots of domains have subdomains managed by other people. Do you think that the actions of those "other people" should make the rest of the domain stink if they are crappy? If you think that your subdomain should not stink if the rest of the domain is populated by idiots then go ahead and place your big bet on subdomains being treated equally. I'm not going to do it. Do you think that blogspot blogs are treated like a single site? I vote NO on that. Do you agree?
If you want your collection of content to be guaranteed support for your main site then you better put it in a folder. I am putting my good content in a folder and staying away from hosts, shopping carts, software, platforms and any service that can't handle putting my content in a folder.
Google changes their mind on this type of stuff all of the time. So bet on what you think is long-term certain and not on what you hear people sayin' even if Matt Cutts is the one who is sayin'. I remember him posting right here on moz (SEOmoz then) that you could sculpt pagerank with nofollow. Then Google changed their mind on that and didn't tell anybody.
Do what makes long term sense, not what people are sayin'. I think that smart people are still saying put your content in a folder.
-
Here's a video from Matt Cutts on the topic. He says that subdomains and subdirectories are "roughly equivalent".
SEE: Should I structure my site using subdomains or subdirectories? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MswMYk05tk
"Roughly equivalent" is a big woolly, but what matters more is how you use these subdomains (or subdirectories)
If you're talking about a blog, then what really matters is the value of the content that you create on your blog and how you interlink your blog content with the rest of your site - both in your main navigation and and relevant on-page links.
If your blog articles earn links and social shares then you want to make sure that your linking on to your relevant "money pages" on your site to pass authority and relevance to the target pages.
The main thing you want to do is give your readers, the ones that are interested and engaged, somewhere to go to find out more about your products and services. A nice juicy compelling call to action or a useful next step...
Where subdomains can be useful is where you want part of your site to be hosted on a particular third-party tool. Sub directories are a lot easier to set up and maintain.
-
This is correct. There is more and more use of subdomains and I make great use of these myself. I use just a single page design for my site, so have 8 other subdomains, each with a unique site and content on them. I find that I am able to get the sites ranked well within about a week to 10 days.
Look at www.inetseo.co.uk and then at linkbuilding.inetseo.co.uk.
Google certainly don't treat a subdomain like a new site any more.
-Andy
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
-
Google Not Indexing Pages (Wordpress)
Hello, recently I started noticing that google is not indexing our new pages or our new blog posts. We are simply getting a "Discovered - Currently Not Indexed" message on all new pages. When I click "Request Indexing" is takes a few days, but eventually it does get indexed and is on Google. This is very strange, as our website has been around since the late 90's and the quality of the new content is neither duplicate nor "low quality". We started noticing this happening around February. We also do not have many pages - maybe 500 maximum? I have looked at all the obvious answers (allowing for indexing, etc.), but just can't seem to pinpoint a reason why. Has anyone had this happen recently? It is getting very annoying having to manually go in and request indexing for every page and makes me think there may be some underlying issues with the website that should be fixed.
Technical SEO | | Hasanovic1 -
Subdomain Ranking Question
Hi All - Quick question that I think I know the answer to, but I feel like I've been going around in circles a bit. My client is launching a new product and wants us to build a microsite for it (product.clientname.com). My client really dislikes their brand website, and wants to use paid media to push their audience to this new microsite. However, they also said want it to rank well organically. I feel uneasy about this, because of the subdomain vs. subfolder argument. I believe that the product will also be listed/featured on their main brand website. What is the best way forward? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | AinsleyAgency0 -
Should I get a unique IP?
I have a couple sites hosted in a VPS that share the same IP. Should I assign each site a unique IP? Would Google affect my rankings for a sudden IP change?
Technical SEO | | rlopes5280 -
Google.com
Hi We are managing a .com site for a client working on getting the site ranking. The site is hosted in the US. The content is rich, deep and unique. The site is in a competitive market but had begun ranking top 50 for a selection of keywords and we could see many more in the top 100. The site is now going backwards and only has a few keywords ranking top 50 and all the others have disappeared from the rankings all together. Any thought as to what could cause this. The site is managed from the Uk but as mentioned is hosted in the US. No penguin issues as all content unique, rich, relevant and fresh. SEO is also managed from the UK. Thoughts
Technical SEO | | SEOwins0 -
Google Alerts News Images
I have a Google Alert setup which is pulling information from a blog. I am receiving images as part of the alert. The issue that I am having is that the images have nothing to do with the blog post. Is there a way to control what images are received in the alert. From what I have gathered, if it grabs an image it should be part of the blog post.
Technical SEO | | ricknakao0 -
"Site Suspended" in Google Adwords + Lost all rankings in Google => is this related?
Can anyone share thoughts on this: Does the S recently (mid april) we revamped our website (same content, new layout, strong brand), but a few days later our google rep contacted us to tell that she got a "red flag" for one of our SEA campaigns (we broke the bridge page policy, not on purpose to be clear), they were completely correct on this matter. We even got some extra time to correct this, normal policy is only 10 days. But, we were a little slow, so all our Adwords Campaigns are suspended and we get the message "Site suspended". We are working to have this fixed, our Google rep even granted some more time to fix this. Now, almost simultaneously, same time frame, all our new pages, that were already ranking well tx to proper 301 rules, suddenly fell out of the google SERPS, nothing to be found anymore up till now. Our website is live since 1996, no issues, up till now. There seems to be a strong correlation to what happened in our SEA and what happened in our SEO can anyone share some info?
Technical SEO | | TruvoDirectories0 -
Google Places and Name Change
Hello - I have a client who is a realtor and changed agencies. I edited their Google Places entry and the new name of their agency and address are showing - but so is their old listing. The agency they left is now trying to sue them for showing up in a number one position with Google Places under their agency name. Is this an indexing issue with Google? Their name shows up under both agency names. The corrected one shows most often, but the old one is still popping up on occasion. Thanks,
Technical SEO | | seoessentials1 -
Google Dmoz description in SERPS
My dmoz description is not as KW rich as my sites normal description. IS there an advantage or disadvantage to either? If so, How do I prevent google from doing this?
Technical SEO | | DavidS-2820610