Subdomain SEO question (php script on domain + wordpress on subdomain)
-
Hi Moz fellows,
I am doing my first website which is entirely .php scripted. But I would like to have a wordpress blog to create content and blog posts, while the .php side of the website is more for sales pages and user generated listings.The only way to do this is to install wordpress on a subdomain "blog.website.com"
QUESTION: If all my keywords targeted content is on the subdomain's Wordpress blog, but all my guest blogging efforts link to my main website, which one will rank? The subdomain or the domain?
I need the domain to rank well as it is a Fiverr-like script, so if tons of people land on my "blog.website.com" subdomain, they will not convert into users...
Let me know if you have experience with such a scenario, and thank you all in advance for your help!
-Marc
-
Hi Marc,
When you say Wordpress blog do you mean you'll be hosting the WP blog on your own server? Or you're using one hosted on wordpress.com (albeit via blog.yoursite.com) ?
If you are hosting it yourself then WP runs on PHP so normally plays pretty nicely with other PHP sites, just install it in a subfolder (so www.yoursite.com/blog/) and you should be good to go (unless you have any re-write rules that could mess with what wordpress is trying to do - just make sure thay they don't touch on the /blog/ sub-directory).
If you are hosting on wordpress.com then why not install WP on your actual site and use the above method?
I won't go into the merits of guest blogging as a link building strategy here
Best wishes,
Stuart
-
People who will land on your blog will probably not convert!! I believe this is very much depends upon how you are going to use it. If you utilize your side bar properly and in your content if you can smartly encourage your users to shift to the main website the conversion rate from the blog can be vital.
As far as the rankings are concern, page with better content and more quality links will rank better as compare to the one that contain low quality content and no or low quality links on it.
If you want your main commercial pages to rank then tray to get links to the main page plus increase your domain authority of the website and as subdomain are now considered as a part of the main domains, getting links on the blog will also help you rank better as a whole.
Hope this helps!
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
-
Domain Name redirection to new Domain Name - VS - Transfering Domaine Name from account 1 to account 2
Hi there! Thanks for your time 😉 I have a new cutsomer that bought his domain name via WIX and your know... WIX sucks huge time for SEO. Basically, we want to do SEO outside of WIX. But I am not sure HOW I should proceed. I think I have 2 options: OPTION 1- We transfer the domain name from WIX to a new hoster. But we will lose 7 days during that, lose prospects while the website is in maintenance and we might lose the little bit of ranking we have on the way. BUT! ONCE Everything is done with the transfer, we will be able to operate our SEO campaing with a Domain Name that as 15 domain authority, links, little bit a ranking, etc. OPTION 2- I just buy a new domain name. I build the new Website on it and then use the SEO juice from the old domain name with redirect to push the new domain name. Like this, I won't lose any opportunities. BUT I will have to restart the SEO as new... Any tips or ideas for me? Maybe there is an OPTION 3 that I don't know about.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Gab-SEO1 -
How to Evaluate Original Domain Authority vs. Recent 'HTTPS' Duplicate for Potential Domain Migration?
Hello Everyone, So our site has used ‘http’ for the domain since the start. Everything has been set up for this structure and Google is only indexing these pages. Just recently a second version was created on ‘httpS’. We know having both up is the worst case scenario but now that both are up is it worth just switching over or would the original domain authority warrant just keeping it on ‘http’ and redirecting the ‘httpS’ version? Assuming speed and other elements wouldn’t be an issue and it's done correctly. Our thought was if we could do this quickly it would be easier to just redirect the ‘httpS’ version but was not sure if the Pros of ‘httpS’ would be worth the resources. Any help or insight would be appreciated. Please let us know if there are any further details we could provide that might help. Looking forward to hearing from all of you! Thank you in advance for the help. Best,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Ben-R1 -
We are looking for an SEO Company to hire to assist in upgrading a site to Wordpress
Does anyone have a good recommendation or better yet personal experience with one?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JCMotors20 -
Cookieless subdomains Vs SEO
We have one .com that has all our unique content and then 25 other ccltd sites that are translated versions of the .com for each country we operate in. They are not linked together but we have href lang'd it all together. We now want to serve up all static content of our global website (26 local country sites, .com, .co.uk, .se, etc) from one cookie-less subdomain. Benefit is speed improvement. The question is whether from an SEO perspective, can all static content come from static.domain.com or should we do one for each ccltd where it would come form static.domain.xx (where xx is localised to the domain in question)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | aires-fb770 -
Purchased Domain Not Related to Vertical and Moved Questions
Hello, We used to reside on a longer domain name character wise but had an opportunity to purchase a three letter acronym before my time. We advertise heavily on TV and other traditional media channels so it was simpler for individuals to remember. After purchasing this domain we moved over from the old one to the new one. We followed all of your standard protocols (301s, change of address in Webmaster Tools, new sitemap, etc, etc.) Google and Bing both index the new site and there isn't a significant issue there but we're having incredible difficulty in ranking for any of our core terms. We're the largest company in our space but continue to rank for terms that have nothing to do with our vertical. This is due to the fact that the site used to be owned by a company that is completely separate from ours. The site that we have today contains none of the old content but it does have links pointing to it from similar sites from that vertical. Bing was incredibly helpful and had indicated it's these links that's potentially causing us the issue in that search engines are seeing two different verticals over time on a domain. It's been a year since this took place and it seems that the only recommendation is to contact the non related sites to remove links or disavow. Bing had indicated that disavowing was not as relevant as getting the links removed. Any other thoughts?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seo--team-jlck0 -
I am SEO amameur and have bee adding links slowly to site. I cannot seem to increase my domain authority from 20 however, Anyone any advice please????
I updated meta tags on website 2/3 months ago and saw a significant improvements in rankings for keyowrds, however since then I have been dropping back down. I am wondering if this is because of low domain authoriyty. it is currentyly 20. www.babskibay.com
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | babski0 -
What is better for SEO keywords in folder or in filename - also dupe filename question
Hey folks, I've got a question regarding URL structure. What is best for SEO given that there will be millions of lawyer names and 4 pages per lawyer www.lawyerz.com/office-locations/dr-al-pacino www.lawyerz.com/phone-number/dr-al-pacino www.lawyerz.com/reviews/dr-al-pacino www.lawyerz.com/ratings/dr-al-pacino OR www.lawyerz.com/office-locations-dr-al-pacino www.lawyerz.com/phone-number-dr-al-pacino www.lawyerz.com/reviews-dr-al-pacino www.lawyerz.com/ratings-dr-al-pacino OR www.lawyerz.com/dr-al-pacino/office-locations www.lawyerz.com/dr-al-pacino/phone-number www.lawyerz.com/dr-al-pacino/reviews www.lawyerz.com/dr-al-pacino/ratings Also, concerning duplicate file names: In the first example there are 4 duplicate file names with the lawyers name. (would this cause Google to not index some) In the second example there are all unique file names (would this look spammy to Google or the user) In the third example there are millions of duplicate file names (if 1 million lawyers then 1 million files called "office-locations" etc (could so many duplicate filenames cause ranking issues) Should the lawyers name (which is the main keyword target) appear in the filename or in the folder - which is better for SEO in your opinion? Thanks for your input!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | irvingw0 -
Where do I redirect a domain to strengthen another domain?
I've got a UK domain that I need to redirect to a US domain. Should I point it to the root domain or a landing page off the root and what it the benefit to doing one over the other?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JCorp0