Do links from my own subdomain to my main domain carry any value?
-
I currently have a Wordpress blog set up on a subdomain i.e blog@ etc. I wanted to know whether the links from the blog to my main site carry any value.
-
I also dont think that same ip or same c-block is suuchh a worry.
i have my own servers with only one IP, and links from the same ip seem to work as well as any other.
Obviously if 90% of your links came from the same ip that would ring alarm bells.Take discountasp for example, a very large hosting organization all on the same ip number.
-
Typically when you do this, you're adding both the content to the primary domain, but also all the accumulated domain authority from the subdomain. Generally we'll see nice effects like what you saw
-
That aligns with a test I did a few years ago--I had two nearly identical travel sites, one for Fiji, one for Tahiti, each ranking roughly the same for their respective set of keyword phrases. For the Fiji site, I added about a dozen links to high-ranking related sites (with the keywords in the anchor text). Within a couple of weeks, the Fiji site was ranking higher pretty much across the board.
The big question: was it ranking better because it had outbound links with the anchor text? Or was Google favoring it because it linked to other sites Google trusted, therefore it looked like a more useful site for the end user?
If google wants good quiality results they would easly handle this.
Interestingly, there's a few examples out there of things you'd think would be easy to detect and reward/punish algorithmically...but that doesn't always happen. Just a few months ago, I saw a site with over 200 micro-sites, all on the same IP C block, all with the same domain registration info--and all were ranking well for their keywords! Surely it'd be simple to spot this as a link farm--but they were still doing fine.
And no, I won't tell you what the sites are
-
Obviously others are giving different advice, but i would leave it, but i would think about how google sees the subdomain, is it obvioulsy part of the same site or not, is their plenty of linking
-
One example i have is where the root home page ranked very well for very comnpeditive keyword that was a keyword on a sub site the only mention of the keyword on the root home page was in the link text to the sub site.
In fact the home page ranked well for all subdomain keywordsIf google wants good quiality results they would easly handle this.
-
I recently 301 redirected two subdomains to folders on the primary domain. The results have been kickass for both the pages in the new folder but also for pages throughout the primary domain. Rankings are up!
-
Hmmm...while I agree that Google ought to behave the way you describe, I'm still seeing Google treat subdomains as unloved orphans. I have a client with very strong domain authority, ranks very well for all sorts of competitive terms on their main domain. Their e-commerce stuff is on store..com vs. their main site at www..com, and there's a ton of links from the main site into the store (including deep links), but still we can't get any pages at store.*.com to rank. In fact, most of the subdomain pages aren't even indexed.
Of course, one of the projects on the plate for this client is moving everything from store.*.com to the main domain...early this summer.
-
I have to disagree. google are much smarter then this. If you have a site with subdomains that is presented as one large site with sub sections they will see it as that. If it looks liks the subsites are not well connnected they will see them as seperate sites.
I have found there is no difference between subdomains and sub folders, If anything the advanatge of being able to put keyword in the subdomain gives subdomains the edge.
Of cause link between them well. One other tip I can give is keep all images and css and js files on root domain, any one at google noteicing this would think this site is connected., I would wouldent you.
-
I believe that if your blog is popular and gets lots of links from other websites that the links from the blog to your website will carry value. The more links the blog earns the more power it will transfer to your site.
However, I believe that if the blog was moved into a folder suchas at yourdomain.com/blog/ then the links that hit the blog will be more beneficial to increasing the authority and rankings of your main domain.
Look at SEOMoz... they have the blog at seomoz.org/blog and their forum at seomoz.org/q - folders instead of subdomains.
-
Thanks. Swapping the blog to my main domain could prove complicated. I was hoping linking anchor text within the blog might provide some benefit. Alternatively I can set the blog up on a different domain. Any suggestions??
-
I'm assuming your setup is something like:
- blog.yourdomain.com (blog)
- www.yourdomain.com (main site)
Nearly nothing, unfortunately. You might get some anchor text benefit. Best thing to do is to move your blog over to your main domain, and 301 all of the original URLs.
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
-
A website with a spam score of 5 is back linking to me. How important is to get that link removed?
There is a website that OSE has identified with a spam score of 5, it back links to me with a very specific key word. How important is it to have them remove those links?
Link Building | | absoauto0 -
Links to main landing category page or links directly to products
I have an ecommerce website and a manufacturer is providing links directly to my website from their products pages because they do not sell directly online. What is my best linking juice power for this situation:
Link Building | | dsmolinski
Manufacturer A has a number of different brands: brand1, brand2, brand3 and a number of different products in each of it brands. They are currently linking their individual products to my individual products on my website. My website is setup like this:
my.com/manufacture-A
my.com/manufacture-A/brand1
my.com/manufacture-A/brand1/product1
my.com/manufacture-A/brand1/product2
my.com/manufacture-A/brand2
my.com/manufacture-A/brand2/product1
my.com/manufacture-A/brand2/product2 What is the best practice for this situation:
--Linking manufacturer product to my product
--Linking manufacturer product to my associated brand page
--Linking manufacturer product to main manufacturer page
--or something else? Thank you and I can provide more details if need be. Denny0 -
Is a reciprocal link the same value as a non-reciprocal
So I just started a few weeks ago doing some linkbuilding for my photography site at http://danielvaladas.com I started by adding my site to some of the business directories recommended by SeoMoz + some local and specialized directories I found myself and from my competitors. I also sponsored a local charity in exchange for a link on their PR3 website and I wanted to blog on my site about this sponsorship. I am wondering if it is better to link back to them or not. Is this one way link of more value if I don't link back to them?
Link Building | | valadas0 -
Buy links
I know that many of you are against the whole thing with buying links. Your feelings put aside. Will it be better for my site to buy links or even do link exchange? Haven´t the crawlers been thought by now how to find these untrue links? I have read somewhere that the stop after 100 links, aren´t they smarter than that?
Link Building | | mato0 -
Do links behind paywalls pass value?
Hi - we are about to have a product review go live on a site that uses a paywall. Will the link from this still pass SEO value to our site, and should we therefore optimise it? Thanks
Link Building | | GBC0 -
Unique Domains vs. Total Links?
At what point is there diminishing returns from getting multiple links from one website? Edit: To clarify, when doing competitor research I come across lots of sites that have say 500 linking domains with 5000 total links. When setting goals and calculating the types of links I should go after, I'm not certain which number is the one actually helping the site to rank.
Link Building | | ErikDster0 -
Forum links
If you are building links in forums how can you decide which forums to post to? Of course you can have a look at averall traffic in Alexa or mozrank but is there anything else you can look at?
Link Building | | sesertin0 -
Link Directory
I am not an SEO expert by any means, just trying to improve the ranking of my own personal real estate site. Are directory links good for backlinks, or are they a waster of time?
Link Building | | CalgaryRealtor390