Sub-domain dilema - variations
-
Hi All,
We're creating a sub-domain for a new program launch on a client site and we need to choose the "right" sub-domain name that properly reflects the offering and hopefully keyword driven.
The client is already using the preferred sub-domain name but until we get clarification that we can take it over, I'm doing my due diligence and expecting a worst case scenario in that we cannot use it.
The current preferred sub-domain is only a landing page (not a full site) and it does NOT rank for anything and it's not being built out further.
My question:
Would pluralizing our preferred keyword have any effect in the way SEs see the two sub-domains as they're very closely related?
or
The new sub-domain would be a fully-functional-SEO-friendly site (well that's the plan anyway).
Thanks for all your help.
-
I'm not debating that folder structure off the root domain is always better but the current situation is that we need to work off a sub-domain.
-
I agree with Yannick that search engines currently seem to be viewing subdomains as separate websites.... and... for that reason... I would place this content in a folder in the root domain rather than on a subdomain.
In early 2010 I redirected two large subdomains to folders in the root and the results have been kickass.
-
No problem, glad I could help! Good luck!
-
Thanks Yannick. I figured but a little part of me was seeking reassurance and since this is a client's site it's always best getting a second opinion, no matter how trivial.
Cheers!
-
No. Search engines look at the subdomains as two different sites. One letter difference, or one hundred won't make a difference.
Good luck!
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
-
Links from a nonexistent domain, what do we do?
Our website is receiving 15 links that I believe are negatively impacting us. The problem is, this website linking to us no longer exists. The domain is not even hosted. The website linking to us is: thepurpleelephantboutique . com/ How do we fix/resolve this issue?
Technical SEO | | spadedesign0 -
Domain Change
What is the average organic traffic loss one can expect after switching to a new domain? We went from .com to .org and are seeing 50% decline in organic traffic and 25% in Google news traffic. 301s were implemented from site.com/some-page to site.org/some-page and change site was completed in WMT. This traffic drop seems excessive...
Technical SEO | | SoulSurfer80 -
Two domains / same Content
Hi MOZzers, I have recently started working for a client who owns two domains (as recommended by their Web Development company), each omain is a complete duplication of the other. The only difference is one is a totally keyword focused domain name, the other is their brand name which also contains keyword. In a search for blocks of content the keyword focused domain comes up, the other doesn't and when I conducted a search for one of their primary services again the keyword focused domain name came up on the first page, but the branded search also appeared on the second. The web development company have been managing this company's Adwords account and promoting their brand name and up until today I was unaware of the other. Can I have some thoughts - do I ask the web developers to re-direct one to the other, or leave as it?
Technical SEO | | musthavemarketing0 -
I have a sub domain that has live content on it but the root domain redirects to another URL. I know this is not great but what are the implications?
I have a subdomain that is populated and has content. The root domain that the sub lives on redirects to an entirely different URL. I am trying to make a case as to why this isn't great besides the fact that it is just weird user experiences. What are the SEO implications etc. Would any equity that gets built up on the subdomain get passed along in the redirect? Or will there be indexation issues with Google? Cheers, Mark
Technical SEO | | mjsikorsky0 -
Moving multiple domains into one domain
Hi, We're currently moving a group of websites (approximately 12) under one domain so we've moved from www.example.de , www.example.co.uk , www.example.com to www.example.com/de www.example.com/uk and so on. However I have read an article online today saying that this can lead to crawling complications. Has anyone done something similar and if there were any issues how did you overcome them? Many thanks
Technical SEO | | Creditsafe0 -
Conserving Link Equity When Purchasing a Domain
Suppose you were interested in buying a successful blog with lots of powerful links and they offered to sell you the domain but none of the content. Do you have any tips for conserving the link equity when buying the domain? (Note: about half of the inbound links are to the homepage and the plan is to relaunch the site with new content.)
Technical SEO | | ProjectLabs0 -
Domain Masking with New Keyword-Rich Domains
Hello, friends. We have an ecommerce site and we also own several keyword-rich domains but haven't done anything with them yet. Is there any value in using domain masking to point them to either product pages or special landing pages on our primary ecommerce site? Here's an example: Primary site is widgetzone.com Keyword rich URL is acmewidget.com (which is totally blank and isn't indexed) It could point to our category page for Acme Widgets: widgetzone.com/category/acme-widgets or it could point to a new landing page: widgetzone.com/acme-widgets My concern is that because the keyword-rich URL hasn't been utilized at all there's really no point in redirecting it. I'm of the mind that it's either going to be ineffective at best or a duplicate content issue at worst. What do you guys think? As a follow-up, if we don't redirect these domains, what should we do with them? Just try to sell them off rather than create totally new sites?
Technical SEO | | jbreeden0 -
Geolocation has changed targeted domains, or has it?
I am monitoring two domains; a .com and a .com.au in quite a competitive sector (men's underwear online sales) last month the .com site completely dropped from rankings sight in Google International SERPs but, the .com.au site is actually ranking (quite respectively too) in the International/US Google SERPs. I have no idea how, when or why but it's now been the case for two months. Help please?
Technical SEO | | Vovia0