Domain and subdomain comparison - a deeper look into the subdomain metrics
-
Hi all,
As I'm doing an analysis on our site and our main competitor (both sites are quite big, with active forums), who is much larger than we are, I have found out that :
-
Our site has the strongest domain authority: 34, competitor: 33.
-
Competitor beats us on 6 out of 8 areas in the sub categories for the "domain authority" category
-
We beat our competitor in 8 out of 8 sub categories for the category "sub domain metrics"
Now, as the title for this question suggests, I would like to hear what your thoughts is on this. Remember that our competitor is way bigger than us - how can they do so bad on the sub domain metrics, compared to us (and everybody else, I guess)?
What are your thoughts on this?
Please be aware that the domain shown to the left in the screen shot is our competitor.
Thanks a lot - all comments are very much appreciated!
-
-
Hi MPO,
The competitor has a lot of points pointing to his root domain, but for whatever reason they do not point to the subdomain that you are comparing.
For example, if I point a link to example.com (no www), then the root domain metrics for the url www.example.com would be strong, but for the specific subdomain www.example.com they would be weaker.
(boy, this is so confusing when you try to explain it on paper. Here's a post from Rand on subdomains - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites
Does it matter? Probably not much. It depends where exactly those links are pointing, and what's ranking in the search results. Keep doing what you're doing - getting good links from good sources, and you'll come out on top either way.
-
I wouldn't worry about it to much to be honest, your better off spending your time building great content and getting people to link to it rather than watching what your competitions stats say. Focus on getting your own stuff right, and you'll soon be leaving the competition wondering what happened.
-
From what I have read, I don't disagree. We have always (until very recently) been focusing solely on "honest" links (links that real people actually make on their site or in a forum), in comparison to "links that you build" / pay for / do something to get - that philosophy (or lack of philosophy, one might say) has changed, and slowly we are starting to get (build) better and more links.
To be honest, I'm not sure if your reply answered my question: Why has our competitor such a weak score on the "sub domain metric" and does this matter (at all)?
Or put in another way, the question simply is: does it make any sense to spend time on wondering about this?
-
To be honest a DA in the 30's is pretty low. If you concentrate on getting a 30-50 good quality links you should easily get into the 40's.
-
Hi, and thanks for your answer - you are right about that, yes. When you look at the example shown in my initial post, what do you think about those two site-profiles. Does it tell whether one of the sites is in "good" or "bad" shape, does it really not say anything, etc.? Also: Is it important to beat your competitor on the "sub domain metrics", or does this question really not make much sense to ask?
Any one who has an opinion about this?
-
It all depends on where links are pointing to - remember a www. is also subdomain.
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
-
How to format URL if main key word is my domain name?
Hello All! I have a question about having my search term in my URL when the first two words are actually my domain name. For example, my domain is plutobeach.com and I want to optimize for events. Which is better? plutobeach.com/events plutobeach.com/plutobeach-events Is the latter keyword stuffing? I'm using the on-page grader here and wondering how much of a difference that can make. Thanks! Steve
On-Page Optimization | | recoil0 -
Less than 1 subdomain Moztrust
This is the website http://www.gbzconsulting.com Not quite sure about the reason that my site is receiving almost 0 subdomain Moztrust. However, the on-page optimization tool show that the home page is ranked A. Any idea what I am missing or what I should do to improve?
On-Page Optimization | | Tel0 -
Unique Geo-targeted domains v. simple landing pages
I have a client with multiple locations in a central area. Is it better to purchase unique geo-targeted domains i.g. DowntownTopekaPlumber.com and MidtownTopekaPlumber.com and create area specific splash pages with links back to the main site -OR - is it better to simply create landing pages on the main domain - www.GoodGuyPlumbing.com/DownttownTopekaPlumber?
On-Page Optimization | | SearchParty0 -
Subdomain vs subdirectory for store
Hello, The following services site nlpca.com has a store at shop.nlpca.com Would the store be stronger if it was at nlpca.com/store (in a subfolder) and included in the main navigation? The moz bar suggests not but I just want to make sure. Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | BobGW1 -
Domain authority dropped a lot in last month
I thought I'd asked this earlier but it seems to have disappeared. My client's domain authority has hovered at around 42-46 for the past 6 months. But in the past month it has dropped 6 points. Organic search traffic is up, no keyword rankings have fallen, external links are up slightly, but not massively. Competitors remain roughly the same DA although theirs are only around 14/16 anyway. What should I be looking for as to the cause?
On-Page Optimization | | mfrgolfgti0 -
Same UI, different domain
Hello there. I would like to ask for your opinions. I have DomainA.com/blog and want to move /blog to its own domain. As of now, the blog section has the exact same UI as the rest of the site, its just a section on our site. Will it have any negative impact with respect to SEO if DomainA.com and DomainB.com have the exact same UI and are interlinking each other? Thanks in advanced.
On-Page Optimization | | mike_sif0 -
Should we consider redirecting a high ranking subdomain page to our homepage?
My site bluecotton.com sells custom printed t-shirts. Our DA is 46. Our homepage is PA 55. The design studio is where users create their designs. Over the years the design studio has received a lot of fan fair including links from gizmodo and adobe. When I rank against our biggest competitors customink, ooshirts, uberprints.com I find that our domain as a whole doesn't look all that great. However, when I look at the history of our subdomain I see that we are more trusted and credible than all of our competitors. We have 10k links pointing to the design studio. Here is my question. What if I did 301 redirect of bluecotton.com/studio.html to bluecotton.com? Then I created a new url for the DS. This would not cause users any problems. In fact for many they would get more context around what we are trying to do and what we offer. Is this crazy? I never find results in google for the design studio. It always shows our home. That is pretty much what happens to all of our competitors on the higher traffic terms that are driving real sales. So why do i ask? If my subdomain is more valuable becuase of the design studio links then I wonder if I redirected it to the homepage if it would supercharge my homepage and propel is forward in the serps. Thoughts?
On-Page Optimization | | bradwayland0 -
Linking back to my domain but they dont show up
My back links are not working. I am linking them all back to my domain but they are not appearing? any help? Is it because of my anchor text ?
On-Page Optimization | | BlueCreations1120