Are multiple domains for my website hurting my Google ranking?
-
Hello,
I currently have two domains showing up in google search:
These domains are currently ranked in the #2 and #3 spot, however my page is much more trafficked than the current #1 ranking. I am wondering if the fact that I have two domains competing for the #1 spot is hurting my search ranking. If so, what is the best way to remedy this issue and get back my #1 spot?
I'm rather new to SEO and teaching myself as I go, so I appreciate the feedback!
-
Here's the post on Search Engine Roundtable that discusses Google's comments about this not being a ranking change.
http://www.seroundtable.com/google-subdomains-webmaster-tools-13968.html
-
FYI, it looks like you're 302-redirecting the "shop." sub-domain to a deeper page on the root domain. This can be the worst of both worlds, in some cases. I'm not clear on the reasoning, but if "shop." is the e-commerce/store sub-domain, I'd rather see you 301-redirect it to "/shop" or something like that.
I realize you may have technical constraints that require the e-commerce site to be on a subdomain. There are ways around that, like a reverse proxy.
From a purely SEO standpoint, you can potentially rank 2 sub-domains (Google keeps changing their mind on that, it seems), but you're also potentially splitting the link-juice between those sub-domains. In most cases, I don't find the sub-domain approach to be a good long-term strategy. On the other hand, if you're ranking #2 and #3 and aren't seeing a downside, you've got to consider that data.
-
Google hasn't been clear on this - they stated later (I can't recall where, unfortunately) that this change was only an accounting change in Google Webmaster Tools. It didn't change how they actually pass link-juice across subdomains. I've found it can go both ways. Some subdomains fragment and get treated as separate domains, and others seem to get more tightly integrated. It depends a lot on the site, structure, duplication, etc.
-
Glad to see you also sorted out the non-www to www permanent redirect on shwoodshop.com. I would say that this is the quickest way to get site wide content duplication.
Now that you have these redirects put in place your site will be ok. Just make sure you don't delete the redirects!
-
Perfect! Thanks again for your input. I really appreciate your help!
-
These are 2 completely different pages so you should be fine now. As for the question "will it hurt if Google indexes both?", not at all. Actually it's every SEOs dream to get 2 pages from one site indexed on 1st page. Although, it's best practice to make sure that each page's content and meta tags are unique to each other. The reason is that sometimes these can also battle for serp position if they are closely alike in terms of content and meta tags. Just make sure there unique and focused on what that specific page has to offer. But then once again if your already have a keyword ranking on 1st page for both urls then its probably best to leave them as is and see what the result 301 redirect will accomplish for you. Allow for it to be re-indexed by Google again.
-
Thanks so much for your response! I went ahead and used the 301 redirects to direct everything to www.shwoodshop.com.
Now that everything is pointing to the same place, is there any harm in having both www.shwoodshop.com and www.shwoodshop.com/collections/all show up in a google search? These pages aren't competing now, correct?
According to the SEOmoz data, my page www.shwoodshop.com is much stronger than my competitors' when googling "wood sunglasses" so I just want to see if there are any obvious factors limiting my search strength.
Thanks again everyone!
-
Hi Taylor, As I had done some of the analysis for your both domains. If you use both domain then it will hurt your ranking according to google.
The analysis that I had done as below:
This is website that have Page rank =5
Google Indexing Backlinks=274
Secondly your shop.shwoodshop.com is redirect to http://shwoodshop.com/collections/all these page which have following factors:
This is website that have Page rank =4
Google Indexing Backlinks=274
One of the most important issue that I found that your website does not have 301 redirect error set up.
This would results that there are two separate domains i. e http://www.shwoodshop.com/ & http://shwoodshop.com/, so it is better to redirect it to the one & only single page according to their preferred domain.
Below there is a link which tells you that multiple domain are bad for SEOm& website too:
http://www.seo.com/blog/multiple-domains-seo/
&
http://blog.ineedhits.com/tips-advice/why-owning-multiple-domain-names-is-bad-for-seo-02539442.html
I hope that your query had been solved.
-
This use to be the case but recently Google now treats the sub domain as internal links see the changes here: http://searchengineland.com/new-google-classifies-subdomains-as-internal-links-within-webmaster-tools-91401
Overall I do not think this will be a problem having your sub domain and your main url rank for a term, that been said if both the sub domain and main website have unique content and are well linked it can be a good strategy.
I remember one website in a local insurance niche doing this well for a long time
-
Hello Taylor,
Is this a trick question? The reason I ask is because the shop.shwoodshop.com you are talking about already redirects to http://shwoodshop.com/collections/all. Also I notice an important factor that might help your site rank better. I recently suggested this to a client and within a few days his site moved to 1spot from 4th position. I am not guaranteeing it will work but its actually an issue that needs to be resolved anyhow. If your utilizing the SEOMOZ software then the first thing you will notice if running a campaign is a notification from the software stating the following:
We have detected that the domain www.shwoodshop.com and the domain shwoodshop.com both respond to web requests and do not redirect. Having two "twin" domains that both resolve forces them to battle for SERP positions, making your SEO efforts less effective.
I suggest that you fix this by either 301 redirecting the non www to www or vice versa. It all depends for which version you already have keywords ranking on. In other words if your already ranking for keywords on the www version then you will want to redirect the non www to it. If it's the non www that you are already ranking for then you will benefit from directing the www to the non www.
I hope that helps
-
As far as I know Google will treat content on a subdomain as a separate website, so chances are you're splitting the domain authority over the two websites.
As far as PageRank is concerned this is on a **per page basis (n**ot per site). Every page is ranked on its own individual merits.
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
-
Image in Quick Answer from Different Website?
I'm seeing quick answers where the answer and image are from different websites. Does anyone have any insight into what Google is doing? Example search term: "How to tie a knot" Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | reese52131 -
301 from one domain to another. Possible?
Hi all, I'm looking to re-direct one domain to another so that the content can be edited more easily under one CMS. Is this possible or will search engines penalise you for such a move? Not overly worried about losing link juice by implementing a 301 because the website we're hoping to re-direct from is a new page. Cheers
Algorithm Updates | | SwanseaMedicine0 -
Meta Descriptions - Google ignores what we have
Hi I still write meta descriptions to help with CTR. I am currently looking at a page where the CTR needs improving. I check the meta on Google SERPs & it isn't pulling through the meta description we have - but other info on the page. This isn't ideal - why does this happen? Will Google just make the decision and are descriptions not worth writing?
Algorithm Updates | | BeckyKey0 -
Reduced traffic from google news
I have a question for my site. Can you advice me for situation? Last 1 months my site reduced traffic from google and google news.. And i dont know why? I need your advice. Thanks. Yunus Altindag Diyarbakir/Turkey
Algorithm Updates | | maxbilgisayar0 -
Google Maps marker inconsistency
We just discovered that depending on the address format you enter into Google, you may come across incorrectly placed marker locations on Google Maps. Is this because our Google Places address format is not consistent with Google Maps' format? If so, when I go into Google Places to update the address format, am I going to have to go through the citation process all over again?
Algorithm Updates | | SSFCU0 -
How to show your ratings in the Google SERP
I've noticed that some organic search results are showing ratings just above the meta tag. How are these sites doing this? Example: If you search "cash advance", there is a result between #4 and #6 in the organic results. The site is "goldcashadvance.com". It's showing a 5-star rating in the result.
Algorithm Updates | | sparagi0 -
Do you think Google is destroying search?
I've seen garbage in google results for some time now, but it seems to be getting worse. I was just searching for a line of text that was in one of our stories from 2009. I just wanted to check that story and I didn't have a direct link. So I did the search and I found one copy of the story, but it wasn't on our site. I knew that it was on the other site as well as ours, because the writer writes for both publications. What I expected to see was the two results, one above the other, depending on which one had more links or better on-page for the query. What I got didn't really surprise me, but I was annoyed. In #1 position was the other site, That was OK by me, but ours wasn't there at all. I'm almost used to that now (not happy about it and trying to change it, but not doing well at all, even after 18 months of trying) What really made me angry was the garbage results that followed. One site, a wordpress blog, has tag pages and category pages being indexed. I didn't count them all but my guess is about 200 results from this blog, one after the other, most of them tag pages, with the same content on every one of them. Then the tag pages stopped and it started with dated archive pages, dozens of them. There were other sites, some with just one entry, some with dozens of tag pages. After that, porn sites, hundreds of them. I got right to the very end - 100 pages of 10 results per page. That blog seems to have done everything wrong, yet it has interesting stats. It is a PR6, yet Alexa ranks it 25,680,321. It has the same text in every headline. Most of the headlines are very short. It has all of the category and tag and archive pages indexed. There is a link to the designer's website on every page. There is a blogroll on every page, with links out to 50 sites. None of the pages appear to have a description. there are dozens of empty H2 tags and the H1 tag is 80% through the document. Yet google lists all of this stuff in the results. I don't remember the last time I saw 100 pages of results, it hasn't happened in a very long time. Is this something new that google is doing? What about the multiple tag and category pages in results - Is this just a special thing google is doing to upset me or are you seeing it too? I did eventually find my page, but not in that list. I found it by using site:mysite.com in the search box.
Algorithm Updates | | loopyal0 -
Rankings dropped in Yahoo
Hi All, I've recently seen some of my clients experience drops in Yahoo.co.uk. Does anyone have any info on any algo changes or updates? Thanks Bush
Algorithm Updates | | Bush_JSM0