Does a directory running on a subdomain help or hurt SEO on the main site?
-
I have a blog, with a directory on the subdomain: directory.fbforbusinessmarketing.com. Is that smart for SEO, as it gives the overall domain more traffic? Or bad for SEO because of the different topics and all those outbound links? I'd appreciate opinions. Thanks.
-
Is the directory related to the theme of the site? So for instance, if you have a site that covers Facebook business marketing and you add a directory of consultants who offer Facebook marketing help, then you're sticking to the overall theme.
Likewise if the theme of the site is community journalism, separate subdomains that cover (or are directories) a variety of topics stick to the overall theme.
So assuming your idea is a benefit to your site users, a directory will help your SEO because inbound links will contribute to the overall root domain authority and outbound links will establish yourself as a trusted hub of information.
-
Why does a directory running on a subdomain give the overall domain more traffic?
-
I would separate it for the reasons you give, i like to keep to one theme.
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
-
Best SEO Structure For E-Commerce With Products Using Multiple Categories
Hi all, I am in the process of re-structuring my e-commerce website for better SEO and user experience. I have done some keyword research and would like some advice on how best to structure my site around those keywords. For example, my site (All Things Nature) sells a brand of wooden sculptures (Woodsculp) and I would like to rank for keywords related to that brand, the brand by animal, the brand by collection and the brand by release date.
Content Development | | nb2e4fg
Examples of keywords could be: Brand by Animal: Woodsculp Dogs, Woodsculp Cats, Woodsculp Elephants
Brand by Collection: Woodsculp Pets, Woodsculp Safari
Brand by Release Date: Woodsculp Christmas 2023, Woodsculp Summer 2022 I would create each of these keywords as a category so that they can be found by a search engine and by users. I would then structure as follows: All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp by Animal -> Woodsculp Dogs
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp by Animal -> Woodsculp Elephants
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp by Collection -> Woodsculp Pets
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp by Collection -> Woodsculp Safari
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp by Release Date -> Woodsculp Christmas 2023
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp by Release Date -> Woodsculp Summer 2022 The only problem with this structure is it would take more than 3 clicks (4) for the user to reach a product. How critical is this for good SEO and user experience? Would I be better off getting rid of the ‘Woodsculp by Animal’, ‘Woodsculp by Collection’ and ‘Woodsculp by Release Date’ categories? Structure would look as follows: All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp Dogs
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp Elephants
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp Safari
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp Christmas 2023 The only thing with this is there would be a lot of categories under the brand name which might make it more difficult for search engines and users to logically follow. Would I be better off getting rid of the brand category and replace them with the keyword categories? Structure would look as follows: All Things Nature -> Woodsculp by Animal -> Woodsculp Dogs
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp by Animal -> Woodsculp Elephants
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp by Collection -> Woodsculp Safari
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp by Release Date -> Woodsculp Christmas 2023 This would organise things more logically but I would then lose the brand category (and the potential of the brand keyword ranking?) Would I be better off choosing one main keyword to use as a category and then use tags for the other categories? Categories: All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp Dogs
All Things Nature -> Woodsculp -> Woodsculp Elephants Tags: Woodsculp Safari
Woodsculp Christmas 2023 The next issue I have is that I have products which could fall under several different categories. A product called Elijah Elephant, for example could fall under Woodsculp Elephants, Woodsculp Safari and Woodsculp Summer 2022. In previous e-commerce sites I have never assigned multiple categories to one product (I instead have used tags). Is it good practice to organise products under multiple categories for an e-commerce site? Thanks in advance for any help and advice.0 -
What's brewing on YouMoz? (And how you can Help)
In the last year, we've searched for ways to make YouMoz more interesting, more exciting and more inviting for the Moz community. The blog really does belong to the community, for it's the place where many novel ideas are shared, discussed, and further developed. Aside from being a great place to share ideas, though, YouMoz is also the primary vehicle by which many now-household names in online marketing were discovered. (Many of the top posts on YouMoz eventually find their way onto the main Moz Blog.) YouMoz belongs to the community. The blog was created as a place for the community to share and engage around bright ideas, in addition to being a vehicle for provoking thought around new concepts, strategies and tactics. For both aspiring and established authors, YouMoz has become a popular destination in the online marketing space. In the quest to make YouMoz even better, we’ve come with a few ideas to ensure that everyone continues to feel as though they can contribute to the blog. Beginning today, we’re introducing what we hope becomes four common formats for YouMoz: My Story, Headsmacking Tips, Problem Solved and Here’s How: My Story: The name pretty much says it all. Share with the community an interesting story related to online marketing. The story could be funny, personal or informational. As long as it’s interesting, well-written, and a benefit to the community, we’d love to hear it. A great example of the type of post we’re looking for is Mike Ramsey’s From Zero to a Million: 20 Lessons for Starting an Internet Marketing Agency. Headsmacking Tip: We’re bringing this format, first shared by Rand years ago on the main blog, out of the mothballs. Simply share with the audience an awesome online marketing-related tip that could make their jobs easier. (Example:Headsmacking Tip #21: Write Better Headlines Than Anyone Else.) Problem Solved: Tell the audience how you solved a significant marketing problem, making it easier for you to do your job. Share the nitty-gritty details, and include any graphics or tips needed for the community to solve the problem for themselves. (Example: A Simple Guide to Overcoming Ad Blindness for Publishers.) Here’s How: This style of post is meant to be a little more wide-ranging, allowing you to share with the audience ways they can successfully deploy a technique, tactic, strategy, tool or anything else you’ve gleaned that might be of value to marketers. (Examples: How to Write Emails That Get Opened Every Time and The 10 Tools I Use to Monitor Social Media More Effectively. A big shout out to Katy Katz for the inaugural post in this category: Here’s How to Write an Email That Throws off a Whole Room’s Productivity.) Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it? Don’t overthink it. Read our guidelines, then dive in and get started. Also, we’d love to hear what you think about these new formats. Plus, we welcome your comments or questions. Feel free to share your thoughts below
Content Development | | ronell-smith7 -
Restarting SEO when you move to different state
Hi every one, I have been working on my local citations but I have a blog which has been up for 4 years and has about 500 blog posts but I was living in NJ before and there is loads of stuff from jersey and also I have a lot of errors which is way too much to go back and fix like thousands since I am a photographer and loads of images. Would I be better off starting a new blog in my new SC region? my blog is feuzablogs.com and my main website is feuzareis.com so I thought of just doing a www.feuzareis.com/blog is it too much google juice to miss out on? is changing locations worth keeping blogging at this previous blog or should I just leave it up and start a new one which will be focused on new location? thanks
Content Development | | FeuzaReis121 -
Subdomain or subfolder
Hi I have hosted a website on azure, and was looking at starting a blog using wordpress. Wordpress does not get installed on the same domain as the my website by default on azure. I instead need to have it as a subdomain ie blog.mywebsite.com instead of mywebsite.com/blog I wanted to know which of the two approaches is better for my SEO, shoud it be subdomains or sub folder Tx Vinay
Content Development | | clinicea0 -
This article on making money with your site has to be out of date, doesnt it
Came across this article on making money with your site but surely it must be out of date as a number of the recommendations breaks google guidelines. Here is the link to read the full article but below is a breakdown http://bloggerspassion.com/make-money-online-websites/ 1. Paid Blogging with Sponsored Reviews Publishers are able to make money selling paid reviews on their blogs and advertisers are able to create buzz, traffic and backlinks with SponsoredReviews website. My total earnings with this paid review website are $1631.95. You need to have 3 months old blog with 10 quality posts published to get accepted. 2. Make Money Selling Text Link Ads Bloggers are able to make good earnings selling text links and advertisers are able to get lots of high quality backlinks and traffic for their websites. This helps them earn a lot of money from the services and products they are selling on their websites. I’m so far I have been able to earn $7,711 with this website. You need PR 3 plus blogs to get accepted. would be interested in your thoughts on this
Content Development | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Canonicle Help
Hey everyone, Hoping someone can shed some light on canonicle links for me. Have read as many articles and tutorials as possible but am still unsure about how to use them in my situation. I'm about to sign a content syndication agreement with a large newspaper for 3-4 of my articles per week. It's great because this national newspaper has a PR of 8, to my recently reduced PR of 3. The newspaper are providing attribution links back to my website, both to the homepage and original article on every article. Nice, but worried their size will make their copies of the article list above mine. Can anyone tell me, IF the newspaper agreed to making canonicle part of attribution, where exactly would it go? On my article? On their article? In their document ? Or in the link that directs back to me? Thanks.
Content Development | | Luc-W0 -
Is it worth to change a blog from a subdomain to subfolder?
We have a blog in a subdomain since some years and we are thinking about moving it to a subfolder, to see if we can boost the main domain (incoming links + fresh content). Could be worth it?
Content Development | | Montse0 -
Is my SEO guy bad news?
Hi All... I have had an SEO guy doing some work for us (link building etc) over the past few months. In the last week or two, I have been receiving emails from a few website owners complaining that our SEO guy has been spamming their sites (either through blog comments or forums posts etc). Now, to clarify, it's not spam as in "come and buy our awesome product" - it is spam as in he makes (for example) blog post comments that are relevant to the topic, that sometimes don't make perfect sense (due to his english skills). So, they do seem perhaps, extra spammy... (it is all hand written... not an automated scripts) My questions Im not out to do the wrong thing, so, is this approach bad news? Apart from annoying people, are there are other downsides? If I were to pre-write him comments/posts that actually made perfect sense, would that be a better approach? I don't want to annoy people, and I don't want to do the wrong thing, and I don't want our rankings to be effected, so... what is the consensus?
Content Development | | blitzna100