Creating Authority and choosing URL's
-
Creating Domain Authority and choosing URL's:
A:
What is better if you want to get higher Domain Authority? Choose keyword.domain.com or www.domain.com/keyword when other sites link to it?
B:
And for Page Authority? Choose keyword.domain.com or www.domain.com/keyword?
Thanks!
-
Ha, very true.
Or we're both wrong. However at this stage in SEO, Rand's comments are practicably gospel...so I feel pretty confident.
-
Hi Robert - how true lol - we must have been writing it at the same time as when I clicked submit your reply was already there! At least it qualifies this answer with two of us in agreement
-
Great minds think alike!!
-
I take it you mean is it better to use a subdirectory on your domain or a sub-domain in order to build your sites authority - I would go with the subdirectory as link juice isn't passed to sub-domains in the same way. Therefore building your content in a subdirectory will also help your new pages ranking being part of a domain that has authority. Quite often Google can treat sub-domains as separate sites so they have to build their own authority.
Have a look at this article - http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites
-
In answer to your question, Rand did a great article on this a while back as a follow on to a white board friday session.- http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites
There are also multiple other questions of a similar nature.
http://www.seomoz.org/pages/search_results?q=sub+domain+vs.+subfolder
The general consensus seems to be sub-folder over sub-domain. As Sub Folders tend to get all the benefits from the root domain.
To quote Rand from the top article his advice:
"1 subdomain under 1 root domain (but feel free to use subfolders as it makes sense). Starting a blog? I almost always recommend yoursite.com/blog over blog.yoursite.com. Want to launch a new section of content? Use yoursite.com/newstuff rather than newstuff.yoursite.com."
So both A and B - www.domain.com/keyword
Hope this helps.
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
-
Content that's behind CSS..
For content that's been loaded onto the page.. but it requires a click for it to be revealed.. as in a slider, or a tab, to save space or for a page's organization.. what are your thoughts on Google counting or weighting this content? It would make sense for Google to give it partial or no weighting as if Google attributes the content to being there, its confusion for the user to land on the page and have to find it/click around to find it.. Sorry if this is an obvious question to SEOs.. I've always assumed as long as it was loaded, it'd be mostly counted.. but I'm beginning to doubt my assumption. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | speedcommerce0 -
Optimizing a URL/menu structure
Hi Mozzers, I'm working on Content Strategy at my job, and I'm close to making some recommendations on short/long-term direction. While I'm there, I want to tackle the URL/menu structure (correct term?), which is a bit of a mess as pages have been created without any consideration for it over time. For ease, let's just say we have 3 main subdirectories of the site (Section A-C), and let's also say that section A also has 3 important subdirectories. From a UX perspective at least, we want a page to look like: example.com/sectionA/subsectionAA/page1 but currently it's example.com/page1 We have dozens and dozens of these examples. To complicate matters a little further, Sections B and C have been earmarked to be consolidated into a new section (D), as they're currently confusing and overlapping, and create roadblocks in user journeys. So a page that is, say: example.com/sectionB/page2 may well want to be: example.com/sectionD/subsectionDA/page2 I'm comfortable enough with technically doing this, as I'm experienced enough in Drupal and have an agency on hand too, BUT - I don't know if there are any SEO pitfalls I need to be wary of when I'm doing this, beyond resubmitting sitemaps, and the trickle-down effects of redirects. Any advice, wise forum? thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | joberts0 -
Canonical URL Tag Usage
I have a large website, almost 1500 pages that each market different keywords for the trucking logistics industry. I don't really understand the new Canonical URL Tag USAGE. They say to use it so the page is not a duplicate but the page that MOZ is call for to have the tag isn't a duplicate. It promotes 1 keyword that no other page directly promotes. Here is the page address, now what tag would I put up in the HEAD so google don't treat it as a duplicate page. http://www.freightetc.com/c/heavyhaul/heavyhaul.php 1. Number 1 the actual page address because I want it treated like its own page or do I have to use #2 below? 2. I don't know why I would use #2 as I want it to be its own page, and get credit and listed and ranked as its own page. Can anyone clarify this stuff to me as I guess i am just new to this whole tag usage.
On-Page Optimization | | dwebb0070 -
Keyword in URL: Ranking Factor?
I've got a site about a specific topic, which we'll call "themes" for the sake of this discussion. I personally like to keep the url structure short and clean (for usability purposes, but mainly because I'm a perfectionist and a minimalist). I feel that adding "themes" to the url structure is a bit redundant. However, nearly every keyword phrase that my site should rank for includes the word "themes." So I'm wondering how much I'm handicapping myself by not including the keyword "themes" in the url? The domain name itself sort of includes the keyword . . . although it's in Italian (I chose the domain for it's brand-ability, not for the keyword). A quick example: My Url Structure: www.themo.com/topic/abc My Competitor's Url Structure: www.sitesample.com/themes/topic/abc For many of the keywords, the competitors with the keyword in the url rank highest. But, I'm not sure how much emphasis to place on this, because from my understanding Google doesn't pay as much attention to url keywords anymore . . . and those sites might just be ranking high because they've been around for so long (which also happens to be the reason why they coincidentally also include the keyword in the url, because they started the site when that was a high ranking factor). Thoughts? Should I just trash my perfectionism and add the keyword to the url structure? (By the way, the site is only a couple months old and doesn't have any significant backlinks to inner pages yet, so changing the url structure wouldn't be a big deal if I decided to do that).
On-Page Optimization | | JABacchetta0 -
URL extensions naming
I have always wrote URL extensions as www.mysite.com/two_words.html .... when I need to separate two words, I use _ as the separator ... I am a first time SEO Moz user ... I While looking around the tools on SEO Moz, I happened to stumble across the on-page analysis. A great tool indeed, rather worryingly though, one issue it flagged to me was my URL extension "Characters which are less commonly used in URLs may cause problems with accessibility, interpretation and ranking in search engines. It is considered a best practice to stick to standard URL structures to avoid potential problems." Can someone advice me if this really is a problem, its just not this project, its tons of sites I have already developed that I am also worried about ... I always write file extensions with more than one word using _ to separate the words. How should I write the extension, I am almost embarrassed to ask this question ... Surely, even Google's algorithms are not smart enough to decipher two words without some some sort of spacing .... Regards J
On-Page Optimization | | Johnny4B0 -
20 x '400' errors in site but URLs work fine in browser...
Hi, I have a new client set-up in SEOmoz and the crawl completed this morning... I am picking up 20 x '400' errors, but the pages listed in the crawl report load fine... any ideas? example - http://www.morethansport.co.uk/products?sortDirection=descending&sortField=Title&category=women-sports clothing
On-Page Optimization | | Switch_Digital0 -
Long URL in listing job portal
Hello I have job portal and I am listing job offers by: regions, position, sector, language skill For example, when user searchs job in Bratislava, Programmer, information technology, english. My URL is www.presbium.sk/bratislava/pragrammer/information-technology/english Title:Job in Bratislava, Programmer, Information technology, english I know, that URL is too long and no good for SEO. Is it solution? When user chooses max. 2 items for example: www.presbium.sk/bratislava/programmer/ than I put in every next links atribute nofollow and google will index only pages with max. 2 items: www.presbium.sk/bratislava/ or www.presbium.sk/programmer/ or www.presbium.sk/bratislava/programmer/ but not www.presbium.sk/bratislava/protrammer/english/, because english link has atribut nofollow. And I want to ask, what is the best solution for SEO when I am listing job offers by regions, position, sector, language skill and I have than long URL and Title www.presbium.sk/bratislava/pragrammer/information-technology/english Title:Job in Bratislava, Programmer, Information technology, english
On-Page Optimization | | PeterSEO0 -
Url question for seo
Would it be beneficial to use url that is a match for my keyword to help with seo, then have my currently url forward to that one so I don't have to change any marketing materials? I was one of the feedback that I got when doing the on page keyword optimization tool on seo moz. Thanks J
On-Page Optimization | | fertilityhealth0
