Redirecting root domains to sub domains
-
Mozzers:
We have a instance where a client is looking to 301 a www.example.com to www.example.com/shop
I know of several issues with this but wondered if anyone could chip in with any previous experiences of doing so, and what outcomes positive and negative came out of this.
Issues I'm aware of:
- The root domain URL is the most linked page, a HTTP 301 redirect only passes about 90% of the value. you'll loose 10-15% of your link value of these links.
- navigational queries (i.e.: the "domain part" of "domain.tld") are less likely to produce google site-links
- less deep-crawling: google crawls top down - starts with the most linked page, which will most likely be your domain url. as this does not exist you waste this zero level of crawling depth.
- robots.txt is only allowed on the root of the domain.
Your help as always is greatly appreciated.
Sean
-
Thank you Daniel & Steve for your comments. This is pretty much the line we have taken on this, always nice to get back up on something that is new to us. Great answers and greatly appreciated Best Regards Sean
-
I totally agree with Daniel, it would be a huge mistake!
Don;t forget that all of those links that are coming in currently, whether natural or built will have some relevance from sites/pages with anchor text relevant to that homepage. You won't just be losing a bit of link juice, you'll be losing what the search engines currently see as recommendations of trust and relevance from one page to another with that other being altered to a different page with whole different content (in the fact that it's a shop)... so the keywords and relevancy "bonuses" you did have on the homepage from all those links will no longer match up.... if that makes sense.
i.e. link from page about bananas, to page about bananas, with anchor text of bananas.
If you change the homepage it will become:
link from page about bananas, to page about apples, with anchor text of bananas.
That's an extreme and simplified example but you get what I'm saying
-
Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever redirect your home page. You've listed enough reasons already without even needing to add anymore. This is just a bad idea. It's one thing if your specific platform makes your homepage something other than the root domain and that's how it has always been. If you have had a home page at your root domain and now want to redirect it, bad idea. Just put the content of example.com/shop at example.com. Pretty easy fix.
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
-
Redirect Chain Domain
MozPro is highlighting some redirect chain issues with our domain that I do not recall ever setting up in our redirect list. In our Moz Pro Campaign I see the Site Crawl has flagged 36 Redirect Chain Issues. I understand how the redirect chain errors can happen but I do not recall ever manually redirecting our domain, yet I have http://stickylife.com, https://stickylife.com & https://www.stickylife.com all associated in one of our redirect chain errors. When looking at our redirect files I do not see any of these domain redirects and wonder how this has happened and how to fix it. It appears as though our HTTP and HTTPS is causing some redirection. I wonder if this is coming from our DNS settings?
Technical SEO | | StickyLife0 -
Spammers created bad links to old hacked domain, now redirected to our new domain. Advice?
My client had an old site hacked (let's call it "myolddomain.com") and the hackers created many links in other hacked sites with links such as http://myolddomain.com/styless.asp?jordan-12-taxi-kids-cheap-T8927.html The old myolddomain.com site was redirected to a different new site since then, but we still see over a thousand spam links showing up in the new site's Search Console 404 crawl errors report. Also, using the links: operator in google search, we see many results of spam links. Should we be worried about these bad links pointing to our old site and redirecting to 404s on the new site? What is the best recommendation to clean them up? Ignore? 410s? Other? I'm seeing conflicting advice out there. The old site is hosted by the client's previous web developer who doesn't want to clean anything up on their end without an ongoing hosting contract. So beyond turning redirects on or off, the client doesn't want to pay for any additional hosting. So we don't have much control over anything related to "myolddomain.com". 😞 Thanks in advance for any assistance!
Technical SEO | | usDragons0 -
301 Redirects
Hi, I have switched my site from a http .co.uk site to a https .com site. I have set a 301 redirect in the .htaccess file pointing all traffic going to the original .co.uk site to go to the new https: RewriteEngine on
Technical SEO | | imoprojects
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^up-bus.co.uk$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.up-bus.co.uk$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ "https://www.up-bus.com/$1" [R=301,L] however when i search in google for keywords the original .co.uk site is still registering in search, is there something else I am required to do to tell google to use the new https site instead? Do i need to do redirects for every page, or is what I have done above sufficient? Hope you can help, I am struggling with getting our site to register on google search, any advice greatly welcome Thanks in advance, Ian0 -
Questions about root domain setup
Hi There, I'm a recent addition to SEOmoz and over the past few weeks I've been trying to figure things out. This whole SEO process has been a bit of a brain burner but its slowly becoming a little more clearer. For awhile I noticed that I was unable to get Open Site Explorer to display information about my site. It mentioned that that there was not enough data for the URL. Too recent of a site, no links, etc. Eventually I changed the the URL to include "www." and it pulled up results. I also noticed that a few of my page warnings are because of duplicate page content. One page will be listed as http://enbphotos.com. The other will be listed as http://www.enbphotos.com. I guess I'm not sure what this all means and how to change it. I'm also not really sure what the terminology even is and something regarding root domain seemed appropriate but I'm not sure if it is accurate. Any help/suggestions/links would be appreciated! Thanks, Chris
Technical SEO | | enbphotos0 -
Domain taken. Which is better? Using hypens or longer domain.
I am wanting to set up an e commerce site and the domain name that I want is taken. I am considering using a domain that has the main keyword I want to rank for as the domain. I have heard chatter of google penalizing these types of sites and it seems that it hasn't come about. This is something that I would like to test out. So if "electricscooters.com" is taken, should I use "electric-scooters.com" or "electricscooters4less.com" Just wondering if the hyphenated or the longer domain will rank higher. The site won't be spammy at all, I will carry a few different companies that offer similar products. So for this case, I would only sell scooters from a few different manufacturers. Feedback would be appreciated!
Technical SEO | | Dave_Whitty0 -
Vanity Virgin Domains
Hi, I've acquired a vast amount of domains related to my industry over the past 2-3 years. The domains themselves are keyword rich, and likely to be highly searched in their respective terms. Most of the domains are virgin names, some are expired and re-registered names. I can appreciate re-registered names likely retain little value, but I'm wondering, if one was to setup each of the virgin vanity domains as a 301 re-direct, and add the redirected domains as a new submit to google, would there be any keyword relevance, or would this likely be a wasted effort or result in a penalty? I initially registered the domains to protect intellectual property, or prevent others from benefiting from the competitive terms (evil, I know), but I'd like benefiting from them, rather than renew each year and have them site there and do nothing. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | ispone0 -
Is Buying Domains Good For SEO? Can I 301 redirect domains to an Original website?
I have a friend that purchased multiple domains related to their website. Each of these domains have the back ground of the original website and irrelevant content on them. Is is possible to redirect the various domains to certain pages on the original website. For example if the website is www.shoes.com and they purchased domains such as www.leathermensshoes.com and a few others related to the website. Is it SEO friendly to link the domains purchased to the original website?
Technical SEO | | TSpike10 -
301 redirect from domain to home.aspx
We have been asked to look at a website and have found a 301 redirect from the domain www.domain.com to www.domain.com/home.aspx. Why would someone do this, this way round? We can't think of a good reason and are wondering if we have overlooked something? Thanks for your help.
Technical SEO | | travelinnovations0