Subdomain or Start over?
-
I have a site that is currently set up geo-targeted in sub-domains. So each geo is princeton.site.com. Each site has the same code, design, but the events listed are different. There are about 30 subdomains and they are looking to expand nationally.
After the Panda update, I am seeing that it looks like they should stay as sub-domains rather than redirecting everything or setting up new domains.
Any thoughts on if the sub domains should stay and expand exponentially? SEO strategy, etc.? I'm also worried about the possibility of duplicate content.
Thanks!
-
Hi there,
Why are you looking to migrate the subdomains to subdirectories? In general, the most "natural" URL structure for a city organization would be: yourdomain.com/city/category/ since you will be able to consolidate all the popularity that you can attract to the different cities to your main domain structure and on the other hand, optimize (as you should be already doing with your subdomains) every landing page targeting each city.
Nonetheless, if you're already ranking with these subdomains for your keywords related to these cities the effort and substancial benefit that you might look to get might not compensate the effort -only if you see that you're not ranking with this structure and look to consolidate popularity-.
What is definitely fundamental that you do whether you decide to keep the subdomains or migrate to the subdirectories is that each city page (and its subpages) should feature unique, relevant content optimize for them. This shouldn't be necessarily difficult to achieve if you organize and optimize your structure to show:
- The name of each city in the titles, meta descriptions, headings.
- Add your specific office address in each city.
- Add your telephone number in each city.
- Enable and promote user generated content, like reviews, comments, ratings targeting each city.
- Create different offers or promotions for each city.
Like this, despite the fact that these city landing pages might feature similar offering (which is normal since they're the same business at the end) the content will be unique for each one of them.
I hope this helps. If you still have any doubts, please let me know.
Aleyda
-
If you are trying to do something like that where the audience is only for local business, then you can do it just like city search and craigslist.org.
"IF" you target market is similar, then you have a choice between subdomain and folders. Do what is best for your audience.
-
I really haven't seen much of it either, but citysearch.com is a good example.
-
When Google talks about GeoTargeting they mean countries, not cities. You cannot get target cities in GWT, only countries.
I have NEVER seen a company that had a website with subdomains for every city.
-
The content all appears to be unique - I am not seeing any dup content flags, but they are similar. Each subdomain has anywhere from 50 to 200+ pages. It does not look like much has been done for link building - just some regular social media posting on facebook, etc. I have attached the OSE overview for the subdomains.
Unfortunately, I do not have access to their webmaster tools yet. But they are pretty well indexed.
Thanks Scott!
-
The site was brought to me in this state. I've been reading that Google suggests subdomains for this type of site, even more so now after Panda: http://www.whitefireseo.com/site-architecture/subdomain-or-subfolder-post-panda/360/
-
There is not enough information to answer this question. if this is geo targeted to cities, then why not just do example.com/city-1, example.com/city-2, etc.
-
Before answering, I have a few questions...
How many pages of unique content exist already on each of these subdomains?
How many backlinks do you already have built to each of these subdomains?
Have you verified each subdomain in Google Webmaster Tools? How many pages are indexed for each?
Scott O.
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
-
Subdomain or Country Code Top Level Domain
Hello Friends, I am planning to develop my website for other languages. which one is best for SEO? (The main English website is well ranked in google) 1. de.example.com (subdomain may obtain rank faster as it is part of the main website?)
Web Design | | Bold
2. example.de (this is a completely new one; so not easy to get rank?) thank you
Barsbold0 -
Internally linked pages from different subdomain must be well optimised?
Hi all, We have guide/help pages from different subdomain (help.website.com). And we have linked these from 3rd hierarchy level pages of our website (website.com/folder1/topic2). But help.website sumdomain & pages are not well optimised. So, I am not sure linking these subdomain pages from our website pages hurts our rankings? Thanks,
Web Design | | vtmoz0 -
App indexing with several subdomains
Hi, We are currently in the process of getting our app developed. From an SEO point of view I want the app to get indexed and am currently trying to get a step by step guide for it. I've come across this helpful guide: https://moz.com/blog/how-to-get-your-app-content-indexed-by-google but need to go a bit deeper now. Questions I have is related to the "apple-app-site-association" file As far as I could find out the JSON code of that file has the following syntax: {_ “applinks”: {__ “apps”: [],__ “details”: [__ {__ “appID”: “9JA89QQLNQ.com.my.bundle.id“,__ “paths”: [ “/myPath1”, “/myPath2/*” ]__ },__ ]__ }_ } My question is related to the key "appID" I'm wondering how the entry would look like if I have 10 country subdomains and would like to make sure that the deep link clicked in the browser is going to the right subdomain page within the app. Current website structure:
Web Design | | FashionLux
uk.example.com/english-path/
de.example.com/german-path/ Many Thanks in advance0 -
A/B Testing.. Are you doing? how is it been? What do you think would be the best path for who is starting now?
Hey Mozers, One of my 2014 resolutions is to start doing A/B Testing, so far I have been following "best practices" and "common sense" when comes to website design, but I would like to go above and beyond. I was hoping a could get a few tips some of you that are already doing A/B testing. How is it been? Do you see a great ROI? What do you think would be best path for who is starting now? Any book or links you would recommend? Thanks
Web Design | | Felip30 -
Learning Center on Subdomain or New Domain
Hello, With so much emphasis for SEO to develop unique, information content I am working to build out a "Learning Center' for one of my clients in the finance industry. As you can guess, this is quite a competitive space and their rankings have become somewhat stagnant so we are looking for new ways to develop original, share-worthy content for the site. So my question is, in order for them to retain the most SEO value should we develop this on a subdomain such as learning.website.com or a new domain altogether. Note: We do not want to develop this under the current site domain as it we want o only post informational content & courses and keep these pieces outside of the "sales" side of their website. Therefore, I thought the subdomain would be the best bet so that we would retain the most value for SEO... however, some of my colleagues disagree. Some vote it should be within a directory under website.com. Some say a new site & domain altogether. My vote is to place this under a subdomain such as http://learning.website.com with the idea that the site's authority will influence the root http://website.com. The argument I was provided against the subdomain was: "essentially adding a subdomain would mean you're sort of starting over again in terms of building authority. adding a folder will ride the coattails off the already established authority." Lastly, for clarification, the current domain is set up as http://website.com so the subdomain would be http://learning.website.com, the directory would be set up as http://website.com/learning/ and a whole new domain would be http://newwebsite.com. This is for a Wordpress site. Thoughts? All feedback is much appreciated!
Web Design | | TinaMumm0 -
Major Drop starting Jan 22 2013
I have a friend who has an ecommerce site. He got slammed in January. He doesn't buy links. In webmaster tools his queries and impressions are way down as well. his site is www.beastmasterrodeo.com. Any suggestions would be great
Web Design | | polarking0 -
Subdomain vs Sub Folder
Hi. This is my first question here guys and gals so please be gentle. We are creating a town based website that will hold news, events, articles and relevant local content. We are also creating a business directory that will be part of this. My question relates to an issue we have regarding how the directory will be treated as part of the "network". Although we aren't 100% sure on the domain name yet, we want the directory to be found as easily as the domain itself. Even better, if the two could be treated seperately but strengthen the overall theme for the domain we'd be in keyword heaven. Therefore in your opinion (hopefully with pro's and con's) which do you think will rank better in Google, Yahoo and Bing (or all three);
Web Design | | rufo
The directory seperate as a subdomain or as a folder within the main domain? So for example - providing we are including links between the two sections and the site is www.sitetown.com Which is better for the directory itself? http://www.sitetown.com/directory http://directory.sitetown.com or you're mad Steve, use a seperate domain altogether www.sitetowndirectory.com I hope you can help, obi-wan, you're my only hope..... PS - seomoz still rocks. Thanks
Steve0 -
Are Subdomains Beneficial?
Are subdomains beneficial? I have a client with 4 stores. As it stands, they use one domain, www.mainpage.com/store1, www.mainpage.com/store2, etc. Are there any big benefits to making these subdomains like store1.mainpage.com, store2.mainpage.com?
Web Design | | eldoradoseo0