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
-
Redesign Just Starting - Should I Leave The Previous Incomplete Site or Setup A Temporary Holding Page and Redirect Previous URL'S?
Hi All I've picked up a new website project and wanted to ask about the best way to proceed with the current site during the development process. The current site is incomplete although it has been live for a while and has over 80 pages in the sitemap. Link to site https://tinyurl.com/ychwftup The business owner wants to take down the current site and simply add a landing page stating "new website coming soon". From an SEO perspective, am I better to keep the current site live until the new site is ready? Or would it not make any difference if I setup the landing page and add 301 redirects from each page in the sitemap to the landing page. Many Thanks In Advance For Any Assistance
Web Design | | ruislip180 -
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 -
Why is Google Webmaster suddenly started showing hundreds of HTML Improvements
Why is Google Webmaster suddenly started showing hundreds of HTML Improvements I mean to ask, my hundreds pages are been shown as duplicate - despite canonical marked correctly Below are sample url - which are been crawled in own way. I have rechecked canonical tag - which is correct as URL - 1, in all 3 url Do i need to worry about anything or shall i presume its a flaw from search engine to report this as an issue (This only pertain to Forum section) http://www.mycarhelpline.com/index.php?option=com_easydiscuss&view=post&id=1683&Itemid=78 http://www.mycarhelpline.com/?id=1683&Itemid=78&option=com_easydiscuss&view=post http://www.mycarhelpline.com/index.php?option=com_easydiscuss&view=post&id=1683 ps - i know these are dynamic url and not sef friendly url, but its been 3 yrs and , due to our ignorance and site builder took advantage of this. now - nothing can be done much to make them sef friendly as site has several thousand pages and touchwood - these dynamic url are not impacting much
Web Design | | Modi0 -
HTTPS redirecting to subdomain; do I need to 301 to HTTP first?
Hello there, quick question on HTTPS downgrade to HTTP. Originally, full site was HTTPS. Redesign eliminated need for secure layer. Site currently has https 301'd to sub.domain.com. Ideally, site would live at domain.com, but with the old site having been indexed https, the security warning triggers when you visit, hence the 301 to a subdomain. Thinking possible solutions here are to a) add back in secure layer or b) 301 all old https pages to new http pages. Have I overlooked something? With (a), I will see no SEO impact, correct? With (b), can I expect impact similar to a relaunch? Have seen a lot of chatter that there is some impact in switching http to https, but not much the other way. Any help much appreciated!
Web Design | | alimo0 -
Subdomain pdfs - do you track them?
We've enabled event tracking to monitor clicks to pdfs on our website. All of these pdfs are hosted in a subdomain. The thing is, we offer some valuable pdfs that get a lot of traffic from search engines but I can't track them on Google Analytics. Do you track such pdfs? I can't place tracking code as they are pdfs on a subdomain. Thoughts?
Web Design | | Bio-RadAbs0 -
Is it possible to redirect the main www. domain - but keep a subdomain active?
Hi Mozzers, Quick question, which I hope one of you can answer... Let's say I have a website (i) www.example.com and on that a subdomain exists, (ii) subdomain.example.com. Let's say I want to change my main domain from www.example.com to www.newwebsite.com. I'd 301 all content, use GWT to notify Google of a change of address etc etc. Having done that, is it still possible to keep the original subdomain active? So, even though www.example.com has been redirected / transferred to www.newwebsite.com, subdomain.example.com would still exist. If that is possible, what is the implication for Domain Authority? On the one hand, I have transferred the main site (so DA from that will transfer to the new site); but part of that root domain is still active. Make sense? Any answers? Thanks everyone...
Web Design | | edlondon0 -
SEO Searchable? Starting a New Forum for Company Community
Hi Mozzers, I'm new here and am looking forward to learning from this awesome group of SEOs As my company's Web Optimization Manager, I'm in charge of just about anything SEO related. We are an education company and we are looking to build a new forum so students (both new and old) and continue interacting within our community. We also want to use this as a tool for new users and potential new customers through search (obviously). We are in an internal debate as to how we should make the forums and the implications on search it may have. Some managers want the content available only to members, others want the content read-only to the public, and the tech team building the forum says that "it'll be an issue making the content available to the public without a log-in." So my questions are: (1) Will we still be searchable if we make our content "read-only" for non-members? Members will have the ability to log-in and comment and post etc (similar to this forum). (2) Will be searchable if we make the content completely private and available only to members. What I mean by private is perhaps, we'll make the title of the forum thread public but not the actual responses. Along these lines, what would happen if we made everything private (including the tite). Will Google still pick up on our content in a search result and a potential user only not be able to see anything? (3) What would you all suggest to make this flow the right way? Hope to hear from you all soon. Thanks
Web Design | | Pedram_SEO1 -
Duplicat Content?start=1
I am currently trying to figure out how to fix this basically our subcategory pages are being flagged for duplicate content. Basically we have items listed on these pages and usually we show 12 items and users can click to go onto the next page of items. Here is an example of what I am seeing. I'm just not too sure on how I would go about fixing this... Thanks for any Help! http://www.example.com/Beer-Coolers-sz3193.htm?start=1 http://www.example.com/Beer-Coolers-sz3193.htm
Web Design | | MichealGooden0