Shopping Carts & Sub Domains

[MEI152]

I was hoping someone could guide me in making the correct decision regarding integrating my existing domain with a hosted shopping cart.

I have an existing website to promote my bricks and mortar retail operation and am expanding into web retailing. I will be using one of the major hosted shopping carts. What is the best way to join the two components from an SEO perspective? Have the cart as a sub domain of my main site, or move my existing domain name to be hosted by the cart provider and have both components operate under the same general domain?

I have read arguments that putting your cart within a sub domain is not a good idea because any clout of the pre-existing domain will not be shared with the  sub domain; that they will be treated as two separate sites.

I have also read that using a sub domain is a good idea being that the content focus of the main domain (marketing and blogs) is different form the focus of the sub domain (product sales), and that the two components would benefit form earning their own rankings undiluted by the other.

And, I have also read that search engines are getting good at being able to deduce that an eCommerce sub domain is legitimate extension of a content intensive main domain, and that they treat the two components as a combined whole.

What is the truth? Which is the better way to go?

Any guidance would be appreciated.

[MEI152]

I don't want to misrepresent what Mr. Cutts had to say on this subject as I don't yet understand all the nuances of the topic.

Here is the link to Matt's comments: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_MswMYk05tk

Thanks for patiently entertaining my questioning.

[EGOL]

The way that search engines have treated subdomains has changed repeatedly over time.  The way that they treat a folder has been much more consistent.

Also, in that video did Matt Cutts specifically state that if you divide your site between a subdomain and a root domain will the power of your site be the same as if they were united?

There are a lot of domains on the web that have many subdomains that are owned by various people.  The ranking power of subdomain A does not influence the ranking of subdomain B on these sites.

[MEI152]

I just did some more digging around on the web and stumbled on a video from 10/2012 of Matt Cutts essentially saying to do whatever you want; Sub domain vs sub folder, there is not much difference in the way google treats them now.

I wish I could latch onto a definitive position. I don't want to shoot myself in the foot!

I will still research the cart pointed to  a sub-folder scenario as you guys recommend.

[SEOAndy]

pointing a folder would involve some DNS changes (to the CNAME record) - i think.

You would be best asking BC - it would be a similar process to pointing a subdomain to BC.

If you host a solution you are not always stuck in time, for example I use things like WooCommerce which is always being updated with new features and gives you great controls.

And just to clarify I am not saying that you cannot do the things YOU may want to do, but there are things that unless you've controls within the server you can't do - like implement GZIP for instance which can be a big deal on big sites.

[MEI152]

My understanding is that, unlike licensed cart solutions, if you use a hosted cart like BC, it resides on their server and cannot be moved elsewhere, .

As for the BC templates being limiting, this is not the case for anything at the product level. My designers have been able to greatly modify our BC pages. We have been able to do anything we wanted so far. I have no issues with BC. They are adding new functionality at a startling pace. If we were using a licensed cart, we would be frozen in time, or have to keep pace with evolving web functionality ourselves.

I agree that we would not want to use BC as the front pages of our site. For this, it would be too limiting, which is exactly why I am in the situation I am. We want the best of both worlds without sacrificing on SEO.

I am not sure how you would "point BC to a folder on our site." I just don't know; I am not a web guy.(trying to learn, though)

[SEOAndy]

moving the info site to BC is ok in general.

The reason both EGOL and I recommend having them together and on your own server is that you can control everything (see EGOL's list) and you aren't second guessing the settings on another server which you have no control over. It also means that things like templates can be made much more flexible to meet your exact needs and not just a few of your requirements.

If you can't some how point BC to a folder on your site then moving everything to BC is ok - the other option of course is to set up  a new domain and let it exist in it's own right but you wouldn't get any benefit from that just as you wouldn't from a subdomain.

[MEI152]

First off, I have to admit to EGOL I was wrong when I said I read “ that search engines are getting good at being able to deduce that an eCommerce sub domain is legitimate extension of a content intensive main domain, and that they treat the two components as a combined whole. This was a false recollection of an article about search engines being more lenient in assessing duplicate content in the form of product descriptions on retail sites that sell many variations of the same basic item.  I apologize for including BS in my original post.

That being said, I would like to clarify my situation in hopes that advice can be offered.

I have an informational site that is produced with a CMS. It uses a domain I bought through Godaddy. The sight resides on another hosting service (not Godaddy). I am setting up my shopping cart with BigCommerce. How do I best integrate the two components? It sounds like the cart in a subdomain option is out. An option might be to move the informational site to be hosted on Bigcommerce and have it, and the cart, within the same domain? It sounds like EGOL recommends against this.

[EGOL]

I think what EGOL means is that switching the domain to your hosting provider means you loose control of certain things within that domain which can be very important to seo. What could be a good compromise here is that you look at putting the shopping cart within a folder on the domain...

That is it.  Some shopping systems require you to place all of your content into their system - your articles, your homepage, everything.

Then they can charge you high fees on all of your bandwidth, limit your ability to install software such as wordpress, use htaccess, have full and complete control over the format of your pages, have formats that require a lot more time to manage, not allow you to run scripts in the cgi-bin, not allow chron jobs.

They all do not have all of these problems.  But some are really limiting and I would not want to marry into something that will limit my options.

I would look for a very flexible cart that allows you to have full control over the entire domain.  Confining cart activities in a single folder would not be bad, but I still think that is limiting because I would like to have the ability to place "buy buttons" on any page anywhere within the site - even on pdfs if I want them there.

Lots of people come to these forums saying that they can't do one thing or another because of their shopping cart.

[SEOAndy]

I think what EGOL means is that switching the domain to your hosting provider means you loose control of certain things within that domain which can be very important to seo. What could be a good compromise here is that you look at putting the shopping cart within a folder on the domain (not a subdomain as this would be a bad move), this means the work you've done on the domain would continue to effect the static info on there and the shop within the folder.

it may not be possible, it depends on your shopping cart provider - if it can't be done then move the domain across and ensure you have redirects in place from old domain links to new ones (eg your about pages redirect).

Hope that helps clear things up

[danatanseo]

I'm sorry, perhaps I am misunderstanding, but these answers seem totally contradictory to me. One the one hand EGOL said that he agrees that "**putting your cart within a sub domain is not a good idea because any clout of the pre-existing domain will not be shared with the  sub domain" **

yet  he also writes "The day that my sites get hosted by a shopping cart provider is a day that you can bet big money that I am dead and under."

I am sure they weren't intended to be contradictory and that I am simply misunderstanding. EGOL, would you mind elaborating or clarifying please?

[EGOL]

I have read arguments that putting your cart within a sub domain is not a good idea because any clout of the pre-existing domain will not be shared with the  sub domain; that they will be treated as two separate sites.

I agree with this.  All of my sites are done this way.

I have also read that using a sub domain is a good idea being that the content focus of the main domain (marketing and blogs) is different form the focus of the sub domain (product sales), and that the two components would benefit form earning their own rankings undiluted by the other.

This is BS from an SEO viewpoint.  Although some snooty marketing people might recommend it.

You can have unique banners for the store and promote it in tasteful ways that make this distinction for your  visitors.

It's not about how it is hosted (subdomain vs folders)... it's how your navigation presents it to visitors and search engines.

And, I have also read that search engines are getting good at being able to deduce that an eCommerce sub domain is legitimate extension of a content intensive main domain, and that they treat the two components as a combined whole.

Where are you reading this stuff?

Have the cart as a sub domain of my main site, or move my existing domain name to be hosted by the cart provider...

The day that my sites get hosted by a shopping cart provider is a day that you can bet big money that I am dead and under.

I want my pages to be finely crafted arrows.  I don't know if I am going to get that from a shopping cart system.

Someday you will probably decide to leave that shopping cart provider... it will be a lot easier to make that decision if you are not completely married to them.