Should we move our documentation off subdomain?
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Background:
We have a popular open source e-commerce platform at http://spreecommerce.com. Right now the documentation is on http://guides.spreecommerce.com. We have "edge" documentation (for stuff that's not yet released) on http://edgeguides.spreecommerce.com but since it's largely duplicative we've told google not to index any of the edge stuff (via robots.txt).
Question:
Should we consider moving the guides under the main website under /docs or something like this? There's a ton of great content that people often read to learn more about the platform. Seems like we might be diluting our juice a bit to have it on a separate domain. WDYT?
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IMO it is more about ease of use for the end user and less about SEO. If you have a good help sub-domain, it will automatically redirect users to the product site.
Still If I had to make a decision, I would have compared metrics like pages/visit, time on site, bounce rate of help site and main site. If help metrics are better than the main site, adding content to main will add value else it will deplete value. Also if it is only one product, it makes sense to have help within main site bur for multiple products, you should be better off with sub domains (product wise and not docs vs main).
Please see and decide what is best for your users first, keeping SEO at second priority. Hope it helps.
- Nitin
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I really like Jason's response and I watched the video. Still, from sheer gut instinct, I would move those docs to the main domain. Call me crazy, it's just seems like the right thing to do.
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The debate about subdomains vs. subdirectories has been going on for a long time. You have to be careful about reading old stuff, because the best answer has changed over time based on changes to search algorithms.
I.E. There was a time when "link-juice" was treated separately on each sub-domain, so subdomains could dilute your effort. There was also an era, when Google would allow a max of two results per sub-domain on a SERP, and so people would use multiple sub-domains to get the potential for more links on a SERP.
At the moment, they appear to be roughly equivalent And so the decision usually comes down to other convenience issues rather than SEO benefit In your case, since you're already on a sub-domain I probably wouldn't bother to move them and do all the re-directs, ect...
I'm basing this advice, largely on Matt Cutts video answer here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_MswMYk05tk
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Yea, Sean
I agree that you should move it under the main website. I am not an expert at this but I can definitely see how it can potentially dilute your juice from the main website. It almost seems like it should be on the resources page. I see how you guys have " Showcase| Case Studies| Hosting| ..." I would stick it between " Case Studies" and " Hosting."
What was the rationale behind putting it on a different domain?
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Hi Sean,
My gut reaction is "Heck Yes!" I would move the documentation, but perhaps, if you can convert it to .pdf file types, so you can embed a link back to your relevant page or main website from inside the document. This will also keep a link in the document if someone decides to share it off site somewhere, making for some handy links back to your site.
Interested to know what others think!
Dana
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