1000+ links from domain to subdomain - impacting?
-
Hi there!
I'm wondering if anyone could kindly help me with this question.
I have a domain let's say: thisdomain.com - and I also have a subdomain called widgets.thisdomain.com
thisdomain.com has approx 2000 pages on it. There are site wide links in the top nav, side nav and footer pointing to widgets.thisdomain.com (all with the same anchor text - not branded - it's a money term).
My question is, do you think this would be causing some kind of algorithmic penalty (over optimisation / penguin)?
Or, do you think Google realises these links are pointing to a subdomain and says, "hey, OK we understand these two domains could be related" or given subdomains are seen as essentially standalone websites, the algo is saying "hang on a minute, pal, this looks fishy, why are you linking to this subdomain 1000+ times with sitewide links on the same anchor text"?
Should I nofollow these sitewide links? Do you think that will help?
I would really appreciate any help on this one.
Cheers!
-
If you do that and those links have supported rankings then there could be a traffic loss.
Yes, traffic/rankings have gone down so I've been investigating possible over optimisation especially on money terms.
If this was client site, I would be tempted to describe Door A, Door B and Door C.
Yes, you are not wrong. I like the analogy!
Really appreciate your help, EGOL.
-
I believe they've been advised a few years ago about the subdomain being the best approach.
That was probably good advice at the time. But times Google has changed.
however the client won't want that
You guys who have clients must have a lot of patience.
hence my thinking at least by adding the nofollow attribute, I can tell Google's algo I'm not trying to pass any juice across.
If you do that and those links have supported rankings then there could be a traffic loss.
FROM INITIAL QUESTION: do you think this would be causing some kind of algorithmic penalty
From this I think you are saying that the site suffered a rankings loss. If that is the case then taking action might be helpful. If that is not the case, I would be inclined to do nothing....
... well, honestly, I would be redirecting that subdomain to a folder if this was my site.
If this was client site, I would be tempted to describe Door A, Door B and Door C. And tell them that my best judgement says that there is shit behind A and B but safety, possible rankings increase behind Door C. If it was my site or my mother's site I would be using Door C. Then they have been given your best advice and choose the shit if they like it.
-
Thanks EGOL, I really appreciate your thoughts
Yes, I would love to get the client to move this content into a folder on the main site. I believe they've been advised a few years ago about the subdomain being the best approach. I'm glad you're getting terrific results from the move.
The reason for the links... The product on the subdomain is a separate business entity however it is still closely related to what the main company does. So they want people to be able to find these links easily. I agree, the footer link could be removed entirely, however the client won't want that, hence my thinking at least by adding the nofollow attribute, I can tell Google's algo I'm not trying to pass any juice across.
The situation is, they have three money term sitewide links from the main domain pointing at two separate pages on the subdomain. This means there are 1000+ links pointing at two distinct pages on the subdomain using a money term.
-
My question is, do you think this would be causing some kind of algorithmic penalty (over optimisation / penguin)?
Personal opinion... Probably not. But, if those three links each have different anchor text with money terms and are hitting different pages on the subdomain then I might be wrong.
Or, do you think Google realises these links are pointing to a subdomain and says, "hey, OK we understand these two domains could be related" or given subdomains are seen as essentially standalone websites, the algo is saying "hang on a minute, pal, this looks fishy, why are you linking to this subdomain 1000+ times with sitewide links on the same anchor text"?
Maybe.
Should I nofollow these sitewide links? Do you think that will help?
You could. That would be a good conservative response.
Why do you have all of these links? Does anybody click those footer links? I bet nobody is clicking them.
I know that the answers that I gave above were less than satisfying. I responded to this question to suggest that the content on your subdomain could be moved into a folder on the root domain. I did this on a site and the results have been kickass. Kickass.
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
-
I have a question about the impact of a root domain redirect on site-wide redirects and slugs.
I have a question about the impact (if any) of site-wide redirects for DNS/hosting change purposes. I am preparing to redirect the domain for a site I manage from https://siteImanage.com to https://www.siteImanage.com. Traffic to the site currently redirects in reverse, from https://www.siteImanage.com to https://siteImanage.com. Based on my research, I understand that making this change should not affect the site’s excellent SEO as long as my canonical tags are updated and a 301 redirect is in place. But I wanted to make sure there wasn’t a potential consequence of this switch I’m not considering. Because this redirect lives at the root of all the site’s slugs and existing redirects, will it technically produce a redirect chain or a redirect loop? If it does, is that problematic? Thanks for your input!
Technical SEO | | mollykathariner_ms0 -
Menu impact on SEO
we have a single page web application for an ecommerce website. I think it is built in angular. One UX features we are exploring is the use of a "Products" Item on the menu with the categories showing on a menu rather than directly present on the header. The aim being to keep the header nice and clean. The result of this is that the categories which would typically sit in the header will now not be immediately visible until the menu is opened. Let's say I want to rank well for "building materials". Traditionally the view would be that this word would need to be in the header and marked up with the appropriate h tag. Will moving "building materials" into a product menu be detrimental for SEO? My initial thought is that as long as it is coded correctly there shouldn't be any impact on SEO. Can anyone give me their expert SEO view?
Technical SEO | | built_bot0 -
Can you regain any SERPs / link juice of links that have 404'd?
We have a client whose 301 redirects disappeared and have been gone for about 6 months now. We are going to be putting the 301 redirects back in place. Will we be able to regain any of the previous SERPs or link juice from old links or is all lost? Thanks in advance!
Technical SEO | | SavvyPanda0 -
Domain prefix changed, will this impact SEO?
Our web development team have changed our domain prefix from www to non www due to a server change. Our SSL certificate would not be recognised under www and would produce a substantial error message when visiting the secure parts of our website. To prevent issues with old links they have added a permanent 301 redirect from www. to non www. urls until our sitemap catches up. Would this impact our SEO efforts or would it have no impact as a redirect has been placed? Thanks
Technical SEO | | Jseddon920 -
Subdomains
Hello Seo Experts, Can any one help me with this issue... I do have issues with my subdomains, My site name is http://www.bharatdesi.com, should I have subdomain http://www.bharatdesi.com/hyderabad this way or hyderabad.bharatdesi.com. Please any can answer my question, which way I have to organize my subdomains... and also give me some examples.. Thank you.
Technical SEO | | Vinss0 -
Forum Profile Links
Are they really important? Many preach they are, and there are tonnes of services out there who give you thousands of forum profile links in no time. I strictly believe in genuine links built the hard way, and definitely don't want to get into anything which is black hat. Please suggest if building several Forum Profile Links is an appropriate way of building links?
Technical SEO | | KS__2 -
Keyword in Domain or not?
My on page optimization grade is an "A" with the following factors; Factor Overview <dl class="scoreboard clearfix"> <dt>Critical Factors</dt> <dd>4 / 4</dd> <dt>High Importance Factors</dt> <dd>7 / 7</dd> <dt>Moderate Importance Factors</dt> <dd>8 / 9</dd> <dt>Low Importance Factors</dt> <dd>11 / 11</dd> <dt>Optional Factors</dt> <dd>5 / 5</dd> </dl> The main thing I appear to be missing is keywords in my URL. How truly important is that in today's SEO world and how much time or ranking would be lost if I do not have control to change the external links to my website if I decided to migrate to a keyword relevant url?
Technical SEO | | classa0 -
Track outbound links
I would like to track outbound links at http://bit.ly/yYHmbf 1. Shall i add the following code before at the above page What does 100 means in above code ? 2. Then use this for each outgoing link ``` [onClick="recordOutboundLink(this, 'Outbound Links', 'example.com');return false;">](http://www.example.com) ``` [](http://www.example.com) ```[``` http://www.example.com is the outbound link Am i right on both counts ? where should i look for report in GA ? ```](http://www.example.com)
Technical SEO | | seoug_20050