Subdomain initials vs full city name(s) for a multi city subdomain site?
-
Helping with a multi-city non-profit magazine/news blog. Subdomain options;
Some cities added, will as an example seol.domain.com a city that doesnt have a recognizable initlals, like NYC for example.
For brand, recognition, seo benefit, what have you used and why?
Thanks
-
Quick and Sloppy Answer: the full names probably have more SEO benefit (if any is possible) as opposed to the city initials.
Better Answer: I'm not really liking the idea of creating a site with a pile of subdomains. Are you planning on creating truly rich, full sites for each subdomain with location-specific content? Putting something on a subdomain causes a degree of separation between each entity. This could cause a bit of a loss for you when it comes to sharing the benefit of a link to one of the sd's or another. For example: batman.wordpress.com does not benefit as much from a link to wordpress.com or reallygoodsite.wordpress.com. Of course this would be a different scenario but I still think you'd probably be better off using subdirectories ie: example.com/San-Fransisco-Real-Estate. This ensures that there is no separation between one section and another and each benefits from links to the other.
In my experience subdirectories are easier to work with technically as well.
I'd rethink any situation where I was going to have to create potentially infinite subdomains and consider making sub directories with keyword-rich URLs instead if that's possible. Do you really want to create 50 Webmaster Tools accounts and GA profiles? I wouldn't.
Good Luck!
-
You need to develop one type of site name structure for your case. Shortened variants will be suitable for small count of cities. And if you pland expanding your presence over other cities ther emight appear a problem creating shortened urls. About SEO, branding or recognition of site - there is no use to speak about those without understanding your market exactly.
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
-
EMD's How much should you offer for a good one?
Hi Everyone, I am launching out into an e-commerce site and I am looking at purchasing an EMD as my brand. The brand of product I am selling is different "brand" but the e-commerce brand I will be building will be for a three word keyword that is competitive and gets great traffic. My questions are these: 1. Is an EMD worth it? The asking price is $42k for a site that is a keyword that gets 60k searches per month. 2. How much should offer without being rude to the seller? 3. The $42k represents a significant portion of my start up cash. Forget converting, (that will be an ongoing tweak that I am committed to perform) will a good EMD help brand the site and drive the traffic? My thinking is that with social media and ppc you could burn through that money and not be any further ahead. Thanks a ton in advance for the weigh in. Happy Holidays everyone. Gary
Industry News | | gdavey1 -
Backlink Query. Unranked pages of High Ranking sites.
Hi, So I was just wondering if someone with more knowledge than myself can answer this question for me. I have a site - currently sat on page 2 of google. On-site optimisation is done, however I am struggling to get backlinks that are from highranking pages. I am new to SEO so need a hand. My understanding of backlinks is that the higher the PR of the site that links to your 'money' site, the better that link is, and that these links are very hard to come by. (something that I am finding). Many times I have found sites that have a high rank and offer for a free listing, only for me to fill in details and get listed on a sub-page that has no ranking whatsoever. So my question is, are these kind of links worth the effort? Do they actually have any effect on rankings? And generally would anyone have any tips on the best sites to get links? Thanks
Industry News | | Chstphrjohn0 -
YELP: Legit, or is it wearing Prada's with a black hat?
Should I stop recommending clients to be in yelp? http://finance.yahoo.com/news/yelps-newest-weapon-against-fake-100101689.html
Industry News | | Chenzo0 -
SEO Risks for redirecting sites
Hey Everyone, I've tried searching for this question, but am not exactly sure what keywords to search for so I'm probably missing the resources if they already exist... My client has had duplicated sites for years, and after multiple penalizations of those sites I was finally able to convince him to consolidate them into a "mega-site". Currently, he has a main domain, a geo-subdomain for each office location under the main domain, and a geo-domain for each office location. We plan on redirecting each geo-domain to the corresponding geo-subdomain. So, the final result will be one main domain, and a sub-domain for each office location. I'm looking for any information regarding tracking SEO data after the redirects are in place, how to guard against potential drops in SERPs, what's the smartest strategy to implement, etc... My client is very sensitive to his sites' SEO data, so if anyone has any SEO-related advice regarding redirecting sites it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
Industry News | | Level2Designs0 -
3rd Party Site Presence and Internet Marketing
An issue that I do not see discussed about much in Internet Marketing circles is the importance of establishing and developing a presence on third party sites other than through guest posting and I was wondering how much other internet marketers focus on this area and recommend this to clients. I see many people wanting hiring internet marketers basically for SEO and the KPI's on which they are judged are SEO based outcomes (higher alexa rank, number of page 1 keywords, number of top 1, top 3 keywords etc). I recently gave advice to someone who had very little time, very little money and very little SEO skills who wanted to rank in number 1 positions for their band for wedding and corporate bookings. I basically showed them sites that were highly positioned in the SERPs where they could get develop a strong online profile and how this would work better than investing 3 hours a month badly into SEO. Ultimately what businesses want is strong convertible leads and sales. For many businesses that might be better established particularly where budgets are tight through other elements whether it is Tripadvisor rankings, presence in other 3rd party sites or in an Ebay store than through SEO for their own site. Obviously for big brands with big budgets SEO is essential but as many keyword terms become increasingly competitive how important should referrals from 3rd party sites be in businesses internet marketing strategy and to what extent do you feel current internet marketing businesses identify and promote this need rather than simply working on improving ranking performance for keywords?
Industry News | | LighthouseC0 -
Good time to start a niche site?
I am wondering, with all the recent changes in the algorithm, is this a good time to start a niche site? I know this can be fairly subjective, depending on the niche. But, anyone think this is a good opportunity?
Industry News | | inhouseseo0 -
Subdomains seen as one site
Earlier this month Google announced that sub-domains are now
Industry News | | AlanMosley
be treated as one site. At first I thought this was good news as I like to use
sub-domains for separation of categories and the like. But what about links
from one sub-domain to the other, they uised to be external links now they are
internal links. If you don’t have many external links, I would say that the
cross sub-domain links would have been important, if you have a lot of external
links then the flow of link juice would be of more benefit. I think overall its
is a good thing. Does anyone have any opinions about this or know of any writings
on the subject since this announcement? http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/08/reorganizing-internal-vs-external.html0 -
Is Bing actually using Yahoo's search engine now?
All my Bing rankings are now the same as Yahoo's ranking were, but I expected the opposite. Meanwhile, my Yahoo rankings are exactly the same as they were last week.
Industry News | | agawrvagreaas0