Should I use subdomains?
-
I'm thinking of a little project website, but wonder whether I should use subdomains, or just simply categorize the site.
For example, (I haven't chosen my domain yet) If I had www.flowers.com, and wanted to produce pages for each type of flower, should i use
rose.flower.com
or
flower.com/roseFor SEO purposes, or usability, does it matter?
Thanks in advance.
-
No problem Gordon. This is just me providing an example which can be modelled next to any project, however big or small.
-
Thanks Gary. That's quite an extensive sitemap!
I'm not sure how much I had thought a sitemap through, but I certainly had a vague structure in mind, but you know how these "little projects" - they grow and grow into monsters!
-
Hi Gordon
Simon is certainly right.
Something else to consider...
If you considering building a site, I would certainly "first" get to work on designing a "site map" to help you clarify your site's purpose and goals. This is essential for both SEO and usability.
We did some content marketing recently for Red Funnel IoW Ferries and Red Funnel Holidays. You'll see we've split all of their content into a well organised site map. http://www.redfunnel.co.uk/information/sitemap/
You may already know this Gordon, but I wanted to point this out because so many new businesses build a site which does not cover their "customer needs". A site map will give you a clear picture to expand your content for your targeted audience, as well as the SEO benefits.
-
I have been watching how google treats subdomains for a long time.
My conclusion is that Google can not make up their mind how to treat them. Sometimes their power is united with the site. Sometimes they are isolated. When they are isolated all of the assets that you have placed on them have little value towards the success of your website.
So, if you want your web assets to consistently receive favorable treatment and pull in concert for your domain then they should all be placed in folders on the primary domain.
It is easy to be fooled by observing "how subdomains are being treated today" because google will likely change their mind tomorrow.
-
Thanks Simon. That was generally my opinion, mostly based on the fact that the majority of websites do it the way you say, but I thought I'd ask the question before I embark on the project.
-
Hi Gordon
Sub-domains in my experience are not the best way to dissect your content or your site with topics as varied as you are suggesting. The best method might be internal directories.
For Example: www.flower.com/roses/red.html and not - roses.flower.com/red-roses.html
I tried using sub domains when I first started out, for my own business and duplicate content issues together with so much additional updating when major changes were required made it a hassle that was not rewarded in ranking benefits.
I recently spent a month eliminating my sub-domains from search and found much more time available to focus on my main site. My rankings in local search flew to the top within a couple of weeks and organic rankings also benefited.
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
-
How should the Heading Tags be used in Blogs to gain the Best results in SEO?
There are various Heading Tags from H1 to H6. In what order and priority should they be used in order to get best reach and ranking in google. Is every Tag a must in a blog?
Algorithm Updates | | sne79790 -
Using Google to find a discontinued product.
Hi Guys. I mostly use this forum for business questions, but now it's a personal one! I'm trying to find a supplier that might still have discontinued product. It's the Behritone C5A speaker monitor. All my searches bring up a plethora of pages that appear to sell the product... but they have no stock. (Wouldn't removing these pages make for a better internet?) No 2nd hand ones on eBay 😞 Do you have any suggestion about how I can get more relevant results... i.e find supplier that might still have stock? Any tips or trick I may be able to use to help me with this? Many thanks in advance to an awesome community 🙂 Isaac.
Algorithm Updates | | isaac6631 -
Wordpress Blog Integrated into eCommerce site - Should we use one xml sitemap or two?
Hi guys, I wonder whether you can help me with a couple of SEO queries: So we have an ecommerce website (www.exampleecommercesite.com) with its own xml sitemap, which we have submitted to the Google Webmasters Console. However, recently we decided to add a blog to our site for SEO purposes. The blog is on a subdomain of the site such as: blog.exampleecommercesite.com (We wanted to have it as www.exampleecommercesite.com/blog but our server made it very difficult and it wasn't technically possible at the time) 1. Should we add the blog.exampleecommercesite.com as a separate property in the Google Webmaster tools? 2. Should we create a separate xml sitemap for the blog content or are there more benefits in terms of SEO if we have one sitemap for the blog and the ecommerce site? If appreciate your opinions on the topic! Thank you and have a good start of the week!
Algorithm Updates | | Firebox0 -
Should I use the Disavow Tool at this point?
After Penguin, our site: www.stadriemblems.com jumped up to #1 for the keyword "embroidered patches." Now, months later, it's at the top pf page two. I'm pretty sure this is because we do have a few shady links (I didn't do it!) that perhaps Penguin didn't catch the first time around, but now Google is either discounting them or counting them against us. My question is, since I'm pretty sure those links are the reason we are gradually declining, should I submit them to Google as disavowed, even though technically, we're not penalized . . . yet? I have done everything possible to get them removed, and it's not happening.
Algorithm Updates | | UnderRugSwept0 -
Does Google or Bing use words in the page title beyond the displayed limit for ranking purposes?
Standard good practice for on-page SEO includes keeping page title length below the maximum that Google displays in the SERPs. But words in the title beyond that maximum can be indexed, even if they don't show in the SERPs for end users. For ranking purposes, is there any value in words beyond the character limit in page titles that are truncated in the SERPs?
Algorithm Updates | | KyleJB0 -
Don't use an h1 and just use h2's?
We just overhauled our site and as I was auditing the overhaul I noticed that there were no h1's on any of the pages. I asked the company that does our programming why and he responded that h1's are spammed so much so he doesn't want to put them in. Instead he put in h2's. I can't find anything to back this up. I can find that h1's are over-optimized but nothing that says to skip them altogether. I think he's crazy. Anyone have anything to back him up?
Algorithm Updates | | Dave_Whitty0 -
How useful is a mobile version of your site (for SEO sake)?
We're investigating a mobile version of our e-commerce site. Is it worth the investment regarding search engine optimization, or is this something that wouldn't have a big effect?
Algorithm Updates | | 9Studios0 -
Using Brand Name in Page titles
Is it a good practice to append our brand name at the end of every page title? We have a very strong brand name but it is also long. Right now what we are doing is saying: Product Name | Long brand name here Product Category | Long brand name here Is this the right way to do it or should we just be going with ONLY the product and category names in our page titles? Right now we often exceed the 70 character recommendation limit.
Algorithm Updates | | mlentner1