Subdomains vs. Subfolders Inheriting Authority/Ranking Value
-
Our website is a continuing education website that is linked to a large university, and our URL is a subdomain of that larger university domain. We offer degrees as well, but because of the modifications we'd like to make to the degree webpages, our content management system won't let them be a part of our website.
Now we're trying to figure out if we should create a separate subdomain for all degrees, and put the individual degrees in separate folders (so, all degrees' URLs woudl be degrees.us.university.edu/degree-name/), or if we should give each its own URL, which would be completely separate from ours (degree urls would be degree-name.university.edu).
So our question is, how well do subdomains carry the value of the domain? Is it better to have twenty websites that are all separate subdomains of a strong domain, or one subdomain in a subdomain that houses all twenty websites in folders?
And, as a side note, will housing the degrees in degrees.us.university.edu pass value to us (us.university.edu)?
Thanks!
-
Hi Kristina - sorry for the long delay!
I definitely wouldn't go with sub.subdomain.rootdomain.edu - I'd go with a subfolder and hopefully, something as close to the root/main domain as possible.
-
Thanks, Rand - I wasn't able to find those articles on my own. They're really helpful.
I think one of the subtleties of our question is, is there a higher chance of gaining value from a strong root domain beause you're only one subdomain away? We're worried that, by creating subdomain.subdomain.root-domain.edu, we're completely losing any chance of value from our root domain.
-
I have a client with subdomains, and they seem to group together nicely, I do plent of closs linking, it helps that the content is relevant accross domains, but one thing I do is locate all the images and some js and css files on the root domain and link to them from the subdomains. now i have no evidence that this makes a diference besides my gut feeling, but i hope that Se's see this as one big site, i would if i was working at Bing or Google
-
I don't think you're gaining much with a complex subdomain play. My recommendation would be to use the usual format: domain.tld/geo/category/degree-name this format will provide clear URLs which are easy to understand by both search engines and users.
-
Hi Kristina - I actually wrote an in-depth post about this and did a whiteboard Friday on the topic:
- http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites
- http://www.seomoz.org/blog/whiteboard-friday-the-microsite-mistake
Basically, the answer is "sometimes" subdomains will be connected with the root domain and other subdomains in the eyes of the engines, but other times, this isn't the case.
In the specific one you're describing, my guess is that much of the root domain authority and ranking power will pass to the subdomain, so long as there are good links passing between the two (indicating a relationship, rather than a new, separate site).
best,
Rand
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
-
Best schema option for condos / condominiums?
Hey guys, I'm doing a review on some schema on some of our sites. Most of them are generic using LocalBusiness. There are a few more specific schemas I could use, but not sure what would be the most relevant. Wondering if any of you have a suggestion or ideas? https://schema.org/Residence https://schema.org/LodgingBusiness https://schema.org/ApartmentComplex or I could just stick with LocalBusiness. I'm leaning towards LodgingBusiness or ApartmentComplex.... but when I think of LodgingBusiness I think of something temporary / vacation type deal like hotels. Apartments... kind of self explanatory, a condominium isn't exactly an apartment but perhaps it is more comparable to an apartment than a hotel, motel or inn. What are you thoughts on this? Also, which "format" is better to use RDFa, microdata, or JSON-LD. Does it matter?
On-Page Optimization | | donnieath0 -
Decrement in Domain Authority
Hi, We are a bit confused. Recently we saw a drop in Domain Authority Our organic search is increased but DA decreased By 1 what cause in decrements of DA?
On-Page Optimization | | torbett
We made all the changes suggested by MOZ for improving Domain Authority. We are confused because our organic search is increased but Domain Authority Goes Down. What should we do to improve domain authority?0 -
Stolen Content reposted on other sites. How does this affect ranking?
Visitors often copy and paste my content and post it elsewhere... on Facebook, on Tumblr, on forums and sometimes on competing websites... but they don't link to me. How does Google treat this duplicated content? What is the best way to handle it? File DCMA claims or ask them for a link?
On-Page Optimization | | brianflannery0 -
Ranking Oddities
In my local marketplace, I have competitors who have the following: unoptimized title tags and description tags (really long using keyword stuffing), stuffing keywords into the Meta keywords tag, lacking keywords in the body copy, using spammy footers or sections of text with a lot of local cities listed where no physical business is located, unattractive design (in my humble opinion), lower page authority, lower domain authority, lower number of back links and are organically outranking my site that I have tried to optimize using the MOZ tools, Market Samurai, other tools, and other great advice provided by people much more knowledgeable than myself about SEO. I don't understand how these sites that lack SEO continue to rank in the #1 or #2 spots in Google for my main keyword phrase + location, while my site is either not in the top 50 or in the top 40s range. How is it that sites with little to no optimization, no blogs, and very few backlinks, continue to rank quite well? These are not all new sites. Domain ages range from 1 to 10 years. What I am seeing appears to go against the grain of SEO recommendations. Any general thoughts?
On-Page Optimization | | ajgrossman1 -
Rel=author WP Plugin
Anyone find a WP plugin they like for rel=author and rel=publisher markup? I'd love to find one that gives and about the author at the end of a blog, and tags the G+ page on the end for rich snippets. Does that exist?? 🙂
On-Page Optimization | | AESEO0 -
Should we consider redirecting a high ranking subdomain page to our homepage?
My site bluecotton.com sells custom printed t-shirts. Our DA is 46. Our homepage is PA 55. The design studio is where users create their designs. Over the years the design studio has received a lot of fan fair including links from gizmodo and adobe. When I rank against our biggest competitors customink, ooshirts, uberprints.com I find that our domain as a whole doesn't look all that great. However, when I look at the history of our subdomain I see that we are more trusted and credible than all of our competitors. We have 10k links pointing to the design studio. Here is my question. What if I did 301 redirect of bluecotton.com/studio.html to bluecotton.com? Then I created a new url for the DS. This would not cause users any problems. In fact for many they would get more context around what we are trying to do and what we offer. Is this crazy? I never find results in google for the design studio. It always shows our home. That is pretty much what happens to all of our competitors on the higher traffic terms that are driving real sales. So why do i ask? If my subdomain is more valuable becuase of the design studio links then I wonder if I redirected it to the homepage if it would supercharge my homepage and propel is forward in the serps. Thoughts?
On-Page Optimization | | bradwayland0 -
Why would my homepage be ranked lower (Page Rank 2) than my other pages on the site (PR3) ?
Why would my homepage be ranked lower (Page Rank 2) than my other pages on the site (PR3) ?
On-Page Optimization | | dmurtagh0 -
Mobile vs Website Duplicate Data / Meta
SeoMoz is reporting duplicate content, title tags, and other meta information and seems to be showing that my mobile site (located on m.website.com) is a duplicate of website.com I was figuring I could add "Mobile SiteName" to the title to avoid the duplicate title but am a little confused as to how to approach the duplicate content side of it
On-Page Optimization | | Check_City0