Does a blog on a subdomain pass on SEO credit to the main domain?
-
When setting up a Hubspot blog you are asked to create a subdomain such as blog.website.com in order to have the blog hosted there.
Two questions:
1. Does a blog on a subdomain pass on SEO credit to the main domain?
My understanding is that a subdomain is treated like a unique site but I'm not finding current articles to confirm this is still true.2. If it does not pass on credit to the main domain and the subdomain is only building "SEO love" for itself but your posts are getting found and driving conversions... from a marketing perspective does this non-transfer of SEO credit really matter? Meaning if blog.website.com is linked to the navigation on website.com, your site has quality content, has relevant calls to action, and you are lead nurturing like a good marketer... does the passing of SEO credit matter if your posts are what's getting found and filling the top of the funnel?
Thank you in advance,
Christine -
Hi Nicole,
Just to mention first off my comment's more regarding sub domains more than Hubspot specifically. I'll try to answer your question directly:
Does one lose any credibility or get diluted by putting said blog on a subdomain rather than in a subdirectory folder?
You may loose credibility (or gain if you put it on a sub folder) by the fact a subdomain could look 'new' compared to an existing website but to be honest its nominal in the big picture. As for credibility that's more for the users point of view than Google's (unless you're planning on being very naughty with the site) but with good content and branding this shouldn't be a problem.
There are oodles of topics on subdomains vs. subfolders out there for you to research but try not to over think it too much as it really all boils down to what you want out of it. You can over come most of the problems you feel you may have. Link diluting etc. is only really a problem if you're planning on posting the same content on both domains as they would literally competing with one another but if its unique and useful info they it should rank on its own merit (with some basic SEO/SEM)
If you are unsure or feel inexperienced I'd recommend putting it on your site then you will get a boost from your blog (see Moz example above) without as much work, so unless you want to distance your main site from the blog this should cover you well.
if in doubt do more research, ask more people get all the info until you feel you're all covered.
Best of luck with your blog and I hope it all goes swimmingly.
-
Christine and I are working on this project together and my ongoing concern is not so much if they get credit passed on to them (logically I would think if domain owners could do this, it would be considered a no-no by google) yet more so if it detracts in any way from the main URL. i.e. diluting the value of the content on the main URL because it competes for the same keywords, etc. therefor 'siphoning' link credit.
This is my first time working with a tool like Hubspot and I feel strongly that it does more SEO harm than it does good. However, my lack of knowledge in the area of Hubspot could be why I feel that way.
So as a follow-up to Christine's question, does one lose any credibility or get diluted by putting said blog on a subdomain rather than in a subdirectory folder?
Thanks so much in advance!
-
Hi Cristine,
Hope you've got found your answer but I just wanted to also give my input.
Whilst they do pass some "link juice" its more akin to creating a separate site meaning double the work, this can be fine if that's what you want but for me its a lot easier to create e.g. www.yoursite.com/blog then any links created also benefit your site as well any users can also browse your site straight from your blog pretty easy etc. You can see what Matt Cutts said about a similar subject way back in 2007 here - https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/subdomains-and-subdirectories/
Regarding your second point if it's getting found and is working that fantastic but what is the likelihood of this? If you're running an email marketing campaign and relying on direct traffic this may not be an issue but I don't know of many sites that rank purely on their content alone from the start you can give yourself a bit of a boost from your main domain via a subfolder.
In Summary- If your site is getting found, getting exposure and all that jazz fantastic give your self a pat on the back, however if not there is nearly double the work on trying to get a subdomain to rank compared to having it on your main site, this is fine for some of the experts but if not I'd recommend you give this a try first and if you want you can move it onto its own subdomain at a later date. In terms of metric unfortunately they do matter if you're after exposure and organic exposure.
Finally you can also see (via Q&A) some example here - http://moz.com/community/q/moz-s-official-stance-on-subdomain-vs-subfolder-does-it-need-updating
Hope that helps and best of luck with your blog.
-
Thanks Ruben. Their blog is already set up on a subdomain. For my own site though I have our blog on WP and use the exact plugins you mentioned.
-
From Moz-
Since search engines keep different metrics for domains than they do subdomains, it is recommended that webmasters place link-worthy content like blogs in subfolders rather than subdomains. (i.e. www.example.com/blog/ rather than blog.example.com) The notable exceptions to this are language-specific websites. (i.e., en.example.com for the English version of the website).
For your second question-
As long as you are getting conversions that is all that really matters. It doesn't matter if it is coming from your domain or subdomain.
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
-
Will editorial links with UTM parameters marked as utm_source=affiliate still pass link juice?
Occasionally some of our clients receive editorial mentions and links in which the author adds utm parameters to the outbound links on their blog. The links are always natural, never compensated, and followed. However, they are sometimes listed as utm_source=affiliate even thought we have no existing affiliate relationship with the author. My practice has been to ask the author to add a rel="norewrite" attribute to the link to remove any trace of the word affiliate. I have read that utm parameters do not affect link juice transfer, however, given the inaccurate "affiliate" source, I wouldn't want Google to misunderstand and think that we are compensating people for followed editorial links. Should I continue following this practice, or is it fine to leave these links as they are? Thanks!
Industry News | | Terakeet0 -
Looking for an SEO consultant/agency specializing in ecommerce and data architecture? Any suggestions?
Looking for an SEO consultant/agency specializing in ecommerce and data architecture? Any suggestions?
Industry News | | EE-Tom1 -
SEO Agency Recommendations
I'm looking for recommendations for SEO agencies for an e-commerce site in the cell phone accessories niche. The list of companies recommended by SEO Moz are out of our budget, as we are looking to stay under $3k/month. Looking for an agency that will focus especially on link building efforts, as there has been minimal white-hat link building implemented for the site in the past. Many of the agencies we've talked to are relying entirely too much on easy wins like directory submissions and we are looking for an agency that will be able to garner us quality links as opposed to a huge amount of mediocre links. Any recommendations for reasonably-priced, quality SEO agencies? Thanks!
Industry News | | eugeneku0 -
Help! I need to hire a SEO / SEM Specialist - Am I asking for too much?!
Hey all! I'm expanding my in-house marketing team and I need to add an SEO / SEM Specialist that will strategize, execute & manage the following: Organic SEO PPC across multiple channels (Google, Bing & also social sites like Facebook) Remarketing & Display marketing Banner ads Retargeting We're a lean company that's all about doing more with less. But not being very familiar with the SEO / SEM world I'm afraid I'm asking for too much! What do you guys think? What's your experience been? If you do think that this is potentially a single position, what would be the best title for attracting talent? SEO / SEM Specialist? Digital Marketing Manager? With the research I've done - jobs / titles have been totally across the board! I'm not able to find much consistency. Thank you all for your help 🙂 It's greatly appreciated!!!!!
Industry News | | RochelleRietow0 -
Want to a Medium Cost Seo Firm
Hi, I have a website which is ranged in medium scale, I want some medium cost seo company to do the seo work for my site. I willing to pay upto $500 p/m. Waiting for the replies.
Industry News | | Dexx220 -
How changing my domain name brought back rankings.
First I would not recommend doing this to anyone else, but my circumstances were extreme.
Industry News | | AlanMosley
Let me explain to those that did not read previous posts on the subject. I had a domain thatsit.net.au, I had never really promoted it as I used a keyword domain to rank in search engines but kept this domain mainly for email, but having said that it did rank ok considering, it ranked first for my business name at least.
A few moths back I decided to promote it and check the rankings, I was surprised to see that it ranked last for almost every thing,. Even my business name. Let me impress when I say last I mean in most cases absolute last and if not last very, very close to last.
I decided to get some links happening to move it of bottom, in my experiences a site that ranks that bad even a few links with show a big jump in rankings, it is easier to get from page 1000 to page 900 than it is to get from page 2 to page 1. The site had about 200 links and I pushed that up to about 1,000 but I was still at the bottom even for long tails searches where I was the only exact match on the internet.
asking for advice I got responses like you need better links and the such, this did not account for the sudden drop in rankings, as I knew the history I knew that thee was something deeper going on, I asked Google for reconsideration they said there was no manual action taken.
I should also mention I ranked very well in Bing all this time and still do.
By now I was getting paranoid that someone was stuffing me up somehow as a last resort I changed the domain name from thatsit.net.au to thatsit.com.au I did this about 10 days ago.
Today I searched for my company name and I came up #4 not bad from not being in the top 1,000 a few days ago.
Rankings are not where they used to be but I can handle that, I have 301’ed across all my links and have stated to change over the links I control, but as I still don’t know why the other domain would not move from the bottom as search results I am nervous that I may 301 over the problem.
I have never really done anything in the way of Black Hat SEO that would get me banned, maybe a bit of light grey over the years but nothing to worry about.
Anyhow I am non the wiser as to why things happened like they did. But I did want to report back to others that read the posts and thought that maybe I was imaging things.
I was never really depended on the domain ranking, what really bothers me is not knowing why the .net.au domain fell from rankiings and I still don’t know why.1 -
Help needed compiling SEO career resources!
We're looking to put together all the best resources out there that offer advice to those thinking of starting a career in SEO and internet marketing, particuarly for graduates. So far we've got Rand's Whiteboard Friday and this post here: http://www.eatsleepsearch.com/2011/07/17/how-to-land-a-graduate-job-in-seo/ Can anyone point me in the direction of a few more good ones? I'm sure there'll be absolutely loads out there!
Industry News | | 9xbmarketing0 -
Punchy Friday: Too much SEO Education?
This is not a question really, just an observation. Yesterday I was listening to "Stuff You Should Know" podcast, and it was about "Tickling". They were addressing how it is impossible to tickle yourself, and they theorized it was because our brain is AWARE that it's your own hand doing the tickling. The first thought that came to my brain was that our brain had put a "NoFolow" link on the tickling page of our brain website when it is from our own hands. I'm reading WAY to much about SEO . . . Happy Friday everyone.
Industry News | | damon12123