Adding Wordpress On Separate Server w/ subdomain = SEO Issues?
-
I have a client that wants to setup wordpress for their business site. However, they are really concerned about the load time a wordpress install creates on their site in the root. So, they want to setup wordpress with a sub-domain on a separate server. For example:
As far as SEO is concerned with the main site, what are the advantages and disadvantages for using a separate server w/ subdomain?
-
I would be jumping to a new host right away!
-
I'm trying to decide the exact same thing - but less because of performance and more because our server cannot handle the most updated version of wordpress.
I would classify that as a performance issue. WordPress is the world's most popular CMS. Most hosting companies offer an auto-install package for the latest major version of WP. When you say your server "can't handle" WP, I presume it requires an update of PHP to meet the minimum requirements. If that is the case simply ask your host to update the server.
I am not aware of any major host who's server hardware cannot easily handle WordPress. If the software can't handle the latest version, it is usually a very fast, simple and free to update to the latest software versions required for WP. In the unlikely event your host is not willing to comply, change hosts.
-
I'm trying to decide the exact same thing - but less because of performance and more because our server cannot handle the most updated version of wordpress. It seems like keeping the blog on the main domain is best for SEO. Better for gathering incoming links, ect.
Are there any benefits at all to keeping the blog on a subdomain?
-
With respect to the performance issue, it comes down to a few possibilities:
-
something went wrong in the installation process
-
an independent issue arose with your server or host whose timing coincided with the WordPress install
-
there is an issue with the server itself which needs to be fixed
I would suggest troubleshooting the issue, determine the root cause and fix it rather then giving up on the idea.
To respond to your primary question, I first need to emphasize that whether you decide to locate the sub-domain on a separate server or the same server is completely irrelevant to SEO.
The subdomain would be it's own independent site. The main site would not benefit from links to the subdomain.
-
-
I would get a new host.
-
Thanks for responding. The client placed the WP blog on a test site within the same server and witnessed poor performance with the rest of the site. So, their concern is that will also happen with the main site.
The content on the blog most likely won't be considered 'high-value'. However, I want to make sure that the main site (root) will improve domain authority from inbound links to the blog.
In your opinion, will the inbound links to the blog help the domain authority of the main (root) site if the blog is in a subdomain on a separate server?
-
Thanks for the quick response.
The client has set up a wordpress install in a subfolder on a test site within the server. They noticed a fairly significant delay in load times with the rest of the test site.....that is their primary issue.
I guess my primary question is, will the main site (root) improve domain authority from inbound links to the blog if the blog is set up in a subdomain on a separate server?
-
With respect to SEO, the physical server involved makes no difference. I am making basic assumptions such as the other server is with the same host, does not have any major performance issues, etc.
In general you have the following advantages / disadvantages to consider when deciding whether to go with a subdomain vs a folder on your primary domain:
-
Any acquired links add value to your primary domain
-
Your blog would benefit from your primary domain's current Domain Authority
-
cookies and other data can be passed much easier within your current domain
-
many licenses apply on a domain basis and extra fees or licenses may be required for the subdomain
-
will this blog be used to cover topics directly related to the business? If so it would make more sense to have it on the primary domain. If this blog will cover personal topics or may branch into areas not related to the business, it would make more sense to separate it from the business site.
Wordpress can be installed in it's own directory so it's URL would be domain.com/blog. What specific performance concerns does your client have? It sounds like he may have had a bad experience once, or have heard some information that may not apply to his current situation. A properly configured wordpress install should not lead to load time issues for his existing site.
Further reading on the topic: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites
-
-
If the wordpress site is going to be used for low-value content then a subdomain is probably OK. However, if the wordpress site will contain high value content that has the potential of attracting links then I would not place it in a subdomain. The reason: if the high value content is in a folder then the links into it will give strong benefit to the entire site, but if it is on a subdomain then those links will be of very little benefit to the main site.
If this was my site I would try two things.... First, I would place the WP blog in a folder and see exactly how it performs. You might be surprised. Second, if that does not work I would look for higher quality hosting.
Another thought... if the wordpress blog is not performing well there might be problems with the code or problems with the amount of processing that the host will allow. Wordpress blogs generally work well. Hosts are sometimes known to throttle processing.
I have a wordpress blog in a folder of my site. It is a very busy blog with thousands of posts and lots of traffic. Thousands of visitors per day. No issues in five years.
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
-
Wordpress 404 Errors
Hi Guys, One of my clients is scratching his head after a site migration. He has moved to wordpress and now GWT is creating weird and wonderful strange 404 errors. For example http://www.allsee-tech.com/digital-signage-blog/category/clients.html There are loads like the above which seem to be made up out of his blog and navigation http://www.allsee-tech.com/clients.html works! Any ideas? Is it a rogue plugin? How do we fix? Kind Regards Neil
Technical SEO | | nezona0 -
To Subdomain or Not Subdomain?
I have a client that has a construction company that services a regional area. They now developed a PRODUCT that they want to promote that would have a national reach. We are redesigning the site, with new branding and all. How do I treat the website URL structure? Is the product it's own domain because of the target market? Or should I make a subdomain because we want to tie the companies together in some fashion. Every article I read confuses me more on how to handle this. Thoughts?
Technical SEO | | cschwartzel0 -
Do I use /es/, /mx/ or /es-mx/ for my Spanish site for Mexico only
I currently have the Spanish version of my site under myurl.com/es/ When I was at Pubcon in Vegas last year a panel reviewed my site and said the Spanish version should be in /mx/ rather than /es/ since es is for Spain only and my site is for Mexico only. Today while trying to find information on the web I found /es-mx/ as a possibility. I am changing my site and was planning to change to /mx/ but want confirmation on the correct way to do this. Does anyone have a link to Google documentation that will tell me for sure what to use here? The documentation I read led me to the /es/ but I cannot find that now.
Technical SEO | | RoxBrock0 -
Issue: Duplicate Page Content > Wordpress Comments Page
Hello Moz Community, I've create a campaign in Moz and received hundreds of errors, regarding "Duplicate Page Content". After some review, I've found that 99% of the errors in the "Duplicate Page Content" report are occurring due to Wordpress creating a new comment page (with the original post detail), if a comment is made on a blog post. The post comment can be displayed on the original blog post, but also viewable on a second URL, created by Wordpress. http://www.Example.com/example-post http://www.Example.com/example-post/comment-page-1 Anyone else experience this issue in Wordpress or this same type of report in Moz? Thanks for your help!
Technical SEO | | DomainUltra0 -
Questionable SEO
Chess Telecom appears first when you search for 'business phone lines' in the UK so I used a campaign to check them out. It seems they've got tons of unrelated links and using comment spamming to increase their ranking. Along with fake twitter accounts and other things. Search for 'jewel jubic chess' and you'll see what i mean. I assumed this wasnt a good idea and been trying to get my link on relevant websites only. Any comments or suggestions? Should I simply trust that google will hopefully punish them eventually? Or should I be fighting fire with fire? Thanks Dan
Technical SEO | | DanFromUK0 -
Reciprocal links / seo satellite
Hi guys, I am reasonably new to SEO. We operate a site. Lets call it brand.com. I would like to build up SEO juice and traffic for our site reasonably quickly, but with a view to not harming us in the long term. There are a large number of very small blogs in our space (> 100). Many of them are private blogs. I would like to gain links from these blogs. None of these blogs will send large amounts of traffic to our site on an individual basis, but in sum they provide both decent traffic and SEO juice. Leaving SEO out of mind I would offer them all returning links in exchange for linking to our blog (brand.com/blog) or our main domain (brand.com). They are decent quality sites that may be of interest to our users. They are not competitors and will not take any of our business away. Problem: I want to avoid being punished by Google for link exchange. In an ideal world I would event like to profit from these links from a SEO perspective. I have thought of a work around, but am not sure whether this will work at all. I will create 3 satellite pages: brand-partners.com, brand-tips.com and brand-blog-roll.com. I will feature links to these three sites prominently on my main site and my blog. This will provide these three sites with some SEO juice and trust from bloggers. In return for linking to my site, I will offer the small blogs links from these three "satellite" pages. I will try to diffuse the picture by adding some random links and obtaining some random links that I don't link back to. My approach is to always provide value to our users. Apart from the diffusing bit above I would say that creating these small hubs provides value (as we recommend valuable sites), while still enabling us to have some SEO effect. As I am reasonably new to SEO, I don't know whether the above is already a standard tactic employed or whether it contains some horrible pitfall that I should be aware of. I would be very thankful for any tips or feedback! Thank you and all the best, Daan
Technical SEO | | daan.loening0 -
Duplicate Content issue
I have been asked to review an old website to an identify opportunities for increasing search engine traffic. Whilst reviewing the site I came across a strange loop. On each page there is a link to printer friendly version: http://www.websitename.co.uk/index.php?pageid=7&printfriendly=yes That page also has a link to a printer friendly version http://www.websitename.co.uk/index.php?pageid=7&printfriendly=yes&printfriendly=yes and so on and so on....... Some of these pages are being included in Google's index. I appreciate that this can't be a good thing, however, I am not 100% sure as to the extent to which it is a bad thing and the priority that should be given to getting it sorted. Just wandering what views people have on the issues this may cause?
Technical SEO | | CPLDistribution0 -
Help with SEO
Hello, I am brand new to SEO and I'm learning on the go everyday. I am having issues with Google and getting any sort of ranking or analysis or even just traffic reports. I understand the site has never really been optimized so it might really not have any reports. So basically my real question is what helpful tricks or hints do you guys have that I can implement? Anything and everything helps. So far I have run the crawl diagnostics and I'm working on fixing the errors. Thanks fr your help.
Technical SEO | | Future130