Pros/Cons on Where to Host Stores for Ecommerce Solution Provider (subdomain vs. throwaway domain, etc)
-
Hello! Does anyone have any experience with the pros/cons for where to host storefronts as an ecommerce solution provider. I'm looking for a recommendation on where to house the stores/websites people create with our software (think of us like a shopify/squarespace).
What are the pros & cons of creating stores on the main domain name “brand.com” versus buying a new top level domain name who’s only purpose will be to hold all the subdomains, such as “mybrand.com”, or even “.my.brand.com”.
store.brand.com <— subdomain our our primary domain
store.my.brand.com <— subdomain of a subdomain
store.mybrand.com <— subdomain of a throw-away domainWeebly/Squarespace/Tictail go with the first option (store**.weebly.com** and store.squarespace.com). Shopify goes with the 3rd option (store.myshopify.com)
Are there any advantages or disadvantages to one or the other? Am I missing any other options? Thanks in advance!
-
Thanks for the help here Matt! We've had issues in the past with penalties from unnatural linking networks derived from subdomains, so that will certainly be a focus here. Appreciate it!
-
You should definitely start with an intense discussion we had on Inbound about subdirectories/subfolders. Not because you're asking the subfolder question but rather there's a LOT of really good info about subdomains for SEO.
In general, most people (but not all) agree that subdomains act as their own separate websites. Since all 3 of your options are basically the same (subdomains) then we can just jump ahead a bit.
Choice 2 seems ... redundant ... to me? I don't see the benefit.
Choice 1 vs 3 comes down to do you use your own domain or a throwaway. I would suggest that since you don't know how Google will treat them in the future, a throwaway is probably preferable. I know Wordpress uses a simple subdomain, as did a lot of older CMS' but I think the trend now is to not give Google hardly ANY chance to mess up your SEO by combining it with others. Even though that's not how it seems to currently work, that could change tomorrow. If it's on a separate, throw away domain it really can't be.
The only concern with that is to make sure you don't interlink all your client sites to yours through things like a footer link. You could very quickly and very artificially bank up tons of external links with a simple Theme by Our Company link. It's on a separate domain so those would add up very quickly as external links.
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
-
Switch domain's CRYPTO focus to B2B
Hi everyone! I have my tough question, hope you'll help with your recommendations! I have a domain for blockchain company (DA 38, 590 linking domains), which started as an ICO project, but rapidly grew to a recognized B2B company with a few B2B clients. What we want is to attract more B2B prospects via Google Search, but the problem is when our prospects google our brand name (which also happens to be our domain, so this domain must be kept) they see mainly ico/crypto SERPs (as the result of ICO ad campaigns, online publicity etc). And they get prejudice towards us and don't trust us in the first place. What we already managed to do is to add some B2B news and links in 1-10 SERPs for our brand name, but still old ones (crypto related don't go so fast). Our management wants our prospects to be able to clearly see the difference between the current company domain (which must be remade to B2B focus only) and the new domain (our token-oriented, since our product is on blockchain). Question: is it possible to do such differentiation in the eyes of Google (and thus our prospects)? if yes, what is the best way to do that? 2 separate domains, not linking to each other or any other way?
Branding | | MariY
Do you have any other ideas?0 -
Is it feasible to try to compete with an established site with a fresh domain any time soon?
Currently I'm looking at a competitor who owns a site with the following metrics: Domain Authority - 39 /100
Branding | | chrisjimallen
Page Authority - 49 /100
Spam Score: 1 /17
93 Root Domains
2,199 Total Links
Page Social Metrics
Facebook - 431 Shares, 17 Likes I'm thinking it would take 12 months+ to become a viable competitor, but thats a complete guess. What are peoples thoughts on undertaking something like this?0 -
Help me decide between 2 domains! Please!
I want to build an authoritive site on the keyword: "baby hazel games" since I want it to be authoritive and easy to brand and to remember. I dont plan to use EMD-s. I like these 2 domains: 1. PlayHazel.com 2. HazelBox.com Help me decide between them. what sounds better, and have greater chance in ur opinion. Feel free to ad domain names ideas, if u have them. Thank you!
Branding | | Catinas970 -
What is the best way to market/raise awareness about new clothing products?
We are an Outdoor Clothing Company that designs our own range. We primarily sell through Retailers & distribution networks, but around 2 years ago went online. We update our collections twice a year, and we really struggle to get attention and awareness of our new designs. Can anyone recommend the best practice for getting newly launched products successfully "marketed"?
Branding | | Target-Dry0 -
Moving to new domain - Social and Branding Questions?
Hi, We are moving to a new domain because our rankings drastically dropped and we want to "start over". For example - If my company is called Joes Computers and the domain was JoesComputers.com and the new domain which will hold our e-commerce website will be completely different for example - BestComputers.com - which do I brand? Which do I put as suffix in all titles?
Branding | | BeytzNet
COOL TITLE FOR PRODUCTS | Best Computers
or
COOL TITLE FOR PRODUCTS | Joes Computers Which name do I take for social profiles? Company or Domain?
(We currently have for the company since it was the same). Please note that our company name is already a little bit known... and therefore inside the website it will be labeled in Logos etc. We would also state "Best Computers by Joes Computers" (as if it is a sub brand or daughter company). Thanks,0 -
Buying a used domain - redirecting, pluses etc?
Hi, I have a 6 year old domain which has been the basis for my main business website operation. http://www.kent-website-designer.co.uk/ Im in the process of cleaning up some messy sitewide footer kinks that come to the notice of Penguin update. I think I can clear up a lot of links but obviously need to add some better links for the future to improve. Ive gone from #1 to #60. I was thinking of a rebrand as the EMD isnt doing much good anymore in benefits plus the drop in rankings and also Google definately favouring brand links over concentrated anchor texts. So maybe the time is ideal. The design needs a refresh anyway.... I have found a 1999 .co.uk domain which has some non keyword related 1999 links to it...nice. Its a very reasonable price. Its not going to have inbounds from my related markets, not ideal but it has no negative stuff either. Also its a very simple but rememberable name like Google or Yahoo. Great for branding. Its parked but Waybackmachine shows indexing back to `99 and google cache has some content on it. However OSE shows low domain / page authority. Im thinking of redirecting my current domain to the new one, passing some of the positives of age and titles...and replicating the site through 301`s. Is this worth doing in anyones opinion? Only thing with my domain isany branding words are anchor text words too. I cant win.
Branding | | xtopher660 -
Tips for promoting the blog section of our eCommerce site
Hi, With the recent Google updates we're thinking that unique content is more important than ever in order to gain high quality, natural links from genuine users. As such we're thinking that our blog (http://www.refreshcartridges.co.uk/igloo/) might be more important than ever. Don't be put off by the lack of Page Authority or Google Page Rank; we've only just moved to this address from the subdomain igloo.refreshcartridges.co.uk. The content is certainly rather niche; an article like http://www.refreshcartridges.co.uk/igloo/how-to-the-reset-purge-counter-on-a-brother-printer-with-a-numerical-pad/ will be helpful to thousands of users who own this particular range of printer but it's debatable as to whether it is sufficiently mainstream to be openly shared and linked to. We ping to sites such as Technorati, produce videos to accompany much of the content (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dxmm4-blN8&list=UUH93Kwax4CcEIAOsXWb6CiA&index=1&feature=plcp for example) and provide easy sharing buttons. I do however think that we could be doing more to actively ‘push’ this content on to potential customers. I'm not naive enough to think that niche articles like this will be enough to get hundreds of links and tens of thousands of reads but printer news, reviews and support is pretty much the only thing we can write about while being relevant to our core business. I would however like to get the best exposure that we can for these articles which is why I’m asking for your advice today. I would really appreciate any ideas you may have as to how else we could gain the best value from these unique articles and videos. I apologise for this being such an open ended question but any and all advice on how to maximise this resource would be appreciated. Many thanks!
Branding | | ChrisHolgate0 -
List Quick and Dirty places to seo-tag images/content for new brands
I'm helping a new brand (service industry) to try to dominate the first page for their own name. They have a name that also exists in another state AND a negative Yelp review which (shows up #4, whilst they show up #1 on google unpersonalized search). Aside from Linkedin/Facebook/twitter, what are good places to Tag Images and have them show up under the search for this company's name. This is a picture/heavy industry (jewelry) and I'm looking to create profiles on several sites that would immediately show up if I tag the content properly. Are quora/pinterest good choices? I need to grab-bag as many properties as possible. Secondary question: would these properties on quora etc, respond well to exact-match anchor text links to shoot them past the negative yelp rating that is showing up #4 for their brand?
Branding | | ilyaelbert0