Subdomain Ranking Question
-
Hi All -
Quick question that I think I know the answer to, but I feel like I've been going around in circles a bit. My client is launching a new product and wants us to build a microsite for it (product.clientname.com). My client really dislikes their brand website, and wants to use paid media to push their audience to this new microsite. However, they also said want it to rank well organically. I feel uneasy about this, because of the subdomain vs. subfolder argument. I believe that the product will also be listed/featured on their main brand website.
What is the best way forward?
Thanks!
-
I understand the frustration of working with a big company where "because it is new" is a reason not to change the site. That is not a good way to run a business but inertia and people trying to protect their own positions often result in this type of situation. And there generally isn't much you can do to change this, sadly.
How terrible is the new site?
Does your client just not like it? Or did rankings/search volume/leads/sales plummet when it was introduced?
If it is the former, your client should just suck it up and stick with the current site design. It is the customers' preferences that matter and if the site is doing well, that is what counts.
If the latter then your client is right to want something different but I wouldn't count much on organic search traffic in that scenario. And I don't know that one working piece will drive company success, though perhaps your client hopes to use that smaller success to drive change for the rest of the site. Good luck with that.
Either way it solves your subdomain dilemma--in the first case you won't need one and in the second case it probably won't make a difference.
-
Thanks for your input, Linda. I couldn't agree more with your first point. It really comes down to a matter of budget and timing. Since their website is "new", getting the sign off from the execs would be near impossible.
You're right in that our client wants to distance this from the rest of the site. We're going to put a significant amount of paid media toward driving traffic here, and the client does not want to send anyone to their current site. Hence, why we're developing this new site.
As far as the subfolder, there are a few reasons. The CMS used on the main site is proprietary and managed by my client's parent company. We've worked with those folks in the past on other PPC landing pages and the results have been pretty bad. I think a subfolder for the most part is out of the question, unless our devs package it up in HTML and send it over.
-
Where does your client fall in the chain of command of the company? If s/he is at the very top, sunk costs should not dictate keeping a bad website, and if something different is better for this one product then it is better for all of the products.
Linda makes a really good point here. The website is not liked, then it should be fixed. This is an opportunity for the staff to learn what the "company" "thinks" the site should be or for the boss to admit that lax management allowed the project to jump the tracks. Learn, improve, move upwards.
We have redone lots of work here. Sometimes because it was my fault. Sometimes because we learned something. When those jobs were redone it was a really good day.
-
Where does your client fall in the chain of command of the company? If s/he is at the very top, sunk costs should not dictate keeping a bad website, and if something different is better for this one product then it is better for all of the products.
But assuming they can't have a total site redo, why not use a subfolder? Although Google's John Muller said subdomain or subfolder does not make a difference, there is enough evidence to the contrary that I'd go with a subfolder if at all possible.
Perhaps the subdomain is because the person wants to distance this part from the rest of the site.
But as we know, a big part of SEO is the way things are linked (including internally) and one robust, well-linked site is stronger than a string of independent microsites, which is partly why microsites are not popular anymore. And existing links to the overall domain will help boost this new section if it is correctly integrated. (Unless the rest of the site is really terrible, in which case this one section probably won't make much difference either way.)
I don't think subdomain/subfolder is the main issue here though. It seems that your client want this product separated--does that make the most sense for the overall business goals of the company (as opposed to the success of this one project)? That's the question that needs answering.
-
Sounds like the designers run the company.
-
Ha, that would be ideal. Unfortunately, their brand site is new (within the year) and is a result of their in-house team. We've discussed that, but probably out of the question.
-
My client really dislikes their brand website,
Make a new brand site that the client will love. Right now an ugly brand site is making the client run to a subdomain, which we know is not the best move.
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
-
What to do about this subdomain for SEO?
This is a bit of an unusual structure and I'm having difficulty explaining the question so pardon my being a 'noob', haha. The website I'm working on has some content under Forums that is hosted on another domain. The main website is https://yournorthside.org.au/ and if you select under the main Nav > Forums > Lived Experience it will take you to https://yournorthside.saneforums.org/t5/Lived-Experience-Forum/ct-p/lived-experience-forum. So it's as if it's a subdomain. (notice even the appearance of the main menu changes, weird) Apparently, saneforums.org has a requirement for that content to be on that subdomain. So therefore it's not part of my sitemap and now crawled or indexed. My question is is this structure okay? What are the implications for SEO? Should I be looking to implement some type of no follow link or something? Or is it actually beneficial in terms of all their content gives us 'link juice'? Can you link me to any resources / articles that give further insight?
Technical SEO | | kelseyc0 -
Website indexed but not ranking for anything
hello everyone, It seems my website http://www.scribidocampus.com/ is indexed by google but it si not ranking anywhere, even wehn i google scribidocampus. If i search any of the text on my website in " " no results come up. can someone tell me the reason?
Technical SEO | | themesh0 -
Should I blow up our subdomain?
Hey folks, Several years ago we created a couple subdomains (ie, NEWS.URL.COM) and the posts that we put on this subdomain were very full of keyword anchor text links. Each post sometimes had 4-5. We haven't posted any new content on this subdomain for 3 years. After getting hit with manual "linking" penalty, we disavowed tons of links. But left the links on the subdomains alone. They really aren't providing any traffic and the content is poor, and not written by me. Do you think having these links is hindering our ranking efforts? I think I should just blow up this subdomain and get rid of it and all the keyword anchor links. Thoughts? Thanks ron Thoughts?
Technical SEO | | yatesandcojewelers0 -
Keywords Rankings-Change-Bug?
Bug? or just because the change happened beyound the Top 50 within Bing & Yahoo SERPs? The Keyword Ranking for in the example "dry desulfurization" shows a change of >40 up, but the history (Google) does not show these changes. May be, it is that the change was within Yahoo and Bing Rankings, and because the keyword is not showing up within the Top 50, I just can't see? ... but Rogerbot is considering. Thanks for any response 🙂 rankings-change-bug.jpg
Technical SEO | | inlinear0 -
Sitelink Demotion Question
A non profit in our industry that we support pro bono--the awesome Efficiency First--is finding that individual member listings are sometimes showing up within their sitelinks. This obviously does not sit well with the members who do not show up. I know that you can "demote" specific URL's within webmaster tools, but I'm wondering if it's possible to demote an entire section. Their structure is www.efficiencyfirst.org/member/member#. Do we demote the entire member section? Or is there a more structural problem at play here? Thanks much. 2IZuPkD.png
Technical SEO | | PeterTroast0 -
Basic URL Structure Question
Hi, Putting together a URL for a product we are selling. We sell IT Training courses and the structure is normally Top Folder=Main Courses section Sub Folder=Vendor Page Specific=Course Name + Term An example is courses/microsoft/mcse-training However I have a product where the vendor and course name are the same. How should I best organise the URL - double mention or single mention So a) courses/togaf/togaf-foundation-training or b) courses/togaf/foundation-training
Technical SEO | | RobertChapman0 -
Third Party Ranking Software
I have used a number of different tools for getting ranking information and have been using Cuterank but it now seems to be report the wrong results. Any suggestions for the best third party ranking software. It would allow me to check google, yahoo and bing ranks, compare month on month and produce branded PDFs. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
Technical SEO | | highwayfive0 -
What pages of my site does Google rank as the most important?
If I type site:youtube.com into Google, are the results listed by what Google considers to be the most important pages of the site? If I change my sitemap should this order change? Thanks!
Technical SEO | | Seaward-Group0