RichTC - 2:16 pm on Jul 29, 2006 (gmt 0)

Ride

Dont do it!

One of the sites we operate is a very big authority data site. We have 9 sub domains on it that specialise in sectors. Those subs have high Page Rank and rank ok for their specific subdomain keyword and about 4 of them rank very well.

However, Its taken a long time to get to this position and now the subs are established its not something we want to reverse but following googles introduction of word association since BD we notice that if one of the subs contains a keyword from the main site google prefers to list that page over the dedicated page thats on the main site the net result being that the page doest rank well due to better optimised sites listing above it.

If we had our time over we wouldnt have set up specialist sub domains we would rather have kept them as part of the main site. I also think the search engines over all are hitting subs due to the abuse problems by spammers that set up zillions of them and use keyword-keyword-keyword-sub domain etc, so life span from here of a sub could be limited? The quaility ones set up as specialist sectors could get chucked out in the bathwater with the junk?.

Currently ive seen one large uk site set up a website that is just area sub domains. Zillions of them and many rank OK but certainly on the more competitive key areas they will struggle to gain good rank and its a matter of time before google hits multiple subs anyway imo - i class them as spamming so how long before google does?.

Overall, despite subs being popular with some webmasters if i were you i would keep your site as one. Not only can you keep PR within your site but its easier to get back links to your site rather than subs also, google will treat the sub like a new site and its likely you would lose rank imo untill it settles down which could take a couple of years!, at best google would view the change as a significant page change and hit the page position in the same way it does when you optimise a page on your site.

Your down side risks are massive - if you make this move you need to think about the cost saving V the cost to buy the same traffic should google hit you. As i say, in your position i for one wouldnt do it. Thats my two pennys worth anyway.

Regards