Forum Moderators: phranque
We have split our main site up into different subdomains because of the number of disparate services that we offer, however due to internal restrictions placed on us, we are going to have to have all of the subdomains point to one main index page, with the links to the subdomains from the main navbar using absolute references.
My question is if I register the main site with the SE's, and it comes to crawl and finds the navbar with all the links to the subdomains (using absolute links) will it treat the subdomains as seperate domains with their own theme or will it link the main site with all of the subdomains, and make it impossible to optimise for the main site and the subdomains.
I hope I made the situation clear (probably not)
I would be grateful for any information that anybody has to share, as we are a trifle confused about the whole situation.
Thanking you all in advance.
Thanks for replying !
I have been lurking for a long time now over two maybe three years (is this a record ?)
We want to include popular search phrases in the subdomains URL, and also to keep the subdomains with seperate themes, away from our core site which has its own theme.
Our core business is web design and development, however we also have departments that cover 3D visualisation, database management, customer relations management etc.
I have read in these forums that the way to go about marketing a site that offers numerous unrelated services is to subdomain the site into marketable sections.
As you can see these parts of our business warrant seperate marketing activities, and would be handicapped if combined under the one URL (I believe).
The reason for the absolute references is to keep the SE spider from connecting things about 3D visualistion with content about customer relation management.
I hope I have explained it more clearly this time !!!!
If I understand you, you have only one index page, but visitors can access it through several URLs:
subdomain1.domain.com/index.html
subdomain2.domain.com/index.html
subdomain3.domain.com/index.html
etc.
You might (probably will) run into duplicate filtering trouble for that index page. But the separate subdomains should still be recognized as different domains by the SEs and have the effect you want.
I saw your post yesterday and was hoping someone with similar experience would jump in. Also, I've given it a lot of thought...
If what you're trying to accomplish is to gain a rankings boost due to keywords in your subdomains, this may have been effective a few years ago but presently has little impact.
You mentioned "disparate services," they must be related at some level, even if only by a company name.
Let's assume a site is structured like this:
I. Computers
A. Software
1. Applications
a. Business
b. Graphics
2. Games
a. RPG
b. Adventure
B. Hardware
1. Systems
a. Complete systems
b. Barebones systems
2. Components
a. Motherboards
b. Cases
c. Monitors
d. Disk drives
Well designed pages at ANY level could acquire good rankings, the site as a whole could offer a solid theme (not so important right now with most SEs but good practice), and a good synergy due to related links and pages.
If we add subdomains into this mix, I can only speculate. Some thoughts:
-If your index page has a broad focus that encompasses the inner pages, "Computers" in my example, that will set the theme for the entire site. You will enjoy some small boost from the text required for the absolute addressing. You may enjoy some boost from the subdomain names, although most SEs have given little boost for keywords in a domain name for several years. OTOH, I'm certain you would enjoy a boost by simply using paths within one domain.
-I have a site similar to my example and it works pretty well. I enjoy respectable rankings for both the index page and many of the inner pages and promote/submit both.
-One thing that's nagging at me, and I'm not at all clear about. Many SEs seem to be penalizing for duplicate pages/doorways presently. Will some SEs perceive these interlinked subdomains as doorway pages and penalize them? Very possible I think, just as they may if you use unique domains/sites. If you decide to try this structure, it's imperative that the index page NOT appear to be a doorway. It must have plenty of unique content and be useful in it's own right.
-One last thought, why incur the extra expenses for these subdomains? I think you'd be better served by building one big site on one domain.
And do we need to wait another 2 or 3 years to hear from you? ;)
Thanks for taking the time to reply I appreciate it. It was not just for the added words in the URL, (although it seems to do the trick in Google, from what I have observed), but also for seperating the domains for different directory submissions, we also need to try out the technology for using sub-domains as we might need to use it on a clients site sooner or later, and we figured we would be the best guinea pigs.
I always thought that sub-domains was the way to go when trying to market large sites with lots of different services, otherwise you dilute the impact of the marketing, has this idea taken a back seat recently, did I miss something ?
Thanks again
I'm not sure. The site structure you suggested offers advantages as far as sales, the presentation is usually more clear and focused. It has some disadvantages as far as rankings/SE promotion. "Marketing" is a pretty broad term...
