Subdomains Ruling Serps

Poor quality sites ruling the SERPS.

[webnewton]

Since the last PR update ther is something very wrong with google results. It seems there is a flood of subdomains which are now ruling the SERPS. Such results are so much in number that i've a feeling that some filter is not working properly there. Can anyone notice the same?

[baron13]

Yes, I can see the same #*$! everywhere!

the reults for a very competitive keyword in my business are really very bad:

#1 131 backlinks and maindomain = OK
#2 55 backlinks and maindomain = bad result
#3 23 backlinks and subsite = very bad result
#4 33 backlinks and maindomain = bad result
#5 38 backlinks and subdomain = very bad result
#6 56 backlinks and maindomain = bad result
#7 240 backlinks and maindomain = OK
#8 28 backlinks and subsite = very bad result

1 month ago google has listed only top maindomains for this very competitive
keyword but now
the reuslts are absolutely bad. This are not the only results where
irrelevant sites are at the top. I
have found sites which ranked #2 for a keyword with 0 backlinks. Very
strange.

[webhound]

well thats the G of today for you. till they smarten up and fix things get used to seeing this sorta garbage.

[Hardwood Guy]

Get used to the "New Goo" Nobody else notices it but folks like us. I thought I had a good page(two word phrase) that ranks in the top slot of MSN and Yahoo--In the Goo it's on page 15--LOL. About a year ago it was on page one of the Goo. Now all sorts of FAR OUT COOL sites rank well ahead of me--not very revelant but what the hey--it's the new Goo

[steveb]

Guess no one outside the Supporters Forum noticed and posted yet (there is a thread there), but a couple days ago Google did a very short test where older sandboxed sites shot up in the serps to where they "should" be listed. At the same time a bunch of brand new, mostly subdomain junk rolled into the index. After the brief sandbox test, the sandboxed sites went back into the freezer, but the brand new stuff stayed.

[webnewton]

After the brief sandbox test, the sandboxed sites went back into the freezer, but the brand new stuff stayed.

You mean all the sites which went into sandbox were subdomains? This is really strange, the SERPS results say in top 100 must be containing around 60 subdomains. This is crazy.

[steveb]

"You mean all the sites which went into sandbox were subdomains?"

No.

[garyr_h]

I don't see what is wrong with a subdomain ranking higher than a maindomain. If the subdomain has the content and information the user needs when searching for a term for research, he/she isn't going to care much.

[webnewton]

I don't see what is wrong with a subdomain ranking higher than a maindomain.

Nothing at all. If there is anything wrong then its the frequency of such results on the top of SERPS which is abnornal.
Another thing which i've observed is the repeatition of such results say for example the same results appearing at no 9 and no. 46 on google.

[layer8]

There seems to be ongoing changes right now on G.

Are you seeing anything change now? I have seen subdomains drop from serps in the last 2 days.

What does everyone else see?

[SEOPTI]

Subdomains ruling SERPS, why not? There are tons of subdomains with great content, so what's the deal about it?

[europeforvisitors]

Subdomains ruling SERPS, why not? There are tons of subdomains with great content, so what's the deal about it?

Google shouldn't give undue emphasis to a subdomain, or to keywords in a subdomain. A subdomain should be treated like a directory within a domain: no more, no less. Otherwise, Google is just opening itself to abuse.

[nuevojefe]

It doesn't seem they're given any extra weight than any other index page. It just seems that they are commonly being used as a means to avoid the sandbox by people who know what they're doing and thus if had a non sandboxed domain available would still be ranking well (except with www.widget.com instead of widget.902jfjvs0.com)

<from my observation>

[webnewton]

There seems to be ongoing changes right now on G.
Are you seeing anything change now? I have seen subdomains drop from serps in the last 2 days.

yeah i can see that Layer8.

[ThomasB]

There are always changes and will always be changes. It's probably pretty hard for G to de-value all subdomains as A LOT of them a valueable hobby-sites that provide unique content and great help to people.

[soapystar]

the problem isnt subdomains..the problem is subdomains treated as standalone domains instead of just furher pages of the main domain....at what point google had he problem licked but for some reason they've gone backwards on this issue....perhaps part of the problem is being able to actually tell that sub.mydomain.com is part of mydomain.com while user.freehosting.com is a standalone site...