Domain or SubDomain?

Do domains rank higher than sub-domains?

[adz79]

I am developing several sites completely different from one another and would usually warrant a domain name each. This got me thinking... Do domains rank any higher with search engines than sub-domains?

i.e. football.com vs. football.<domain>.com where <domain> might the name of my network.

TIA
Adam

[figment88]

IMHO Google currently treats sub-domains the same as seperate domains. This obviously could change in the future.

In addition, many people tend to view sub-domain sites as more sketchy than domain sites making it harder to generate inbound links.

All-in-all despite the cost savings and ease of management of sub-domain sites, I think it makes more sense to get different domains for each site.

[Yidaki]

>several sites completely different

If you don't see a theme that covers all possible sites, i'd go with different domains.

Different domains if topics are as different as
- cars
- fish
- computers

Subdomains if topics share a theme like
- fish
- birds
- ferrets
(which all would share "animals")

Re ranking: currently there's no difference in rankings between subdomains and dedicated domains at google. Me, i don't think they'll change this in the near future - iow: i use subdomains and will continue to do so (wisely).

[agerhart]

currently there's no difference in rankings between subdomains and dedicated domains at google

There most certainly is. Sub-domains don't get a boost in ranking or any special weight, but if you have 10 sub-domains, you can control the top 10 listings. You can't do the same thing with sub-directories.

[Yidaki]

>if you have 10 sub-domains, you can control the top 10 listings.

... you can do the same with different domains - that's what the original question was. No advantage for subdomains over domains. I stay with what i said: there is no difference in rankings between subdomains and dedicated domains.

[agerhart]

My apologies, I misread the post.