noob question about subdomain setup for Panda

[dibbern2]

I'm new to subdomains, pardon me please for asking a dumb question.

I want to segregate some old content that I think might be causing PANDA problems. I'd like to use a subdomain to do that.

Using my providers C-panel, I have created a subdomain we'll call XYZ. I see that the subdomain tool created a folder XYZ in my html-docs, which I can kindof understand, seeing as it the highest level folder accessable for my shared hosting.

I see also that the tool created an A record for XYZ in the dns zone.

But I am doubting that what I have done will truly register with SE's as seperate domain, which is what I understand I need to "remove" this content from its home domain. When I check headers, I see that the C-Panel tool has created a 301 redirect that takes content in xyz.domain.com (the subdomain) and sends it to domain.xyz.com ( a folder in domain.com). As I understand it, a SE will see that content as still a part of the original domain.

I was going to create my own 301's for all the old pages in my principal domain and redirect to the subdomain. But seeing the 301 that was created by the C-Panel tool, it looks like I will be creating a loop.

Do I have this all wrong? I really appreciate the help I frequently get here. Thanks.

[tangor]

A "subdomain" is part of a "domain". Comes from the same IP and that's all there is. You can deny Google's access (see robots.txt" etc. and also include nofollow noindex meta, etc. but it will be part of your DOMAIN.

The content is either worthy or not. If said content is "pandalized" and you want to remove it, then the best method is TO REMOVE IT, ie. make it disappear, not exist, go away.

There are no magic bullets in subdomains because, like the child, they are part of the parent.

[dibbern2]

The content may be worthy; the question is, well... still to be decided. If I was convinced that it was bad, I would just dump it off.

The issue I'm trying to improve is an apples/oranges mix of topics. The site started years ago as an apples site, but I added a large section about oranges a few years back. It was not a wise move, but that's water under the bridge.

I suspect that G and other SE's are having difficulty in seeing the site as about apples... or oranges. I would prefer it to be seen as a strong entry in the oranges topic. In a (perhaps mistaken) belief that a subdomain would be looked upon as a seperate entity, I was thinking of moving all the apple content down into the sub. I thought this might be better than starting a new site and moving the apples over there.

I appreciate your response and advice. Thanks.

[potentialgeek]

Another thing to keep in mind re. moving content...

If others have copied your content, and you move it, but Google doesn't automatically match a record of your text to its history records, recognizing you as the undisputed originator of the content, you could be judged as a copier of the content from the other site(s), and then get worse Pandalization.

I have one site where I was going to merge short pages into new pages. Then I Googled snippets of text on my site and found other sites have copied it, and one site had even copied the entire site.

Because Google has shown signs on failing to completely perfect its dupe content algo, and Panda is still fairly new, it can make you think twice about moving pages.