Subdomains - worthless?

[xoon]

So I was reading about a guy who had 1000 blogspot blogs and each was bringing him a few $ a month.

My first thought was - maybe I should do this with my own domain: build 1000 subdomains for low competition keywords.
But then I realized that lately I haven't seen a lot of subdomains in the first pages of results (unless they are from big websites like ebay.com). Seems like Google consider top level domains as a bigger authority.

What do you think, is era of subdomain websites over?...

[dvduval]

I setup some subdomains for topics related to my own domain and they seem to do fine. I think mostly they are treated like a domain, so if you create a new one it is like starting over with a fresh site. But if you already have branded the main site, it can make sense to open up new destinations. In my case, I created a chinese section and a templates section. They both rank decent. For an example of a site that it is super successful with subdomains, check out howstuffworks.com.

[xoon]

The question is - would they rank better if they had their own domains...

The other idea was to put everything into folders (so health next to cars or cooking etc) - I know everyone likes to build one topic websites but look at cnn for example, they have articles about business, entertainment, travel etc. I doubt it hurts them... ?

[xoon]

I guess what I'm wondering is - if I had 1000 completely unrelated keywords should I use:

big-red-car.abc.com
fluffy-pink-unicorn.abc.com

cars.abc.com/big-red-car.html
toys.abc.com/fluffy-pink-unicorn

or
abc.com/big-red-car.html
abc.com/fluffy-pink-unicorn.html

[sgsmorgan]

Originally Posted by xoon

I guess what I'm wondering is - if I had 1000 completely unrelated keywords should I use:

big-red-car.abc.com
fluffy-pink-unicorn.abc.com

cars.abc.com/big-red-car.html
toys.abc.com/fluffy-pink-unicorn

or
abc.com/big-red-car.html
abc.com/fluffy-pink-unicorn.html

Sub domains every time over folders. They might not rank with as much grunt as they used to but they are still more highly regarded the folders. As has been mentioned at one time Google almost gave Sub Domians the same clout as Domains and whilst this might not be as true, it still is to a certain degree.

[scott g]

This question has been asked a lot. Either way works fine (subdomains or subdirectories/folders)

Subdomains are treated as their own, separate domain. I prefer subdomains and have had very, very good results with them - Got a great main domain to build off of.

Subdomains pop up on the first page all the time! What are you talking about!? Have you ever heard of a website called about.com??!?!

Either way... You have to treat a subdomain/subdirectory like a new domain - Your On- and Off-site SEO to rank your pages/subdomains.

Subdomains are prettier - Plus I like being able to have Wordpress on one or two and not on others.

CHEERS!

[xoon]

Originally Posted by scott g

Subdomains pop up on the first page all the time! What are you talking about!? Have you ever heard of a website called about.com??!?!

That's why I said: "unless they are from big websites", they are already established, heavily baclinked so will rank one way or the other. Maybe we search for different keywords but for example I don't see a lot of blogspot.com subdomains, or subs from unknown domains. Not saying they are not there at all but at last 90% (in 100 first results) is from toplevel www.

I'm asking about it in the context of the recent changes - since I've heard G doesn't like "content farms" anymore, so if website has 100 different niches it would look like one of these article directories that pops everyday. Plus people always say you should do niches since it's easier to rank... but then they say the bigger the website the better (links build authority for the whole website and indirectly all the keywords).

A lot of contradictorily advice

[Kay King]

You are asking about blogspot - not about domains. Not the same thing.

I might have a domain about gardening - and have dozens of subdomains about various garden topics or plants, etc. Each subdomain may be from 10 to several hundred pages depending on how large that topic is but is still a subdomain.

I would not create 100 unrelated subdomains but I add related subdomains under one more generall domain name. Sometimes subdomains - sometimes folders - just depends on what I want to do.

The advice isn't contradictory - you are trying apply recent google changes to subdomains and it may not re related in any way. Google sees a subdomain as a standalone site when it comes to SEO -- folders are viewed as pages or categories on one single domain.

Sites I have that use subdomains have not suffered at all in the recent google changes. In fact, some have been doing better since the change.

kay