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Do Subdomains Rank?

by IndigoJack
6 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi,

I've just added a subdomain to a high traffic website. The main site has existed for over 5 years.

Anyway will the subdomain be invisible on Google or will it rank just like any other website?

I'll be building a niche on this subdomain and will be throwing every SEO trick in the book at it, but I would like to know if I'll be wasting my time and should just buy a domain for it in its own right?

I was hoping it would get a leg-up the rankings by being part of the high traffic already existing website.

The subdomain address looks like this (real words replaced!):
http://saucy.mywebsite.com

Any advice would be appreciated.
#rank #subdomains
  • Profile picture of the author paulgl
    You have to rank it like any other website.

    If it is not anything different than the main site, you should not
    do subdomains. If it is just a sub-topic, you are better off doing
    a folder/pages/ etc.

    about.com and go.com are the biggest users of subdomains,
    I believe.

    I think they use them because they are for huge areas,
    and maybe require a separate domain, but still under the main umbrella.
    ESPN needs to be its own site, for example. But major league baseball
    does not, so it gets espn.go.com/mlb

    Normal websites would not need them.

    There's really nothing wrong in using subdomains, as long as your
    website warrants them. But you would need to work on their rankings.

    If it's for a different, completely different, topic, I would go for a separate
    domain and link it frequently on the other one.

    Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author IndigoJack
    Thank you for that reply Paul.

    The content for the subdomain is the same as the main site but rewritten to target a particular demographic - lone parents - which would be odd on the main site because it doesn't target a particular demographic.

    I think I will get it its own domain because then it will have a life of its own.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jim Hudson
    Hello, I have tried the blog.main.com sub domain type and it is considered a stand alone site that needs it's own promotion. I then tried main.com/blog and it holds the pr from the parent. It was a roughly related sub niche and it got traffic and was holding pr and alexa from the main.
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    • Profile picture of the author aaramire
      Originally Posted by Jim Hudson View Post

      Hello, I have tried the blog.main.com sub domain type and it is considered a stand alone site that needs it's own promotion. I then tried main.com/blog and it holds the pr from the parent. It was a roughly related sub niche and it got traffic and was holding pr and alexa from the main.
      I've done the same blog.site.com and it does require it's on promotion to rank as opposed to site.com/blog
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  • Profile picture of the author seoviviti
    the ranking is depend on your promotion. if it has good information then you surly rank high on internet or search engine.
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  • Profile picture of the author IndigoJack
    Next query on this - can a subdomain have its own Google Maps listing if the content were different from the parent site?

    I've tried to find the answer to this through Google Help but you know what that's like....
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