Domains or Subdomains ... or?

9 replies
I have run into this problem before and it was placed in front of me again today.

Here is a company that has a lot of domains, I am guessing 40 or so, each online, as far as I know, and none of them seem to be ranking well anywhere.

Their idea was that they would target different parts of their business with separate domain names ... even though it all pretty much falls into the same market ... more or less.

So they have redwidgets.com, bluewidgets.com, widgets.com etc.

What is the best way to really handle a situation like this? Just go with the flow and do the best with each domain ... and carefully making them not overlap with keywords that would place more than one domain on a results page?

Change them all to subdomains like redwidgets.widgets.com, bluewidgets.widgets.com?

I am posting in the hopes of getting some good ideas about how to handle this from the warriors here.
#domains #subdomains
  • Profile picture of the author radhika
    I think couple of well maintained domains are good to go instead of 40 domains that don't rank well.

    If I wee you, I let most of them expire and concentrate on the one domain name and build like this:

    widgets.com/bluewidgets/
    widgets.com/redwidgets/

    But thats just me

    .
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    • Profile picture of the author Clint Butler
      I concur with the post below, if you move them to one domain you will do a couple things. One, you will eliminate the multiple sites with similar content that are probably all being hosted by the same host, thus same host IP address. This can hurt their rankings in the SERPS. Also if you use the keywords and build the pages in the address format suggested below you are targeting their keywords betters. And finally, this will save them a lot of money in their hosting costs if they are by chance using more that one service, their domain renewal costs, and they give you a raise for being such a great SEO guy for them.

      Regards,
      Clint Butler

      Originally Posted by radhika View Post

      I think couple of well maintained domains are good to go instead of 40 domains that don't rank well.

      If I wee you, I let most of them expire and concentrate on the one domain name and build like this:

      widgets.com/bluewidgets/
      widgets.com/redwidgets/

      But thats just me

      .
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  • Profile picture of the author MichaelParsons
    There are more than a few site who have started with sub-domains then moved on to top-level domains for other related content, but these sites (more than likely) outgrew the original sub-domain model then went on to different top-level domains.

    If they're not doing well on any of the top-level domains, then moving to sub-domains would probably not be noticed. I would see how they like the option of going the sub-domain route, with URL redirects from BlueWidget.com to Blue.Widget.com or BlueWidget.Widget.com

    Hopefully the customer will be redirected a few times, the re-bookmark the new sub-domain before the URL you are redirecting from expires.

    Probably the reason no ONE site is doing that well (from an SEO standpoint) is because all the hits are going to various domains and spreading the 'juice' around too thinly.

    Best of luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author mad.hat
    If you already have so many domains you should work on ranking them all. Don't worry about have multiple domains ranking for the same keyword, this is a good thing!

    If you are looking to either register several domains of your own or just one and creating multiple subdomains I would say to go in the route of sub-domains.
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    • Profile picture of the author Cris Stylez
      I have been very clueless on this subject myself. I want to use one top level domain. Then create unlimited sub-domains that link back to the main domain. Like an about.com site.

      On wordpress with good seo for each topic. Like a directory of information. But i have been going back and forth on this subject. I guess i wont know until i give it a try. So sub-domains it is!

      Cheers,

      Cris Stylez
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    • Profile picture of the author rdkelsey
      Originally Posted by mad.hat View Post

      If you already have so many domains you should work on ranking them all. Don't worry about have multiple domains ranking for the same keyword, this is a good thing!

      If you are looking to either register several domains of your own or just one and creating multiple subdomains I would say to go in the route of sub-domains.
      How do you come by the opinion? I have always heard that multiple domains, owned by the same company/people, is against the TOS. Matter of fact, I've seen this penalty in action where a company tried this approach and was never ranked on any of them for anything. I think this same issue is at hand here.
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  • Profile picture of the author sneharastogi
    I believe only few well maintained domains are far better than having 40 or so domains that don't rank well.

    If I were you, and domains were already booked. I choose only few and then redirect permanently rest of the domains to selected domains till they expire. (Just to cut the cost, or you want to keep them for whole life.)

    5 - 6 well maintained domains and then create sub domains, like: redwidget.widgets.com
    bluewidget.widgets.com

    subdomains would boost your main domains as well.
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    • Profile picture of the author chrisscott
      If top level domain is working well then sub domains will also work well. How can a sub domain work well if it's top level domain is not working well.

      Work on 1-2 good niche related keyword based domains, which is a better idea then to have 40 domains and getting nothing from them.

      In SEO business quantity doesn't matter, it's quality that matters.
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  • Profile picture of the author Andrea Wilson
    Creating separate domains for the same market makes no sense at all. it is better and more cost effective if it will be based on a sub domain rather than buying another domain for the company and trying to get visitors/customers for each.


    Andrea
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