Subdomains for Affilate Websites

10 replies
Happy New Year Everyone!

Is it OK to use sub-domains for affiliate websites? Would they be able to rank as high as straight domains?
#affilate #subdomains #websites
  • Profile picture of the author officer_iron
    I've seen people go on both sides of this argument. Personally, I've done it both ways and had success. I've had subdomains rank just as well as TLDs.
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    • Profile picture of the author jonj31070
      Originally Posted by officer_iron View Post

      I've seen people go on both sides of this argument. Personally, I've done it both ways and had success. I've had subdomains rank just as well as TLDs.

      Thank you for the response! I'm trying some subdomains on a couple of product sites right now. The thing that I see great about subdomains is that you can get your main keyword in the domain itself.
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      • Profile picture of the author jrpt
        All I use is subdomains and they're fine and rank just as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author erskinem
    Subdomains are no problem. The thing to remember is that subdomains are mostly treated like their own separate site, so in terms of ranking power, you can't count on one subdomain carrying any authority over to the main domain or another domain.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by erskinem View Post

      Subdomains are no problem. The thing to remember is that subdomains are mostly treated like their own separate site, so in terms of ranking power, you can't count on one subdomain carrying any authority over to the main domain or another domain.
      This is true, but that fact also opens up some serious opportunities for cross-linking if the subdomains are on related niches.
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      • Profile picture of the author rooze
        Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

        This is true, but that fact also opens up some serious opportunities for cross-linking if the subdomains are on related niches.
        This is very true. I started using WPMU in the 3rd Q last year, batch-creating sub-domains and testing out some link strategies. There's some interesting results if you can get enough external links to the subs, which then link to your main domain. It's kinda like the Web2.0 strategy that many use, except the Web2.0's are subs on your main domain. There's also a plugin which allows you to create domain name mapping on sub-domains, so your subs don't have to look like subs, they can function with their own unique domain name.
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        • Profile picture of the author Leading-IM.com
          Originally Posted by rooze View Post

          There's also a plugin which allows you to create domain name mapping on sub-domains, so your subs don't have to look like subs, they can function with their own unique domain name.
          Hey Rooze (or anyone else),
          Do you know what this plugin is called?
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  • Profile picture of the author Webpromotion
    Creating subdomains for affiliate sites is a great idea.
    They will rank the same as domains.

    One downfall that I have not seen anyone write about is that
    what you do to the subdomain affects the domain too.

    If you get penalized for duplicate content on the subdomain---your main domain will get hit with the penalty.

    I do not use subdomains for affiliate sites anymore.

    I use subdomains to put up the affiliate sites in another language.
    If you translate your page to German, and you are hosting on a US host, your site will not get much indexing on a german search engine.
    If you place your site on a subdomain with the word german.mysite dot com--- the search engine will rank it on the german search engine too.


    I find that brings a lot more traffic than to try to cheat the search engine and put some type of subdomain like buyipads.mysite dot com.

    Ranking on two search engines like google dot com and google dot de actually
    helps you rank better on BOTH.
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    • Profile picture of the author rooze
      Originally Posted by Webpromotion View Post


      One downfall that I have not seen anyone write about is that
      what you do to the subdomain affects the domain too.
      ...that's not exactly right. Think about all the places who provide sub-domain blogs which are then picked up and used by spammers. Wordpress.org, blog.co.uk etc...there are 1000's of them.

      What would happen if the sub-domain activity brought penalty for the main website...
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  • Profile picture of the author jonj31070
    Wow! What a great response! Thank you everybody. Makes me feel a little better about using sub domains. The Warrior Forum is awesome.
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