Subdomains vs. Domains - Yes, again!

My approach to building niche sites is to buy a new domain for every site. yes, it's an additional expense - but the benefits in branding and seo outweigh that for me.

Plus, the site should pay for its own registration within the month.

Sub-domains have their uses. In particular, when I'm working for a client with a very general (i.e. unfocused) site it can be useful when chasing SEO performance for a particular topic.

It's extremely useful if the client insists the homepage remain a solid graphic block because it looks good, and too bad Google can't read it (yes, this really happened).

But my main use of sub-domains is to chase page one for a specific keyword. I can have that keyword be the subdomain, and focus the site entirely around it. Most businesses won't let me do that with their homepage, because of course they sell other things. These sites tend to be set up for lead generation, and I want to funnel everything into the lead gen system. Again, the client doesn't usually want me to do that with the main site.

As for the idea that a domain has only so much pagerank, I suspect it's nonsense. I don't know for sure, but doubt pagerank operates that way. And will also point out that lack of pagerank isn't what keeps a site off page one of Google.

Hey Kane.

I've tried both methods.
Subdomains, for me, is the clear winner both for brand building & SEO.
There is no PR limit. Quite the contrary. My subdomains are actually ranked better because they feed off the main domain's PR. But the bottom line is traffic. My subdomains perform much better now than when they were stand-alone sites.

I'd go with
- petfood.stuff.com
- kidsclothes.stuff.com
- loseweight.stuff.com
- halloweencostumes.stuff.com

and never second guess it.

Build a brand. Stuff.com (as an example) would be your brand name. Expand upon that brand name.

Jeff

If they are related to each other then I rather make it a sub-domain but if not then I will buy another domain.

Ross

If Google decides to de-index your site it will remove everything from the index - The domain and ALL the subdomains.

I started off doing this 4 years ago and it was building nicely I thought until everything dissappeared - Yes everything went out of Googles index. I carried on regardless and then suddenly, 2 and a half years later, they all popped back into the index again. Yes it was 2.5 years.

Since then another domain I have and all it's subdomains have mysteriously dissappeared from Google. That was about 6 months ago and they remain gone sigh.

I suppose I would now look at using subdomains like this as similar to putting all your eggs in one basket.

Steve

Does this same argument apply to Addon domains?
Am trying to not confuse the two....subdoman.....Add-on domain.


Keren