I noticed that there was a comment on Aaron’s blog SEO Buzz Box after an interview with me regarding sub domains. I want to clarify my view on sub domains and when it’s best to use them. About 4 years ago I would have recommended using sub domains on new sites any day of the week and at that time they worked perfectly.
However I believe that Google views sub domains as new sites, and it’s really clear when you look at blogspot.com. Just because the primary domain has a lot of power, doesn’t mean that the sub domains will have the same benefit. Would it make sense that you could simply add an account with a few keywords and then rank for it? Maybe on MSN, it does. Take a look at Cingular Ring Tones, a nicely spammed result set.
I have optimized many sites that have had sub domains for years and they do very well. This year I have added several sites with a lot of content, using sub domains. Where the primary TLD is extremely powerful and has 100’s of thousands of links pointing to it. I can tell you without a doubt that 3 sub domains that where added with millions of pages of content performed poorly at first and took months to build up. If I could have done it again from scratch I would rather have used a Folder based structure keeping the content on the primary domain.
Recent Comments