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Noah
Noah
Jan 19, 2025, 11:10 AM
Forwarded from another channel:
Forwarded thread from another channel:
Andy Odom
Andy Odom
Oct 30, 2024, 1:35 PM
Hey group, I have a question about subdomains vs subfolders. i hope this is the correct channel. I'm working on a site with 30,000+ pages, and multiple stakeholders that have, at times, acted somewhat autonomously . In the past, they've worked with vendors that would just spin up subdomains for a number of reasons (ad campaign landing pages, blogs, etc.). Now, in some cases, they are working well (some ignored, others getting good traffic, etc.). We thought the over-reliance on subdomains was just to make things easier on the vendor for their tracking and get around any internal requirements from our end. However, when asked, we were told that because of the large number of pages, this would help some blog content get found and crawled more easily. I know there's no set rule for one or the other, but I've seen numerous studies showing that subfolders work better for SEO, and comments from Google saying while they don't care either way it "makes sense" to keep related content together on the main domain. SO, my question is: Is the number of pages a common reason to split otherwise related blog-type content onto a subdomain? Would this be something best left alone, or would migration over to the main domain ever be considered? Thanks!
Boris Kuslitskiy
Boris Kuslitskiy
Oct 30, 2024, 1:37 PM
The number of pages isn't a good reason to split into subdomains by itself.
Shawn Huber
Shawn Huber
Oct 30, 2024, 1:38 PM
I have worked on a site where there were hundreds of thousands of URLs on a sub-domain, and performance was ok. I migrated to a sub-directory and almost immediately saw a significant increase in traffic to these pages - 40% give or take
Andy Odom
Andy Odom
Oct 30, 2024, 1:38 PM
Thanks, so would you consider migrating it over at some point? Or, if it’s working ok, leave it alone?
Boris Kuslitskiy
Boris Kuslitskiy
Oct 30, 2024, 1:38 PM
I can think of weird edge cases due to website/dns/server backend architecture where it's the easier option.
Kane Jamison
Kane Jamison
Oct 30, 2024, 1:38 PM
If you've got more than one subdomain driving notable traffic and the teams can get their act together enough to merge them into the main domain, it's almost always better long term. I'd ignore all of the random landing page subdomains.
Boris Kuslitskiy
Boris Kuslitskiy
Oct 30, 2024, 1:39 PM
I'd definitely migrate it over to the main domain if it's technically possible with the resources you have.
Shawn Huber
Shawn Huber
Oct 30, 2024, 1:40 PM
When working with vendors my #1 ask is to set up a reverse proxy so that their content will appear to be part of the primary domain - 100% of the time they will agree because they want the contract.
It isn't too difficult, but it isn't as easy as a sub-domain which is why that's often times the decision.
Shawn Huber
Shawn Huber
Oct 30, 2024, 1:41 PM
And there is a little work on internal teams to help configure but again not too difficult
Boris Kuslitskiy
Boris Kuslitskiy
Oct 30, 2024, 1:43 PM
It's like you can read my inbox.
Shawn Huber
Shawn Huber
Oct 30, 2024, 1:45 PM
On a strange note - it can cause confusion/issues down the road when people forget and think said 3rd party content is well 3rd party and think it's part of the site and some random team within the org and then you get into lovely convos trying to explain this :melting_face:
Boris Kuslitskiy
Boris Kuslitskiy
Oct 30, 2024, 1:46 PM
The better your brand look and feel guidelines are followed, the more confusing it gets!
Boris Kuslitskiy
Boris Kuslitskiy
Oct 30, 2024, 1:46 PM
Like three children in a trenchcoat sneaking into a movie.
Andy Odom
Andy Odom
Oct 30, 2024, 1:59 PM
This is SUPER helpful, thanks y'all!
Mika Lepistö
Mika Lepistö
Oct 30, 2024, 3:41 PM
+1 for moving to subfolder if no significant technical limitations. Please let us know the impact if/when you complete it.
Jan-Willem Bobbink
Jan-Willem Bobbink
Oct 31, 2024, 3:17 AM
One reason to keep a subdomain approach: ranking with multiple intents per subdomain for the same keyword. I've been using subdomains to get multiple rankings for the same keyword by separating informational and commercial intents
Jan-Willem Bobbink
Jan-Willem Bobbink
Oct 31, 2024, 3:18 AM
But that could also work if you are a well known brand with just one domain, but not as easy as with separating

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