Multiple Domains or Sub-Domains?
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I received a question by email today and since it’s a relatively common question, I thought it would make a good blog discussion.
Should I purchase multiple domain names like:
widgets.com
greenwidgets.com
brownwidgets.comOr is it good to have one web site and or blog that has one domain and many pages of subdomains, as in:
widgets.com
green.widgets.com
brown.widgets.com
The best way to tackle the question is to understand the difference in terms of relationship.
Separation
In the first group the sites are completely independent. One of the three could be sold, for example, and the others would remain unaffected. With a sub-domain this wouldn’t be possible.
Strength Transfer
In my experience, search engines reward sub-domains with a bit of love from the primary domain. So in the above example if widgets.com was an established site and you created green.widgets.com it would have more search engine weight, and acquire it more quickly, than a separate site: greenwidgets.com.
Of course, the most famous usage of this strength transfer of sub-domains is employed by search engine spammers. By using blogspot.com or other popular sites that allow a user to create a sub-domain, they can milk the strength of the main domain.
Peril
Live by the sword, die by the sword. If you are doing anything even remotely considered uncool by Google [and their list of uncool includes made for AdSense or affiliate sites, even if they have original content] or even if some algorithm writer has a bad hair day and bans your site, you could lose 3 sites rather than one.
All it takes is one Google search site:widgets.com and they have every page on all of your sub-domains.
Cost
Of course if you want many domains it will cost more to host and to purchase and maintain the domain names. Hopefully these are minor costs, but worth considering if you want 100 sites.
Summary of Using Sub-Domains
Pros:
- Cheaper
- Transfer of benefits from primary domain
- One large site builds a longer tail
Cons:
- Vulnerable to collateral damage if the primary site is banned
- Cannot be sold separately from primary site
Other questions to clarify:
Is there any reason that I can see, either now or in the future that this project may need to be broken apart and split into separate pieces?
How closely related are the topics?
If I was doing a site about widgets and I knew I was going to tackle every possible topic related to widgets then I would consider sub-domains to create an uber-site about widgets.
But, if I was doing a general site about widgets and then I was going to drill down on a couple of the types of widgets, green and blue, but not provide detailed information about red or black or gold plated widgets, then I would go with three different domains, since they really are three separate approaches to related topics.
How about:
widgets.com
widgets.com/green
widgets.com/brown
One other tip related to this topic. If you are going to interlink a lot between the 3 sites, then don’t use sub-domains or separate domains; use folders as they are seen as being on the same site.
Interlinking your own websites is a similar linking scheme to getting links from the same C class IP block, but in this case the WHOIS website registration information may be also used by the search engines to link the owner to all the websites involved in the link network. (Danger Score:8)
Source. [btw...this links to a very good article about link building and SEO]
Sorry, for the “it depends” type of answer, but this issue is not clear cut. There are advantages to all three approaches. Hopefully I’ve given you enough information to help you make the right choice for your situation.
If not leave a comment and I’ll dig a little deeper.
Jon Symons
Getting my sites and sub-domains banned…so you don’t have to.
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Comments ( 3 )
Nneka added these pithy words on Oct 28 06 at 10:49 pmI heard at one point G was treating subdomains like their own domain. I think it was because of spamming.
Sub-directories on the other hand, they make your site seem robust.
If you’re going to be something as close as red widget, blue widget, green widget, I’d go with sub-directories.
I’m also considering this as I expand my business. I want to have a consulting and publishing branch. 2 subdomains, subdirectories, or domains? What to do? What to do?
Jon added these pithy words on Oct 30 06 at 10:11 am“I want to have a consulting and publishing branch. 2 subdomains, subdirectories, or domains? What to do? What to do?”
The most important factor is the interlinking. If you are going to interlink heavily [reference a lot of material from between sites] then put them in folders on the same site.
Lots of sites are banned for interlinking if Google perceives they are owned by the same owner, but otherwise not really closely related.
