The subdomains vs subfolders/subdirectories debate just won't die. Search engines have evolved their treatment of "what is a website" over time, and yet the debates cling to old case studies.
Meme CC: @thetafferboy
1/N
Before we start, let's revisit the parts of a URL:
mattcutts.com/blog/seo-gloss…
At some point of this rant, we're going to talk about ccTLD's, sub-subdomains, and subdomain plus subfolder combinations with ccTLD's because #teamsubfolders uses the same argument for everything.
2/N
The concept of a "website" in the early days of the internet was that subdomains were separate entities from the "home" site. This article on website boundaries from Bing is worth revisiting. blogs.bing.com/webmaster/nove…
Websites are "leasing" subdomains/subfolders to rank stuff.
3/N
Oh and that stuff's working both ways. Why?
It's because the definition of a website is being defined by internal/external links more so than your url path or keywords-in-subdomain.
In case you missed it, seroundtable.com/google-keyword…
4/N
So Google doesn't really care and you should do what makes sense for your business processes...
searchenginejournal.com/subdomains-vs-…
But do they really not care? This is where domain clustering comes in.
5/n
Host crowding/domain clustering has been around for a long while (before 2007) mattcutts.com/blog/subdomain…
Ever look up a local restaurant and get 10 YELP results? Usually you'll get 1-2 results max from the same website in 2020 because of this "reranking algorithm"
6/n
In the early 2000's, "dominating" a SERP meant you were showing up in positions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc. of a page. In 2020, "dominating" a SERP means you're in a FS, the position after that, possibly an image result, and you've got partnerships with the websites for said keyword
7/n
Again, if you're able to play around Google's recognition of what the definition of a website is, you're able to manipulate how many maximum results can show up in a search result.
Google/Bing Ads found Ads + Organic Rankings = More net clicks.
Guess what's also true?
8/n
Oh right this old study on the incremental clicks from doing paid with organic-> static.googleusercontent.com/media/research…
(Disclaimer: you should always test things yourself, if the unit economics make sense, you do it)
You know who's killing it with multi-site strategy? Dotdash.
9/n
You known who else is killing it with the multi-site strategy? Wayfair.
You might be arguing "that's a different domain, not a different subdomain" - yes, but again, the crux of the issue is "what is a separate website?"
You're missing the point.
10/n
Ket's share an old document folks stopped talking about. http://162.250.19.7/ac0xl/Dont-Be-Evil/Fake%20News/Twiddler%20Quick%20Start%20Guide%20-%20Superroot.pdf "BlogCategorizer places all the results from a blog in a
max_total category to prevent too many being shown. "
11/n
*K Let's* ahhh that edit button.
So where do ccTLD's fall into this equation when determining whether it's the same site or separate site? Separate website.
Go check out those Pinterest cctld's ranking for "ideas/inspiration"
support.google.com/webmasters/ans…
12/n
The thing a lot of folks "mess up" in migrations is doing with content, design, and url changes in one swoop. We correlate the wrong factor as the root cause. Missing 301 redirects or equivalent destination, outdated internal links, or lost branded traffic...
13/n
Or the opposite - consolidated set of pages from pruning, improving internal linking, improving page experiences (speed/https), removing of extraneous links in nav structures.... these extraneous variables often mixed up with moving from a subdomain to a subfolder.
14/n
There's a ton of variables and it's almost impossible to just isolate things down to just a URL change. I'm excited to say I'm working on a project that is doing just that.
We mirrored existing content but updated the design using proxy redirects.
15/n
Then when we replicated all functionalities (with the infra change we wanted) we switched the 305's to 301's. Boom.
I've ranted a ton, so let's put things to the test?
Because at the end of the day, SEO is evolving. Your site=/= my site. Your strategy =/= my strategy.
16/end
Happy Friday folks. If you missed me for the last week or so (e.g. like my rant about "BRAND" as a ranking factor) then you'll find it somewhere deep into the links:
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