We all know that most of the time that the domain names we want are not available. Just say for the sake of argument that the domain name 'ChickenThings.com' was not available but you actually owned 'chicken.com' and your desired search term was 'chicken things'. Which would be the best way to go SEO-wise; things.chicken.com or chicken.com/things I look forward to your thoughts on this ponderous issue
A sub-domain of a site actually acts as a whole different site in Google's eyes, so no matter how much relevant content you have on chicken.com, things.chicken.com will have to replicate everything on chicken.com and that would then be classified as duplicate content. Therefore, you're better off doing chicken.com/things because all that juice/relevancy flows onto it from chicken.com. So for example: chicken.com + chicken.com/things = 1 website, combined content/relevancy TO chicken.com + things.chicken.com = 2 websites, not as easy to combine Hope that helps.
It does indeed. I didn't think of it that way. But, it makes sense. If you did go with sub-domaining and had alot of sub-domained sites, does this make the parent domain more important in Googles eyes? Enen though the sub-domained sites may not be relevant to each other?
No it does not, since the sub-domain still acts as a website on itself. Look at Wordpress or Blogspot with all their blogs. Half the blogs might be spammy and classified as bad neighbourhoods but Google assumes the sub-domains aren't directly connected (i.e. not a website combined) therefore it doesn't relay onto the parent domain with positive or negative rankings.
before making any decision, visit google external keywords tools and look for the number of search. Is is better to select domain that has higher search volume than your own desired domain.
I think; its not necessary to get your keyword in url, that helps in ranking, but if you are working for multiple keywords then it does not matter, as you cant set all keywords in your url.
Thanks guys. The search term is for a clients niche. And before you google 'chicken things'. That is not the search term Some great advice though.
You can use things.chicken.com as separate website. chicken.com/things better for SEO (Keyword Proximity) .