subdomain vs domain.com/newtopic

Hello

I have one domain that is out of the sand box and has PR and been around for a while. there is some questions im having regarding seo and new topics.

Say your site is about dogs and then you decide you want to start talking about somthing that is totally unrelated like space adventure but you never wanted to get a new domain because it would takes ages to get indexed and be able to rank well in google and all this. Could you simply make a new subdomain such as space.domain.com and this will be looked at as a new site and all seo and links pointing to the main domain.com would not be hurt because of this new topic.

Would domain.com/space be worse since the se's would see it as a split topic on the domain and be sites topics be jumping around. Im not sure if i am clear as to what im asking help with but any one who could shed some light on this would be great.

 

I have always had more luck with creating subdomains rather then directories. Escpecially when I am trying to differentiate between 2 completely unrelated topics under the same domain.

Also as far as tracking bandwidth and stats, having a subdomain makes it quite a bit easier. Plus a subdomain seems to dramatically increase your chance of getting multiple SERP's under the same or similar terms.

A classic example would be to type something like "microsoft" into Google. What do you see more of, microsoft.com's subdomains or directories on microsoft.com.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=microsoft&btnG=Google+Search

 

anyone else have some input on this topic?

 

You may have more luck in terms of the "sandbox" but I think it's bad practice personally. If there's a logical link between the two topics/themes, a subdomain makes sense. If not, get a new domain and set it up as a separate site. A year or two from now, if the site does well, you'll be grateful you did it that way.

Unless you are intentionally settingup a fly-by-night this-site-will-be-gone-in-three-months site, think long term, not short term... tortoise, not hare.

 

I agree with minstrel.

You can still put some high quality links from your old site to the new one which will get it indexed with decent PR quite rapidly. You will be in the google sandbox for a while with a new site, but you are going to need to build new links to the site with appropriate anchor text anyway which will take time.

 

Google looks at subdomain as a different domain, so it could be in sandbox the same time as new domain.
So if you are thinking to have new domain but do not buy it only because of sandbox, you should buy domain from the beginning and wait for getting out of sandbox.

 

Not true in my expoerience - Google looks at a subdomain as a subdomain. It usually does avoid the "sandbox" effect.

Definitely. If that's the only reason you're considering a subdomain and there are no other good reasons for doing so, don't do it.

 

I would recommend using a subdomain. From my experience links from a subdomain or from the root domain to another subdomain are treated better by google than links from another domain. When there are lots of links, I mean. Think about about.com.

 

subdomain is better and less probability of getting in the sandbox.

 

I'd like more input on this one.

It seams that some claim that a subdomain faces the same sandbox issues as a directory. Other's say the opposite.

Which is it?

Brandon

 

If the main website is not "sandboxed", then neither a directory/folder nor subdomain will be sandboxed, since they are extensions of an existing site.

 

Nobody except Google won't tell you the truth...

 

I've used both on older sites and neither gets sandboxed so I'd say that's "proof" of a sort... see Folders vs. Subdomains for a good discussion of how to make the choice between the two options.

 

Nice article by Catherine Parker there, Minstrel. Perhaps off-topic, forgive me if so - but my host distinguishes "add-on domains" from "subdomains." From what Ms. Parker wrote, which is that subdomains are treated as completely separate entitities by the SE's, this fits what Lunarpages is telling me about add-on domains:

I'd be curious about the "external linking value" of subdomains v. add-on domains, in terms of this idea of either being considered an external site. It seems that, at least from what Lunarpages is telling me, the distinction is a little hazy. Anyone with particular knowledge of the differences between these two, in terms of whether one is not considered a separate site ("external" in Ms. Parker's parlance)?

 

I've seen this distinction made before. Can you explain how your host distinguishes between the two? What is the difference?

 

Minstrel, from Lunarpages info, this is a hazy distinction. Initially, I thought an add-on was a truly unique domain, whereas a sub was not - but from the Lunarpages discussion (quoted above), it appears they are treating both, in concept, fairly similarly, in terms of "externality."

But I know there is a distinction. I will call them and ask later on. Taking the lad for a skate in today's nordic weather.

 

Sorry... still waking up with coffee here.

Re-reading that quote, I think the difference is that the "add-on domain" is an entirely separate domain name that points to a folder on your site. The usual reason forthis would be I think to save hosting costs.

For example:

www.mainsite.com

subdomain.mainsite.com is a subdomain physically at mainsite.com/subdomain/

www.newdomain.com can be physically pointed to mainsite.com/newdomain/ as a separate site with the same hosting

 

Minstrel, as I found it, the add-on is indeed treatly entirely separately by everything except C-Panel, like you said, www.newdomain.com has its own presence and is crawled as so, for example, and is not referenced in relation to the root domain like www.subdomain.com.maindomain.com. I still don't quite know how the sub-domain has "characteristics" like a separate domain, however.

However, within C-Panel, it reads like a subdomain - add-ondomain.main.domain.com.

I did it because I wanted to ensure I had an entirely different domain for this different site; and as you note, it's free (I get one add-on per domain). If bandwidth becomes a problem at some point (one can only hope), I'll move it to its own hosted account.

 

sitename.com - ( www: subdomain )
sitename.com/topic - (www:subdomain - /topic: folder )

Advantage: subdomain

 

Allow me to be the first to say, "Huh?" ...