New folder or New Sub-Domain ?

llegent · 08-03-2006, 08:24 PM

Hi everyone, this few days are actually pretty tight for me as I am rebuilding one of my directory site. While doing that, I was having some questions pertaining to SEO related...thus I have opened a few threads in this section to seek some inputs.

Here, I would like to seek some views pertaining to creating either a new folder or new sub-domains for a new section of my site. To some, it is a better option to create a new folder for this new section which is to be built upon. It is like a expansions of the original site.

However, there are also some other that viewed it as a sub-domain is actually treated as a "domain" n the eye of SE. Thus it could actually contributes much more weight to the original site in term of SERP compare to a "folder", eg potential google PR contribution.

How has your experience in this?

zach · 08-03-2006, 09:30 PM

You should definately use folders instead of subdomains. Subdomains are treated as a different site, so all your content, pagerank, SE placment, and so on will not contribute to the original domain.

triumph · 08-04-2006, 05:04 AM

Really depends with what your goals are. I will use a sub-domain to market a second site as a part of a bigger site, but if it is part of the core site, then I will put it in a folder. If I have forums, for example, I would normally put them in a folder. I just set up a blog on a site, though, and I made it a sub-domain as it is really a marketing tool for the main site and will be marketed on its own.

andreww38 · 08-04-2006, 09:10 AM

my experience shows that google PR is page specific.
so if your index page is a PR4, the other pages might be PR3 or lower. some are even PR0.

alexa rankings run across the whole site and are not linked to any specific pages.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zach

You should definately use folders instead of subdomains. Subdomains are treated as a different site, so all your content, pagerank, SE placment, and so on will not contribute to the original domain.

llegent · 08-04-2006, 02:17 PM

emm...let's me try to summarize this :-
1. For expansion and branding of original site :- Use Folder
2. For marketing and new section :- Sub-domain

Am I capturing these correctly??

Quote:

my experience shows that google PR is page specific.
so if your index page is a PR4, the other pages might be PR3 or lower. some are even PR0.

So if I were to use folder, then this folder's pages wil not be able to gain higher google PR than the main index page of the said site?? How could it be able to contribute to the main site then??

In this case, wouldn't it be better to set a new sub-domain?? as googe treat it as new site, and it could possibly gain higher PR than original site. Thus could potentially contribute to the main site's PR isn't it??

zach · 08-04-2006, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by llegent

emm...let's me try to summarize this :-
1. For expansion and branding of original site :- Use Folder
2. For marketing and new section :- Sub-domain

Am I capturing these correctly??

So if I were to use folder, then this folder's pages wil not be able to gain higher google PR than the main index page of the said site?? How could it be able to contribute to the main site then??

It's the other way around from what I think you understood: if you get PR on a page in a folder, your main site will get added PR; if you get PR on a subdomain, your main site will not get PR (google does not consider the two to be related).

Quote:

Originally Posted by llegent

wouldn't it be better to set a new sub-domain?? as googe treat it as new site, and it could possibly gain higher PR than original site. Thus could potentially contribute to the main site's PR isn't it??

Page Rank is additive. You get high PR by adding the value of all the links pointing to your site. So if you want to contribute to your main site's PR, you should get as many links going to your main site, and not anywhere else. If you start a new subdomain, which is considered to be a new site by Google and hence has PR0, you are basically starting at the beginning all over again. Even if you link to your main site from the subdomain, you will still get less PR than if you just get the links go directly to your main site.

andreww38 · 08-05-2006, 06:15 AM

SEO and SEM are one thing, and there are always exceptions to every rule.

if you have very hot, unranked content, you can expect tons of organic traffic.
it could be something along the lines of world cup footage, israeli-lebanon film footage, hurricane katrina breaking news.

triumph · 08-06-2006, 02:56 AM

Well you can still pass PR between sites. It is just that onsite and offsite factors are different for passing PR. Having a subdomain does not mean no PR is passed. Look at some of the blogging sites. You can get PR simply from getting a subdomain on the site and links on their main site.