I'm considering starting a new site with a bit of a revolutionary business model.
But let's forget about that for now..
What I'm interested in is whether seperating a site into subdomains is beneficial in terms of a site's page rank and overall ability of users to find information relevant and helpful to them.
For instance, take one of my current sites, www.jaisaben.com. The main site is all to do with the Sugar Industry, and my consultancy business as a scientist and communications engineer. However, I've also been building a forum on that site ( [url=http://www.jaisaben.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,28/]The Jaisaben Enterprises Forum[/url]) which builds upon the theme, and in fact introduces other interests of mine, like SEO of course, Joomla, SMF and anything else I feel like talking about.
Since some of these things are off topic, if I were to set up a subdomain called forums.jaisaben.com, would that help people find my site in any way?
Furthermore, if I wanted to set up a much bigger site dedicated to answering questions about diverse topics, would it be a positive or negative step if I were to allocate those topics as subdomains of my site? For instance, seo.jaisaben.com, joomla.jaisaben.com and smf.jaisaben.com.
Also, if there are any google people watching - I want a change / new challenges and reckon Google would be a good start. I've got broad experience in engineering and science, have been involved with dealing with 'payment systems' for a complex industry (read 'how to reward on the basis of obscure signals', very similar to google's aims), and conducting a PhD and dearly want a job with google, particularly google scholar as I have a few ideas. Please see my profile at http://www.jaisaben.com/component/option,com_contact/Itemid,3/. Hey - you never know unless you try!
Hello Matthew, I have some experience with subdomains but 0 with how to get you into Google.
A forum is intrinsically different than the rest of a site so it IS a good idea to have it as a subdomain. As for other areas of expansion, those can be dealt with easily through a subdirectory. Here is the warning message. Every time you start thinking 'benefits of seo' for any action in regards to your site you could be entering the twilight zone where things can get muddled.
You may start with the greatest of intentions and expand your site into subdomains but if you indeed see any benefits, then you may start tinkering with the above a little too much and before you know it... BAM! Since you are a human -are you?- why step into a territory where you could lose your north? I am not mothering you just talking from personal, first-hand experience. By far, the best approach to the world wide web is to win long term. To win the war, not just a battle. Don't do things that others intentionally or unintentionally could set your efforts back.
There are many benefits about using subdomains, mainly greater independence. You could move them around to other hosts, other countries if geo-location is an issue and create independent structures as you would with domains. They are well suited for geo purposes, parts of your site that are inherently different (payments, forums, etc). But they also carry drawbacks: it is always difficult to integrate subdomains as a cohesive whole, such as a website with a tight structure. And this can impact your navigavility.
Think the subdomain thingy thoroughly as search engines treat them as independent units. A thin subdomain will be treated just as a thin website, not as part of a large and comprehensive unit. If you can objectively justify their use go for it, but in general, subdirectories are just as good.
Undecided to start a new thread, as this is SO closely related, so apologies to dockarl.. but Im going to ask anyway :)
If a 'links page' were placed in a subdomain, say directory.yourdomain.com, would the links be counted as reciprocal (assuming that each site listed in the directory had a reciprocal link, of course)?
As mrg pointed out a Subdomain is considered an entirely new site, so it needs to be able to stand on its own content and link wise.
It's harder to get a new domain indexed and ranked than it is to get a new page or directory on an older existing site listed, so that should be considered as well. While a forum may be a different type of interface on your site, if the subject is the same as the main site, and the keywords used in the discussion will be the same, then for SEO and building the main site as an authority on the subject then you'd want them on the same domain. However if they are completely different subjects it may be a good idea to split them to not muddy the waters (see about.com for a reference)
There is a lot of buzz old and new about the sandbox, whether it exists or not.
Pure unsubstantiated guesses beyond this point:
>From my experience there is some sort of action involved in getting a
new domain listed, I think it's more a symptom of a control dead band. Let's say google has some sort of internal site ranking system, a numbering system between 0 and 10. There are thresholds in that number where a certain action takes place like between 0 and 1, nothing is indexed, between 2 and 5 the home page is indexed, above 8 the whole site is allowed to be indexed. The difference between the 5 and 8 is the deadband, so that if your site value is going up and down between 4-6 it doesn't appear and disappear from the index. This is the supposed sandbox effect, where the home page gets listed right away, it takes what seems forever, and then boom one day hundreds of pages are listed. Once your site reaches the magic number of 8 and the site is let into the index, new pages follow an easier scale. The site has been given authority to have pages in the index, so now new pages are judged on a slightly easier scale like 0 to 1, not in the index, 2 to 4 supplemental, and 5 and above the regular index.
The billions and billions of pages bad-data-push subdomain spamming used this effect by creating new pages as a subdomain which quickly let to the index of the one home page, I think that bug has been cleaned up now.
With that in mind if you add a new section to your site in a subdirectory it will normally get indexed faster than adding it as a subdirectory. I haven't studied it but ranking could also be a factor if you split the site up too much. Does a group of 5 subdomained sites have the same authority as a larger site? I'd say no, which is why services like blogger put the blogs on subdomains. Each blog written by a different author is it's own site, if they were subdirectories each blog would be getting power and authority from the main blogger domain, instead of blogger being one giant domain with millions of pages it's a small authoritive domain with millions of sub-domains that have little authority and stand on their own by design.
@ DarrenG You are speaking of 3rd way links if you allow me to read between lines.
I will be brutally (so that dockarl1998 doesn't confuse me with a gal) honest... Yes, you could benefit from this even though nobody has proven facts. The theory is there and if Google has worked on this issue other search engines may not be this advanced. BUT, same deal as with dockarl1998. Since a directory is usually part of a larger, themed structure you are revealing your intentions in a not so fuzzy way. To the trained eye it will be clear what this is about and you will find yourself standing right over the edge. Take one more step, say moving that sub to another host to sit on an independent IP and... well, you get the idea. If you are on the edge and take one more step you know where you will be landing. The best offense is a good defense. Don't alert others.
