Among the common questions in structuring a website (or restructuring one) are whether to host content on a new domain, when to use subfolders, and when to employ microsites.
As search engines scour the Web, they identify four kinds of web structures on which to place metrics:
- Individual pages/URLs
These are the most basic elements of the Web—filenames, much like those that have been found on computers for decades, which indicate unique documents. Search engines assign query-independent scores—most famously, Google’s PageRank—to URLs and judge them in their ranking algorithms. A typical URL might look something like http://www.yourdomain.com/page.html.
- Subfolders
The folder structures that websites use can also inherit or be assigned metrics by search engines (though there’s very little information to suggest that they are used one way or another). Luckily, they are an easy structure to understand. In the URL http://www.yourdomain.com/blog/post17.html, “/blog/” is the subfolder and “post17.html” is the name of the file in that subfolder. Engines may identify common features of documents in a given subfolder and assign metrics to these (such as how frequently the content changes, how important these documents are in general, or how unique the content is that exists in these subfolders).
- Subdomains/fully qualified domains (FQDs)/third-level domains
In the URL http://blog.yourdomain.com/page.html, three kinds of domain levels are present. The top-level domain (also called the TLD or domain extension) is “.com”, the second-level domain is “yourdomain”, and the third-level domain is “blog”. The third-level domain is sometimes referred to as a subdomain. Common web nomenclature does not typically apply the word subdomain when referring to www, although technically, this too is a subdomain. A fully qualified domain is the combination of the elements required to identify the location of the server where the content can be found (in this example, “blog.yourdomain.com”).
These structures can receive individual assignments of importance, trustworthiness, and value from the engines, independent of their second-level domains, particularly on hosted publishing platforms such as WordPress, Blogspot, Wetpaint, and so on.
- Complete root domains/host domain/pay-level domains (PLDs)/second-level domains
The domain name you need to register and pay for, and the one you point DNS settings toward, is the second-level domain (though it is commonly improperly called the “top-level” domain). In the URL http://www.yourdomain.com/page.html, “yourdomain.com” is the second-level domain. Other naming conventions may refer to this as the “root” or “pay-level” domain.
Figure 6-15 shows some examples.
If a subfolder will work it is the best choice 99.9% of the time. Keeping content on a single root domain and single subdomain (e.g., http://www.yourdomain.com) gives the maximum SEO benefits, as engines will maintain all of the positive metrics the site earns around links, authority, and trust, and will apply these to every page on the site.
Subfolders have all the flexibility of subdomains (the content can, if necessary, be hosted on a unique server or completely unique IP address through post-firewall load balancing) and none of the drawbacks. Subfolder content will contribute directly to how search engines (and users, for that matter) view the domain as a whole. Subfolders can be registered with the major search engine tools and geotargeted individually to specific countries and languages as well.
Although subdomains are a popular choice for hosting content, they are not recommended if SEO is a primary concern. Subdomains may inherit the ranking benefits and positive metrics of the root domain they are hosted underneath, but they do not always do so (and thus, content can underperform in these scenarios).
If your marketing team decides to promote a URL that is completely unique in content or purpose and would like to use a catchy subdomain to do it, using a subdomain can be practical. Sites such as Maps.google.com and Blog.searchenginewatch.com are examples of where the marketing considerations make a subdomain an acceptable choice. One good reason to use a subdomain is in a situation where using a subdomain can look more authoritative to users as a result of creating separation from the main domain.
Be wary of press and media attention to the domains, as unsavvy users often don’t understand the concept of subdomains or that domains can be on the “World Wide Web” without a “www.” It is much less expensive to use a subfolder and have slightly less marketing panache than it is to educate through branding and advertising.
Subdomains may also be a reasonable choice if keyword usage in the domain name is of critical importance. It appears that search engines do weight keyword usage in the URL, and have slightly higher benefits for exact matches in the subdomain (or third-level domain name) than subfolders.
If you have a single, primary site that has earned links, built content, and attracted brand attention and awareness, it is very rarely advisable to place any new content on a completely separate domain. There are rare occasions when this can make sense, and we’ll walk through these, as well as explain how singular sites benefit from collecting all of their content in one root domain location.
Splitting similar or relevant content from your organization onto multiple domains can be likened to a store taking American Express Gold cards and rejecting American Express Corporate or American Express Blue—it is overly segmented and dangerous for the consumer mindset. If you can serve web content from a singular domain, that domain will earn branding among the minds of your visitors, references from them, links from other sites, and bookmarks from your regular customers. Switching to a new domain forces you to rebrand and to earn all of these positive metrics all over again.
There is a lot of debate about microsites, and although we generally recommend that you do not saddle yourself with the hassle of dealing with multiple sites and their SEO risks and disadvantages, it is important to understand the arguments, if only a few, in favor of doing so.
Optimized properly, a microsite may have dozens or even hundreds of pages. If your site is likely to gain more traction and interest with webmasters and bloggers by being at an arm’s length from your main site, it may be worth considering—for example, if you have a very commercial main site, and you want to create some great content, perhaps as articles, podcasts, and RSS feeds, that do not fit on the main site.
When should you consider a microsite?
- When you own a specific keyword search query domain
For example, if you own “usedtoyotatrucks.com”, you might do very well to pull in search traffic for the specific term used toyota trucks with a microsite.
- When you plan to sell the domains
It is very hard to sell a folder or even a subdomain, so this strategy is understandable if you’re planning to churn the domains in the second-hand market.
- As discussed earlier, if you’re a major brand building a “secret” or buzz-worthy microsite
In this case, it can be useful to use a separate domain (however, you really should 301 the pages of that domain back to your main site after the campaign is over so that the link juice continues to provide long-term benefit—just as the mindshare and branding do in the offline world).
You should never implement a microsite that acts as a doorway page to your main site, or that has substantially the same content as you have published on your main site. Consider this only if you are willing to invest in putting rich original content on the site, and if you are willing to invest the time to promote the site as an independent site.
Such a site may gain more links by being separated from the main commercial site. A microsite may have the added benefit of bypassing some of the legal and PR department hurdles and internal political battles. This could be a key consideration if you’re at a monolithic or low-risk-tolerance organization.
However, a microsite on a brand-new domain may wallow in the Google sandbox for months (for more about the Google sandbox, see Determining Searcher Intent and Delivering Relevant, Fresh Content in Chapter 2). So, what to do if you want to launch a microsite? Consider buying an aged, reputable domain “aftermarket”—one that has had a quality site on it for a while (parking pages don’t count!), and then change the domain registration information slowly so that the site’s PageRank doesn’t get reset to zero. Or start the clock running as soon as possible on your new domain by posting at least a few pages to the URL and then getting a few links to it—as far in advance of the official launch as possible.
Here are the reasons for not using a microsite:
- Search algorithms favor large, authoritative domains
Take a piece of great content about a topic and toss it onto a small, mom and pop website—point some external links to it, optimize the page and the site for the target terms, and get it indexed. Now, take that exact same content and place it on Wikipedia or CNN.com, or even SEOmoz—you’re virtually guaranteed that the content on the large, authoritative domain will outrank the content on the small niche site. The engines’ current algorithms favor sites that have built trust, authority, consistency, and history.
- Multiple sites split the benefits of links
As suggested in Figure 6-16, a single good link pointing to a page on a domain positively influences the entire domain and every page on it. Because of this phenomenon, it is much more valuable to have any link you can possibly get pointing to the same domain to help boost the rank and value of the pages on it. Having content or keyword-targeted pages on other domains that don’t benefit from the links you earn to your primary domain only creates more work.
- 100 links to Domain A ≠ 100 links to Domain B + 1 link to Domain A (from Domain B)
In Figure 6-17, you can see how earning lots of links to Page G on a separate domain is far less valuable than earning those same links to a page on the primary domain. Due to this phenomenon, even if you interlink all of the microsites or multiple domains that you build, it still won’t be close to the value you can get from those links if they were to point directly to the primary domain.
- A large, authoritative domain can host a huge variety of content
Niche websites frequently limit the variety of their discourse and content matter, whereas broader sites can target a wider range of foci. This is valuable not just for targeting the long tail of search and increasing potential branding and reach, but also for viral content, where a broader focus is much less limiting than that of a niche focus.
- Time and energy are better spent on a single property
If you’re going to pour your heart and soul into web development, design, usability, user experience, site architecture, SEO, public relations, branding, and so on, you want the biggest bang for your buck. Splitting your attention, time, and resources on multiple domains dilutes that value and doesn’t let the natural order of building on your past successes on a single domain assist with that process. As shown in Figure 6-16, every page on a site receives benefit from inbound links to a site. The page receiving the link gets the most benefit, but other pages also benefit.
There are only a few rare situations in which you should consider using a TLD other than .com:
When you own the .com and want to redirect to an .org, .tv, .biz, and so on, possibly for marketing/branding/geographic reasons. Do this only if you already own the .com and can redirect.
When you can use a .gov, .mil, or .edu domain (.jobs, though technically restricted to HR and hiring organizations, is available to anyone who hires and doesn’t have any special search benefits).
When you are serving only a single geographic region and are willing to permanently forego growth outside that region (e.g., .co.uk, .de, .it, etc.).
When you are a nonprofit and want to distance your organization frmo the commercial world, .org may be for you.