Thinking about using a subdomain for your website or a client’s SEO strategy?
Many people find the concept of subdomains confusing, and even those who know about them often wonder how subdomain SEO works and when it’s the best choice. Subdomains can be powerful tools for certain situations, but they’re not always the ideal solution for every business.
In this article, we’ll dive into what subdomains are, how subdomain SEO can impact your site’s performance, and when they might be the right fit for your SEO strategy.
- What Is a Subdomain
- Difference Between a Subdomain vs. Subdirectory
- How Do Subdomains Affect SEO
- What Are the Benefits of Using a Subdomain?
- Blog Subdomains: Does It Make Sense for Your Website?
- How To Create a Subdomain in cPanel
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Does a Subdomain Make Sense For Your SEO Strategy
What Is a Subdomain?
A subdomain is a prefix added to a website’s domain name to create a separate section for a specific purpose. Subdomains allow websites to separate and organize their content for a distinct function, like a blog or online store.
Domain names typically have two parts: a top-level domain (TLD), which is the extension of the domain, such as .com or .net, and the second-level domain (SLD), which is the unique part of the domain name, commonly the brand name. Let’s take siegemedia.com as an example — “siegemedia” is the SLD and “.com” is the TLD.
The subdomain is added before the SLD. So, for siegemedia.com, a subdomain would be “news.siegemedia.com.”
Difference Between a Subdomain vs. Subdirectory
A subdirectory is a folder housed within the main site that can be considered a level of the domain’s hierarchy. On the other hand, a subdomain is a distinct section considered by Google and other search engines as a completely separate entity of the primary domain. For example:
Subdomain: blog.siegemedia.com
-
- The blog is the subdomain
Subdirectory: siegemedia.com/blog
-
- The /blog is the subdirectory
How Do Subdomains Affect SEO?
At last, the golden question: How exactly do subdomains affect SEO performance? The most important element of a subdomain’s impact on SEO is that search engines like Google treat a subdomain (blog.siegemedia.com) as a completely separate entity. That means subdomains will be crawled, indexed, and ranked completely independently from the main domain (siegemedia.com).
Subdomains don’t benefit from the existing content and links tied to the main domain. This means that when you create a subdomain, you should think of it as a brand new site that will have its own unique ladder to climb within your SEO strategy.
But when done properly, subdomain SEO can be beneficial if the subdomain content is completely different from the main domain. For example, large corporations often use subdomains for their sub-products or individual brands. Let’s take news.google.com — Google uses “news” as the subdomain to separate news-related content from the main google.com domain.
What Are The Benefits of Using a Subdomain?
When used correctly and in the right situations, subdomains can significantly benefit an SEO strategy. Some of these benefits include:
- Enhanced targeting: Subdomains allow you to craft highly targeted content for specific audiences and keywords. This gives you the ability to garner additional traffic that your main domain might not be able to.
- Organized content: Subdomains provide a clear way to organize specific content separate from your main domain. For example, Etsy uses the subdomain help.etsy.com to host support content, making it easy for users to find customer service information without cluttering the main shopping site.
- User-friendly experience for visitors: By properly grouping content within specific domains, you can provide an easy way for users to find the information they need.
- Brand recognition: Subdomains allow brands to extend their reach into their own sub-brands or specific markets or product lines. For example, in tv.apple.com, Apple uses the subdomain “tv” to isolate the Apple TV product from their main product line on the primary site.
- Ability to target different regions: Subdomains can be a great method for targeting specific geographic regions by crafting localized content and optimizing for regional keywords that the main website does not. Subdomains can also be used to expand into international markets and target specific countries and languages. An example of this is fr.airbnb.com, where Airbnb uses a subdomain to target users in France.
- Simplified tracking: Subdomains can be configured to work alongside your main domain’s analytics tools, allowing you to track user behavior across both the main domain and subdomain. This allows you to garner additional insights into the user journey and helps with making data-driven decisions.
Blog Subdomains: Does It Make Sense for Your Website?
In most cases, using a subdomain for a blog is not advisable unless the content of the blog housed on the subdomain differs substantially from the content of the main site. Subdomain SEO can be beneficial if you want to use a subdomain to gain traffic from an audience that differs from your main website.
Another major disadvantage to utilizing a subdomain for a blog is that your main website will not benefit from the links your blog posts acquire over time. Blogging and content marketing are some of the most effective methods for a website to acquire links. So, if you want your website to benefit from the links earned from the fruits of your labor, then it’s much more beneficial to house your blog in a subdirectory instead.
How To Create a Subdomain in cPanel
It’s important to note that you can create a subdomain in either your registrant or your web hosting provider. If you create a subdomain through your registrant, you create the subdomain through the DNS records. But if you create a subdomain through your hosting provider, it’s done via cPanel using the following process:
1. Choose Your Subdomain Name
The first thing you need to do when creating a subdomain is decide what your subdomain name will be. The name of your subdomain should be tied to the purpose it serves for users. Here are some examples:
- blog.siegemedia.com: This would be used if the subdomain was housing a blog, where the content differs from the content of the main site.
- store.siegemedia.com: This might be used to house an e-commerce element of a site for users to purchase items.
- brand.siegemedia.com: This might be used to isolate a sub-brand or product from your main brand.
2. Log in and Access Your cPanel
Through your hosting provider, find and access your cPanel to begin the process of creating your subdomain. It’s also possible to bypass your hosting provider and access cPanel directly by entering the IP address or domain and the 2083 port in your preferred browser. For example:
- https://198.51.100.1:2083: Accessing your cPanel through your IP address.
- https://example.com:2083: Accessing your cPanel through your domain name
3. Navigate to the Domains in the cPanel Dashboard
Once in the cPanel dashboard, navigate to the Domains section and click on Domains. This will bring you to the area where you can create the subdomain.
4. Select “Create a New Domain” on the Domains Page
Once you have accessed the Domains page within cPanel, select the blue button in the top right that says Create a New Domain.
5. Enter Your Subdomain With the Prefix and Select Document Root
Under the Domain, enter the subdomain with the prefix you’d like to create (for example, store.siegemedia.com). Under the Document Root, make sure to specify a unique document root where the files for the subdomain will be housed. Once you’ve chosen the document root for the subdomain, click Submit. Here’s an example of how to configure the document root for your subdomain:
- Main website: /home/mydevsite/public_html
- Subdomain: /home/mydevsite/public_html/store
6. Test Your Subdomain To Ensure It Functions Properly
Once you’ve created the subdomain, a green confirmation dialog box will appear, advising you that your new subdomain has been created. It typically takes 24-48 hours for your subdomain to propagate. After 48 hours, manually test your subdomain to make sure it’s live and functioning properly.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is an Example of a Subdomain?
Using siegemedia.com as an example, a subdomain might be store.siegemedia.com.
Are Subdomains Bad for SEO?
While subdomains are not directly bad for SEO, they’re not the most advisable choice for most situations. As we previously mentioned, there are situations where using a subdomain can work well for an SEO strategy, including isolating a sub-brand or product or if the subdomain’s content will differ significantly from the main site.
According to Google’s Search Advocate, John Mueller, “Google websearch is fine with using either subdomains or subdirectories. I recommend picking a setup that you can keep for longer.”
How Are Subdomains Tracked in Google Analytics?
Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has made subdomain tracking rather simple by allowing for both cross-domain tracking and individual tracking on the subdomain. With cross-domain tracking, you can utilize the same data stream as your main domain and still track sessions for all the content on your subdomain while seeing how users interact with the main domain and subdomain.
Or, you can install a separate data stream for your subdomain if you don’t want to have cross-domain tracking if users will likely not be interacting with both the main domain and subdomain.
Will Google Rank and Index Subdomains?
Yes, Google will both rank and index subdomains in search results. It’s important to highlight again that Google treats a subdomain as a completely separate entity from the main domain, so when you begin your subdomain SEO strategy, you will be starting fresh in terms of ranking and authority for the site.
Does a Subdomain Make Sense for Your SEO Strategy?
In the end, the use of a subdomain will come down to what your business or client’s needs are. In some situations, using a subdomain can be harmful and set you back, though there are cases where utilizing a subdomain can help expand your reach and organize content.
Are you in need of additional guidance to kick-start your SEO or content strategy? Our team of experts at Siege Media are here to provide you with tailored content marketing and technical SEO services to help your business reach its goals. Contact us today and receive a free ROI analysis.
