Subdomains vs. Subfolders, Rel Canonical vs. 301, and How to Structure Links for SEO. There are some basic questions about SEO that come up really frequently, and it's often easy to assume an answer that isn't exactly right.
In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand tackles three of them: Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're going to chat about structuring content, placing content, and placing links, specifically with regards to some things that have come up over and over again in the SEO world, but still seem to be a challenge for many of us who play in the field. One of the questions that I'm going to start with is around subdomains and subfolders, because this just comes up again and again and again.
I am sure that Google has actually made strides in this area, but this question still has the same answer that it did years ago. You're asking, "Should I put my content on a subdomain, or should I put it in a subfolder? " So let's say you've got blog.yoursite.com or you've got www.yoursite.com/blog. Google's Matt Cutts: Websites Using ccTLDs Should Contain Content Relevant To The Specific County Code. In his latest video, Google’s head of search spam Matt Cutts addresses whether or not it is a good idea for a website to use a ccTLD (country code top level domain) as a novelty domain.
The video was a response to the question: As memorable .COM domains become more expensive, more developers are choosing alternative new domains like .IO and .IM – which Google geo-targets to small areas. Do you discourage this activity? Cutts explained that most domains at a country level contain content specific to that country. When a site uses a ccTLD, Google is going to assume that the site’s content applies to the geo-targeted area specified by the domain.
“If you go and pick a really weird novelty domain that nobody else really uses, and mostly is used by this other country, we’re still probably going to assume it’s most relevant to that particular country,” says Cutts. Google EMD Algorithm Should Not Hit Legit Businesses. There is a fun thread at Google Webmaster Help where a site owner is asking why should he change his exact match domain to something else when the exact match domain is the official name of his business.
Remember, Google launched an exact match domain algorithm in September of this year to target domains with low value trying to rank solely on the domain name. The site owner asked: I have an EMD and have been clearly penalised for that. I am now getting feedback from my webmaster that I should change it, as it is the quickest and cheapest way to get my business back on track. Our EMD as a registered business and it is Trademarked.
In which, an SEO named Stevie responded, where Google's John Mueller vouched for by marking it a "best answer. " Bottom line, a legit business that happens to have an EMD is not going to be penalized or loose the value of their domain matching the query..... so back up your claim. Google won't let official and legit EMDs take a hit. The Exact Match Domain Playbook: A Guide and Best Practices for EMDs. Exact match domains have always been the source of a lot of contention among SEOs.
For quite some time, EMD’s have offered a competitive advantage for SEO’s who understood how to use them. In the early days of search when relevance algorithms were rather weak, many folks used “double dashed” domains because they were cheap to buy, and easy to rank. $6 to rank for a 3 word phrase. Sold. However, when you see best-online-seo-company.biz in your search result, you start to question the weighting of relevance factors. This is, in large part, how EMD’s got a bad rep to start with. Despite the debate and obvious abuse, EMD’s represent what SEO’s do best – Seize Every Opportunity!
I’ve always been a pretty big fan of EMD’s, and I agree with Elliot Silver that EMD domains can be brands. Matt Cutts (esteemed Google engineer) has made this comment in the past (about 2 years ago):