10 replies to this topic

[rafnews]

Hi,

i'm facing an interesting challenge redeveloping a website that includes the website itself, a forum and an e-shop.
Basically i was thinking to develop those parts into 3 phases and thus to be independent of each other.

so the website itself will be stored under main domain (ex: www.example.com), while forums will be stored under a subdomain (forums.example.com) and e-shop as another subdomain (eshop.example.com)

i would like to know if this is a problem for a good SEO?
or is it much more better to have everything under 1 "roof" www.example.com (main site), www.example.com/forums (forums) and www.example.com/eshop (eshop) ?

Please detail your answer in order to help me to understand.
thx a lot.

[chrishirst]

i would like to know if this is a problem for a good SEO?

 

Probably not, but are you a good SEO?

 

 

However:

 

One site.

[Jill]

It's all the same to the search engines. 

[bobmeetin]

Subfolders as opposed to subdomains is a simpler route in general.

[rafnews]

Subfolders as opposed to subdomains is a simpler route in general.

but AFAIK if we have:
main website stored in /public_html directory (www.example.com)
forums web part stored in /public_html/_sub/forums (forums.example.com) >> subdomain but also a subdirectory of website root
eshop web part stored in /public_html/_sub/eshop (eshop.example.com) >> subdomain but also a subdirectory of website root
 
so in this case it is the worst solution ?
because this is how works my webhosting provider
thx

It's all the same to the search engines. 

So if it's the same for search engine, where is the difference ?
why do people tell it's better to have everything under the same roof ?
why subdomains are not "liked" ?

[Jill]

 

It's all the same to the search engines. 

So if it's the same for search engine, where is the difference ?

why do people tell it's better to have everything under the same roof ?

why subdomains are not "liked" ? 

 

 

It is under the same roof. The people who tell you otherwise don't know what they're talking about n

[torka]

My company's website is in several pieces, just as you describe. Some of them are in subdomains, some are actually on completely separate domains. However, no matter what the URL might be for any individual page, they are all treated as though they're part of a single website.

 

A "site" is defined by using consistent visual design and integrated navigation, not by the URLs of the pages involved. I could create a single website where every individual page was on its own domain if I wanted to. (It would be totally weird to do that, and darned awkward to administer besides, but it could be done.)

 

As long as you treat the pages as though they belong to a single site (designing and linking them accordingly), it shouldn't make any difference from an SEO perspective what their domain is or whether they're physically all in the same folder or not on the web server. At least, we haven't had any problems with it -- and I figure if I can pull it off, so can others.

 

Often people have difficulty visualizing how to handle a multiple-domain website, which I believe is probably why the general advice is to house everything under a single domain. But if you can wrap your brain around the concept, in my personal experience, there's no reason why you HAVE to have everything on one domain.

 

My

 

--Torka

[rafnews]

I had the same understanding...that's why i was thinking to separate forums from eshop, from website... mainly is for maintenance and upgrade purposes. If we need to upgrade forums, we do not need to disable website and eshop...only the link from eshop and from website to forums... once forums are upgraded, we could reactivated those links to forums and everything should be ok...
 
another example, it's if we need to change the complete eshop CMS...design could be the same but instead of joomla we could have drupal or magento...
if everything is belonging to 1 system = under 1 roof... it would be hard to do it and to get the best of each system.
 
from what i understood a good SEO is based on content and links (and other things)...but not on systems, subdomains or subfolders...

[chrishirst]

from what i understood a good SEO is based on content and links (and other things)...but not on systems, subdomains or subfolders...

Not 'a' good SEO as that implies an individual, but good SEO as in the process, is actually about making the site great for USERS, which means making everything 'flow' in logical steps and a  straightforward manner. Even jumping from subdomains to a different parent URLs back to the "main domain" in subdirectories is not a problem PROVIDED that the transitions do NOT interrupt the flow of the visitors. So don't spawn new windows just because you are going from domain 'A' to domain 'B', as Torka said integrate them all into one navigational structure so that people and search engines have a reference base for the commonality of the documents they are visiting and viewing.

 

To a search engine a website is a collection of individual URLs linked in a common navigational structure, NOT necessarily on a single parent hostname.

[bobmeetin]

Just to be clear, I was talking site administration, not SEO. One hat when doable is always my choice

[torka]

Sounds as though you're on the right track with this (and I agree about the administration -- being able to pick "best of breed" and to work on one part of the site without affecting the rest is really helpful).

 

--Torka