Why are my sub-domains ranking higher than my Root Domains?

[simonberenyi]

I have just noticed that my sub-domains are ranking higher in Mozrank and Moztrust than the root domain - that seems nuts. Am I doing something wrong?

[ShaMenz]

Hi waspman,

No, you are absolutely not doing anything wrong

The simple answer is that you are acquiring links primarily to the sub-domains and not the root domains.

To explain:

"mozRank is SEOmoz's global link popularity score. It compares the relative link value (ranking power) between URLs on the Internet. It is similar in premise to Google's original PageRank metric but is updated more frequently and offers greater precision."

You can read more about all of the SEOmoz Metrics at the Open Site Explorer explanatory page.

So, if you go to Open Site Explorer and run a query for your sub-domain you will see the number of external links to that URL. If you then remove the www and run the query for the root domain you will see that there are 0 links to that URL.

Since mozRank = link popularity - it should be higher for the sub-domain because that is where the links are pointing, and of course you want to ensure that your links are always consolidated to just one domain. So, things are exactly as they should be.

Hope that helps,

Sha

[simonberenyi]

Thank you Sha for answering.

I am new to this - but I thought "www.waspkilluk.co.uk" was my root domain.

So have I got this a little mixed up - is "waspkilluk.co.uk" my root domain and "www.waspkilluk.co.uk" classed as a sub-domain?

Sorry if this sounds a little basic - be gentle.

[ChrisDyson]

That's right wapkilluk.co.uk is the root domain and www.waspkilluk.co.uk is your sub-domain

[ShaMenz]

Hi again waspman,

No worries...it takes a little getting your head around when you start out

As Chris confirmed, the root domain is waspkilluk.co.uk.

The most common subdomain is the www, which is standard, but you can also create other subdomains if you wish.

Perhaps the most visible real world example of a site that uses subdomains is Google -  which uses subdomains to manage each of its specific products within the site. If you take a look at the URLs when you are using Google products you will see examples like places.google.com, maps.google.com, blogger.google.com, webmasters.google.com, www.google.com etc.

A subdomain is referred to as a "third level" domain, created within another domain. As a rule, each level of a domain is defined by the dots (.) appearing in reverse order within a URL.

So, in the Google Maps example:

the Top Level Domain (TLD) is .com

the second level domain is the chosen domain name google

the third level domain (or subdomain) is maps

In your case it is a little more complicated. You have an extra level in your domains because your Top Level Domain is the country designator .uk so your second level is actually .co, but for the purposes of understanding subdomains it won't hurt for you to think of .co.uk as your top level domain.

Generally, most small sites don't require extra subdomains, so often the only subdomain in play is the www.

Matt Cutts has a simple tutorial on the parts of a URL that makes it much easier to understand what is going on at a glance.

Hope that helps,

Sha

[simonberenyi]

Thankyou Chris and Sha for your feed back - I now have it clear in my head. You have been of great help. Thank you also for the link Sha.

Warm Regards

Simon

[ShaMenz]

Glad to help anytime Simon.

I know it's probably hard to believe right now, but I'm sure it won't be long and you'll be explaining stuff to others here in Q&A!

Once all the pieces start to fall into place everything becomes much easier to understand and if you spend some time around the SEOmoz community you'll be flying in no time!

Here's a post with links to all of the most important resources here are SEOmoz which might help you find your way around.

Look forward to catching up with you around the community

Sha