Suggestion for E commerce Site

[vinku]

Hi !

We own a E-commerce Store. we have forum and blog & video too.

like:- blog.store.com

forum.store.com

Store.com/videos

Now to make it more content rich planning for Q & A on it. Do you think building one more sub-domain (answers.store.com ) is good or Folder (store.com/answers) or should use forum for this.

Actually we are selling cosmetics and on chat people asking us many questions. we want to use those question as content.

I'm not sure how we should manage it.

Thanks

[SaforwebDesign]

It's better folder than subdomain. Google often looks subdomains like other sites. And we have made some test with subdomains vs. folders, in our landing pages, and landing content in folder (named with keyword), ranks better than the same landing page in a subdomain (named with keyword).

I hope this can help you

[JustinTaylor88]

Agree with Safor

Here is a blog from Rand on this subject, its a couple years old but still valid

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites

Hope that helps

[AndyMacLean]

Definitely not the sub domain. Assuming you're adding content to help rank well for additional phrases and to improve your sites authority this is best done using subfolders i.e. store.com/answers. You'll get more link juice to those pages keeping them on the root domain. Also any links you get to these new pages benefit the whole root domain i.e. store.com, which isnt the case with links to a sub domain.

[vinku]

Do u think i should move my subdomains to to folders?

like blog.store.com to store.com/blog

forum.store.com to store.com/forum

it's 6-7 months old.

actually i did this keep one thing in mind if in future google ll think on forum or blog content is thin. google ll penelized only subdomains not our store..

What you think...

If Rand can help me here.. in planning.

[randfish]

Yes! I'd agree with Andy, Justin and Safor. Moving off subdomains to subfolders can be a potential big win due to how Google handles authority on and across subdomains.

[vinku]

1. Is there any SEO guide of moving. subdomains to subfolders?

2.Rand do u think it's ok to move subdomains to folders now?  as we are building content on them from long like 8 months.

this is blog link:- http://tinyurl.com/7cs8e8y

this is forum link - http://tinyurl.com/6pt33dv

this is  store link - http://tinyurl.com/c388mjz

I hope you will able to see how much content we made so far.

Suggest me keeping long term things in mind. Link in panda update google killed many thin content sites and many forums has thin content and if google ll consider our forum link this can kill  our root domain as forum is on root domain ( exp: store.com/forum ) but in other case ll kill subdomain ( exp:- forum.store.com ) but if ll go with 2nd option our root which is store is safe !!!

am i right?

Thanks

[randfish]

#1 - I haven't seen a guide that specific, but http://www.seomoz.org/blog/down-and-dirty-write-your-own-url-rewrite should be helpful

#2 - you can move whenever you'd like, but if you're worried about Panda, I'd be careful and make sure that all the pages on your site are unique and highly valuable to visitors. Google's got some pretty sophisticated algorithms to figure that stuff out. You might want to try http://www.seomoz.org/blog/replicate-googles-panda-questionnaire-whiteboard-friday

You're correct that if you get hit by Panda, having subdomains may help insulate the main domain from the penalty. But long term, you should be aiming for maximum benefit and not just protection. If you do things right, you won't need to worry about Panda.