Which is Best Practice for creating URLs for subdomain?

[rohanarora536]

My website is related to education. We have created sub domains for all major colleges, universities & Entrance exams like Gre, Toefl ETC.

for eg:  amityuniversity.abc.com (Amity is Name of University )

Now if have to mention city name in URL as well (college is located in multiple locations)

amityuniversity-delhi.abc.com
amityuniversitydelhi.abc.com

Now my Q is can we use hyphens in sub domains if we have to add city name or shall we create without using any  hyphens.

In Directory  structure we can always separate words with hyphens, can we follow same practice in subdomain as well

Which is a  best URL for subdomain

amity-university-delhi.abc.com
amityuniversity-delhi.abc.com
or amityuniversitydelhi.abc.com

[Matt-Williamson]

Hi Rohan,

You can use hyphens in sub-domains, however when using hyphens in relation to any domain or sub-domain I tend to stay away from them, if possible, as they tend to be related to spam practices, especially with multiple hyphens. I think you will find this SeoMoz best practice in relation to domains a good guide as to what is the best tactic to take - http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/domain

Hope this helps

[RobertFisher]

Rohan

This is one of my favorite topics and Matt makes great points. But, IMO there is not a right or wrong. Yes, SEOmoz has a great best practices page (see Matt's link) on this and when I look at it I always wonder as to its age or last update. (One of the reasons is that as the web expands, there are less and less .com/.net sites and it clearly says here that:

Top level domains (like .com) are the extensions associated with domain names. For best ranking results, avoid uncommon top-level domains (TLDs). Like hyphens, TLDs such as .info, .cc, .ws, and .name are spam indicators.

Here is why I question this: I do not believe that "spammy" can be quantified and I have yet to find a spammy test that was reliable. Also, I question what a spam indicator is and in the absence of any other relevant 'spam indicator' what affect it might have on ranking. Is it that Google has a spam indicator in the algorithm that absent any other evidence, devalues at some level a hyphen or a .info? I would love to see the proof.

Note: My incredulity is driven by results we achieve using hyphens as needed or .info as needed.

Today there are too many instances where hyphens are needed just to be able to figure out what it says. (Or to insure correct interpretation: expertsexchange.com is the classic in this group) Yes, if this is an EMD and if it is in a branded or common context someone who already knows of it might not use the hyphens.

But, if we are looking to capture those who are searching for something they don't yet know of, they are not typing in amityuniversity delhi with or without. They are searching for something like universities in Delhi, graphic design schools delhi, etc. They are not going to the SERPs and on finding what they want, going to the address bar and typing it in; they are clicking the link in the SERP and going to the page.

So, my rule is this: Use Hyphens to clarify a long or confusing domain/sub domain name. Use hyphens competitively if you desire an EMD where one is not available for a high impact page.

We are an agency and do a lot of sites that clients come to us with no domain name for. We use hyphens and non hyphens. I have yet to see where a hyphenated domain is negatively impacted to a level that gave me pause. I am sure based on experience that a hyphenated EMD does have more impact than a non hyphenated domain that is not exact match.

I look forward to a vigorous discussion on this oft discussed issue!

[rohanarora536]

Thanks Robert for your reply

Till date we have used hyphens in sub domain & we have not seen any -ve impact.

We were creating a list of 1000 new colleges so i just wanted to be rest assured, that's y i raised Q.

Also Students are  aware of famous universities & colleges so thr is lot of search related to University specific keywords.

In some cases we have seen General level keywords like "Animation colleges Delhi" have less search compare to Particular university which is famous in Animation. In education we have seen thr is lot of search related to university & college level ky.

In hotel Industry its a vice versa

[Matt-Williamson]

Very interesting response Robert, with some very good and valid points - though I think you would want a expert in order to carry out that change, although that might not be the right place to find them - a very nice example of why hyphens, in the right situation, are very valid.

When you have worked with hyphens and domains what is the largest number of hyphens on an EMD you have worked on?

This has set off an interesting discussion in the office with the feeling that a domain with multiple hyphens is less trusted by the majority here when they appear in the serps, therefore receiving less click-throughs.

In general do you think users have been educated to be suspicious of domains that appear long and and exact match with hyphens and that is why it is believed to be spammy by some?

The most I have worked on in regards to EMDs with hyphens is one and this dominated the SERPs for the targeted terms.

Do you think EMDs with multiple hyphens possibly set off alarm bells with Google in regard to over-optimization rather than efficient labelling of a resource online, in particular since Penguin?

[RobertFisher]

As to the how many is most (typically one or two, cant think of where we used three).

As to those of us who do this daily, I don't think we are a good group to ask because we get used to certain conventions. My experience is that we are ahead of a lot of non hyphen domains in some tough verticals. But, we really bust it with all SEO and try to be cutting edge. (May not have as much to do with hyphens, if anything).

Suspicious users. Maybe in the past. But with the growth of the last five years, I would think it is much less a factor.

With Google, I just do not believe it is a factor, but am willing to be wrong. Again, they are out there everyday and short of going to .whatever, it is easier to use exact match with hyphens at times. Now, if EMD becomes a non-issue, so will hyphens.

We are going into a new area with a client over the weekend and I went in and bought every .com, .net, .info, .org with hyphen and non hyphen today. There were two .coms and a .net missing around roughly 40 root domain permutations. I look forward to the day I can just brand the domain/sub-domain and not make a registrar rich.

Best,

All the best,

[Matt-Williamson]

I completely agree with the fact that those of us that do this everyday aren't the best to ask in regards to this, though our office is a mixed bunch, not all marketeers.

In general I have noticed that more and more users that I have come across are becoming more aware of what they are clicking on in the SERPs. They are filtering results based on their own judgments, not just trusting the search engines as they may have done in the past. Though as you say with the growth of the last five years there is probably one hell of a lot of people that trust in the SERPs whatever they serve for a query. In relation to this suspicion; I think page titles and descriptions influence this more than EMDs.

It would be an interesting study to see the impact of hyphens(the amount) in EMDs and their click through rates from the SERPs.

As we have both attested, though, we have had success with EMD with hyphens, though this is obviously down to many factors in relation to SEO strategy we have employed, not just a good domain.

Thanks for your input it is very valuable.

Here is to the day that we don't have to make a domain registrar rich!

[RobertFisher]

As to:

Here is to the day that we don't have to make a domain registrar rich!

As an old Marine, we have a saying in that proud group that really applies:

COPY THAT! (A Big I agree) especially with regard to a certain daddy that sucks rocks in Arizona, USA and has girls as his spokes persons...