[Need advice!] A particular question about a subdomain to subfolder switch

[ummaterial]

Hello Moz Community!

I really was hoping to get your help on a issue that is bothering me for a while now. I know there is a lot of about this topic but I couldn’t find a good answer for my particular question.

We are running several web applications that are similar but are also different from each other. Right now, each one has its own subdomain (which was mainly due to technical reasons).

Like this: webapp1.rootdomain.com, webapp2.rootdomain.com etc.

Our root domain currently points with 301 to webapp1.rootdomain.com.

Now, we are thinking about making two changes:

1. changing to a subfolder level like this: rootdomain.com/webapp1 , rootdomain.com/webapp2 etc.
2. Changing our rootdomain to a landing page (lisitng all the apps) and take out the 301 to webapp1

We want to do these changes mainly for SEO reasons. I know that the advantages are not so clear between subdomain/subfolder but we think it could be the right way to go to push the root domain and profit more from juice passing to the different apps.

The problem is that we had a bad experience when we first switched from our first wep app (rootdomain.com) to an subdomain (webapp1.rootdomain.com) to set them equal with the other apps. Our traffic dropped a lot and it took us 6 weeks to get back on the same level as before. Maybe it was the 301 not passing all juice or maybe it was the switch to the subdomain. We are not sure.

So, I guess my question is do you think it is the right thing to do for web apps to go with subfolders to pass more juice from root to subfolders? Will it bring again huge drops in traffic once we make that change? Is it worth taking that risk or initial drop because it will pay off in the future?

Thanks a lot in advance! Your answers would help me a lot.

[DSM_UK]

Hi,

Whereas I can agree that having the webapps in the same domain WILL help push the root domain, I also agree care will have to be taken as to how it is done.

For instance, you mentioned you will be changing your root domain to become a landing page, this automatically affect the traffic that will go to webapp1 as you are offering people the choice. Webapp1 traffic will decrease from the 100% (albeit 301) traffic.

Also ensure the subdomains are 301 to the /webapp folder, but this too will cause a leakage (initially) as juice will need to be passed from the subdomain to the root. Root domain traffic and content will increase though which is a positive.

Ensuring any newly moved page has an equivalent 301 there should be no need to lose traffic as the traffic is simply being redirected, but without knowing what specifically happened the first time, it is hard to advise what to avoid I'm afraid.

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Thanks a lot for the answer SMG. I really appreciate it.

The one thing that is special about our case is that we actually only need organic traffic on the individual apps not on the root domain. Therefore we mostly care about the strength of the individual apps. I simply assume that a lot of people will link the landing page (rootdomain.com). So, with a subfolder system I hope to get more juice from the root domain to the apps and also that app1 for example can better support app2 with a better distribution of the root domain strength.

Well, I guess there might be no other way than to try it. If anyone else has another opinion I would love to hear it before I make the changes tomorrow.