Domains vs Subdomains for similar brands.

[RemarkableAgency]

Hi all!

I work for a company who have 6 different brands in the same industry targeted at different demographics. Some of them have a lot of history and are well known and respected, others are newer targeted at different price points/ types of people. I've been asked to input on there ongoing web strategy; should they use sub domains or individual branded domains.

Previously that had separate brand domains but a new MD wanted to bring everything together into one website. The branded domains were redirected to the new site and it has been going along fine, albeit having lost 1/3rd or so organic traffic. Now a new management team has been brought in and they want to re-structure the website again to put more focus on the brands. Any new website will be on a brand new domain anyway as they are also re branding their main website.

What will work better, separate branded domains or sub domains of one website?

From what I understand, SEO won't be much different between the two options, but it feels like the bigger historical brands should have individual websites purely from a branding perspective.

Thanks for any input!

[Nozzle]

If the idea is to put more focus on the brands, I would roll them out onto their own separate branded domains.

Especially since they have different price points and demographics, it doesn't seem like you want a visitor of one demographic/price point being able to click to the other subdomains to see info for another demographic/price point.

[Chris.Menke]

RA, my opinion--from a visitor perspective, I'm not a fan of the subdomain route.