Rankings of Subdomains vs. Main Domain

[Prospector-Plastics]

Here's a puzzler...

Our main domain (www.ides.com) doesn't appear in Google (but does on Bing and other engines). We think this is due to duplicate content which we're fixing.

However our website's subdomains continue to appear prominently in SERPs, even on Google - here are some examples:

• IDES Prospector = prospector.ides.com
• IDES =  support.ides.com
• Cycolac FR15 = catalog.ides.com

Why would Google penalize a main domain and its subdomains?

[JarnoNijzing]

Nathan,

i just checked it but Google has listed your website:

https://www.google.nl/#hl=nl&tbo=d&output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=site:www.ides.com&oq=site:www.ides.com&gs_l=hp.3...9155.10216.0.10588.6.6.0.0.0.0.83.379.6.6.0...0.0...1c.1.-joJ_MSKy4Q&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=9fb3527bfa81f7c4&bpcl=39650382&biw=1366&bih=600

If you were truly penalized i don't think i would get the results I'm getting now. Have you checked your robots.txt file for any strange markings? strange signs or number sequences? When i look at it  it looks like this:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /ArtScape/
Disallow: /aspnet_client/
Disallow: /costmate/CMHelp.aspx
Disallow: /demos/eplasturgy/
Disallow: /downloads/
Disallow: /email/
Disallow: /grades/
Disallow: /graveyard/
Disallow: /Gulf_War/
Disallow: //info/manufacturers/
Disallow: /LanapCaptcha.aspx
Disallow: /plasticsmarketplace/(S
Disallow: /processors/
Disallow: /PWeb
Disallow: /pweb/
Disallow: /news/
Disallow: /newsletters/archive/
Disallow: /newsletters/free/
Disallow: /newsletters/x5/
Disallow: /questions/
Disallow: /registration/
Disallow: /resinpricing/history.aspx
Disallow: /templates/
Disallow: /tools/CMHelp.aspx
Disallow: /thunderstone/
Disallow: /Web_Solutions.html
Sitemap: http://app.wistia.com/sitemaps/8875.xml
User-agent: ia_archiver
Disallow: /

Maybe this last statement is confusing Google? i have never seen a ia_archiver disallow root statement before. Is it the right syntaxis?

What are your webmastertools saying? Any strange errors or messages?

Kind Regards

Jarno

[Prospector-Plastics]

Thanks Jarno,

Good to know from your geographic location. Looking at analytics shows traffic is down about 60% from Google visits originating from the U.S. to our main domain.

The last ia_archiver blocks an archiving website - saw it in Bruce Clay's robots.txt (http://www.bruceclay.com/robots.txt).

But we are looking at cleaning up our robots.txt file so it's nice 'n tidy. There are things in there that can now be removed, so thank you for the reminding tip!

No errors in Google Webmaster. Did receive a message on Nov. 5th saying http://www.ides.com/: Big traffic change for top URL but no reasons listed.

[JarnoNijzing]

Maybe the robots problem fixes everything for you. I hope it does.

I always use the same kind of robots.txt -> as short as possible and as clear as possible. Archives and everything are allowed and so far (knocking on a piece of natural wood) never has something like this occurred. Again hope this helps your site

kind regards

Jarno