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Thanks Matthew.

A subdomain isn't always considered a new site / domain in itself. In fact, other than blog platforms or websites that offer ugc subdomains, most subdomains seem to be closely correlated with the main domain by Google. There are many examples including the main domain taking a penalty, bringing all the subdomains down with it, or vice-versa. Or you can just search 'bodybuilding', and see how Google integrates subdomains into sitelinks, which is a clear sign that Google sees those subdomains as part of the same entity as the domain itself. Of course, to be safe, you should always try to opt for a folder option instead of a subdomain, since, as Rand put it: "Subdomains SOMETIMES inherit and pass link/trust/quality/ranking metrics between one another Subfolders ALWAYS inherit and pass link/trust/quality/ranking metrics across the same subdomain" If you have no option as setting it as a subfolder, the next best option is indeed a subdomain. A root domain is the worst option of the three.

You got it Jasmine. Nice one! Thank you.

Hi Matt, Thanks for the response and the information. Here's some answers of mine and more info: The domain contains no keywords and is a specialist, relatively unknown brand. The robots.txt file is still active—forgive me. It's just that for around 2 weeks after launch it was still disallowing indexing of any files and folders on the domain. In the search results for the Google UK search engine, I can't see the site appear anywhere in the first 10 pages when typing the domain.com as a query I've just now checked in the search results for the Google Brasil (it's a Brazilian company with a brazilian domain), and I can now see the homepage appear in the #1 position, but I cannot see any other pages ranking for the site until the 5th page of the SERPs. This is a new site with unique content - Why do you think that the UK search engine isn't picking anything up?  - Is it an issue that only the first position is showing a page for the domain being queried in the Brazilian search engine? I really appreciate your help in advance.

Thanks a lot for this, Robert. It really helps.

Thanks a lot, Ryan. This response was really helpful.