Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Hi all!

With a coleague we were arguing about what is better: Having a subdomain or a directory.
Let me explain some more, this is about the cases:

• Having a multi-language site: Where en.domain.com or es.domain.com rather than domain.com/en/ or domain.com/es/
• Having a Mobile and desktop version: m.domain.com or domain.com rather than domain.com/m or just domain.com.
• Having multiple location websites, you might figure.

The dicussion started with me saying: Its better to have a directory site. 
And my coleague said: Its better to have a subdomain site.

Some of the reasons that he said is that big companies (such as wordpress) are doing that. And that's better for the business.
My reasons are fully based on this post from Rand Fishkin: Subdomains vs. Subfolders, Rel Canonical vs. 301, and How to Structure Links for SEO - Whiteboard Friday

So, what does the community have to say about this?
Who should win this argue?

GR.

Hi Francois,

As Logan said, the problem comes when the whole site has short content issue.

I might ask, if that post is ranking well, why dont you edit it and creat some valuable content? Google loves when re-editing and improving your content.

Hope it helps.
GR.

Hi there,

Remember that google always seeks to serve the a better user experience.
Technically, the XML sitemap is the one needed for crawlers. And the "human-readable" sitemap is focused on users.
I might be saiyng something obvious, that's the way i've understood it.

The benefit of the "human-readable" sitemap shuld be in the part of user experience, Google might see it that way. 
As a visitor, I find usefull that kind of sitemap, it gives you a quick overview of the siite and make your way to the final page faster.

Hope it helps.
GR.

Hi Becky,

Keep it as simple as possible. Remember that the better experience the user has, the better chance to make it a returning customer and google loves user experience.

Here, some information that might help you decide the best:
The Impact of Usability and User Experience - Moz Beginners guide User Experience (UX) - Moz Blog category

Hope it helps.
GR.

Hi Jamie

I think that you've answered the question yourself:

• With the branded and with less traffic you rank well.
• With the other, there is a big chance to get much more traffic that with the other keyword.

My advice, focus on both keywords, but put mor effort on increasing the SERPs on the high traffic keyword. for example: 70-30.
Remember that for the "small" keyword you already rank well.

Hope it helps.
GR

Hi Pervaiz,

The redirection 301 that you're planning to do might improve your SEO.

On one hand, you must be certain that those 400 links that are in the old domain have some quality and are good for your main site.
I do recommend you to check them over somt platmforms, like OSE or Ahrefs.

On the other hand, in my experience making redirections like that were a pain. Remember that the momento that you set the redirect 301, all the links will be pointing to you URL, that makes a ton of new links to the final URL. I may be something that causes harm to your linkbuilding history.

Hope it helps.
GR.

I agree with Peter.

But, I believe that you have the problem that your tags are indexing and shouldn't be. Check out the config in the YOAST plugin and check to non-index.
This is the YOAST Tutorial: LINK.

Hope it helps.
GR

Hi Luis,

I se that you have some issue with the linkbuilding you've been doing. I've done some backlinks check in Ahref and OSE. There are links that have no conection and some that are in chinese/japanese language.
Even more, you're having other issue that is related to some spam/malware in your site. Just make a quick search on google.com like this: 
site:www.petsinportrait.com, over page 2 you will find that problem.

Have you ever done a SERP competitor analysis ? Have you used the MOZ Keyword Difficulty Tool?

For further learning, there you have some other blog posts that expands the topic.

Advanced Local SEO Competition Analysis - Moz Blog
Competitor Analysis for Linkbuilding: A Guide for People who Hate Linkbuilding - Moz Blog
Conquer Your Competition with these Three Moz Tools - Next Level - Moz Blog
The Illustrated SEO Competitive Analysis Workflow - Moz Blog
Competitive Analysis in Under 60 Seconds Using Google Docs - Moz Blog

Hope it helps.
GR

Hi Trevor,

Personaly I find a little bit useless the links that come from shortened URLs. Even they are a 301 redirect, the linkjuice they transmit is diminished.

For a futher read and understanding, here you have some info:

The Benefits And Pitfalls of URL Shorteners - Moz Blog
URL Shorteners. Are they SEO Friendly? - Moz Q&A
DO URL SHORTENERS IMPACT YOUR SEO? Google Clarifies URL Shortening’s Impact on SEO - Search Engine Journal Do link shortening services such as http://bit.ly hurt SEO? - QUORA

Hope it helps.
GR

Hi,

How old are the pages that you are tracking? Have you considered that SERPs will fluctuate for a few weeks since google indexed them?
Also, you should take into consideration that January has been a really windy month in the SERPs, that's because there have been many updates on the Google Algorithm.
Check them out here:
Google Algorithm Change History - Moz.com
Algaroo.com
Mozcast.com

You should also take consideration, as you've said, that your pages aren't optimized over SEO. 
I'd recommend you that learn about the major updates that have been over january and analize wether your site may be not suitable for google to rank you better.

Hope it helps.
GR

Hi Li.

Unfortunately I've not found a way to do that. But I strongly recommend you using pro services like Moz RankTracker or some serptrackers.
Personally I use SERPbook.com
Free stuff usualy comes with time consuming actions.

Hope it helps.
GR

Hi!

The question you're asking is about keyword optimization.
Those places that you mention are some of the parts where the main keywords shuold be placed.

I'd like to recommend you some extensive information, from the Moz blog and the moz learining side:
More than Keywords: 7 Concepts of Advanced On-Page SEO - Moz Blog A Visual Guide to Keyword Targeting and On-Page SEO - Moz Blog Title Tag - Moz.com

Hope it helps.

GR

Hi Pervaiz,

I do agree with Peter Nikolov.
For more information, I do strongly suggest you to learn and read a lot about the subjet. Here you have some blog posts and Q&A:

How Google Knows What Sites You Control And Why it Matters - Whiteboard Friday - Blog Moz.com
IPv6, C-Blocks, and How They Affect SEO - Blog Moz.com
the benefits from having a dedicated IP - Moz Q&A
Websites on same c class IP address - Moz Q&A

Hope it helps.
GR

Hi EGOL,

Yes I've done several 301's.
Many of them were over 2 years. And yes, they impacted on rankings. (even tough it's hard to say that was exactly because of the 301 because SEO actions were done too).

Hope it helps.
GR

Hi,

I do agree with Tymen. 
Im just commenting to add some resources for further readings and for learing more about the URL structure.

These are some blog and Q&A posts:

SEO Best Practice for URLs - Moz.com
15 SEO Best Practices for Structuring URLs - Moz Blog- Rand Fishkin
Wordpress Woocomerce Recommended SEO URL structure - Moz Q&A
URL Structure's Effect on SEO - Moz Q&A

Keep the hard work!
GR

Hi Peter,
The same have happend to me.
I'm really concernd about some fluctuations that are drivign my clients crazy

GR

Hi,

Yes, you need to do the 301's .

GR

Hi Steven,

The structure of the URLs is a question of matter to many people. Let me recommend you other 3 Q&A question that have concerns like yours.

Which URL structure should I use? - Moz Q&A
Optimizing an e-commerce website - Moz Q&A
Ecommerce question - overoptimisation - Moz Q&A

Hope its help full. Personally i don't think that there is a specific answer to what you're asking.

GR

Hi stephen,

The fluctuation in the SERPs is something normal at this point.You should know, that when you are appling SEO techniques to your site google takes some time to recognize that the site is increasing inn authority.
Mean while, the serps fluctuate a lot.

Let me refer you to other Q&A that have been aswered and have great answers:
Is this a google dance? - MOZ Q&A
Google Rankings Are Dancing What To Do?  - Moz Q&A

Also, I advice you to check wether your site is penalized with any algorithm, check more ifo here: 
Google Algorithm Change History - Moz.com

Hope it's helpful.
GR

Hi Tormar,

Remember that googles treats subdomains as an URL, separare from the main domain. What I mean:

acb.domain.com, domain.com and www.domain.com all three are different URLs for google, even more, are different web pages. So there isn't any specific optimization when it's about a subdomain.

My advice: Optimize it as is it a separate site from the main domain.

Hope it's helpful.
GR