What's better for SEO?

[amplify]

Assuming I owned CakeRecipes.com.

"Cake recipes" gets 135K global searches a month, "chocolate cake recipes" gets 22K, "easy cake recipes" gets 9K a month and "carrot cake recipes" gets 12K.

Which URLs would be better for SEO purposes and why:

cakerecipes.com/chocolate-cake-recipes
cakerecipes.com/easy-cake-recipes
cakerecipes.com/carrot-cake-recipes

-or-

chocolate.cakerecipes.com
easy.cakerecipes.com
carrot.cakerecipes.com

Thanks in advanced!

[draggar]

Subdomains are looked at as separate domains by search engines which will hurt overall SEO.

Use subfolders and they'll all contribute to the overall site's search results.

But, I would go with:

cakerecipes.com/chocolate/
cakerecipes.com/easy/
cakerecipes.com/carrot/

The other way seems a but redundant IMO (plus this way is easier to remember).

[amplify]

Subdomains are looked at as separate domains by search engines which will hurt overall SEO.

What if each page was built unique with a different theme?

Would this catch more surfers than the /chocolate /easy /carrot method?

Would G eventually catch on and rank it lower?

[stock_post]

Title of the page is the one that matters.
not the folder structure

[amplify]

Title of the page is the one that matters.
not the folder structure

Don't the links play a role in SEO as well? If not, why are so many sites using it?

In fact, this site uses it also (/whats-better-search-engine-optimization-thread-408647.html)

[draggar]

Relevant folder names can help, page names help, almost everything can help.

But in the end - good and original content is king.

Frequent updates also help. Don't throw everything in at once. Throw in maybe 1/3 to 1/2 (or more if you have a lot) of your content in the beginning so you have a good foundation then add 1-2 a week afterwards.

Incoming links from high PR sites is good, also (directories, blogs, etc..).

[amplify]

Ok, thanks. I'll use the /chocolate method then.

One last question: if my generic typo is older than the real name (in this instance cakrecipes.com as opposed to cakerecipes.com), could it outrank the real name?

[Arizal]

when it comes to ranking just due to your domain name you will rank exactly for it and just for it, no variations. However, for little typos there might be some degree of tolerance, but this ought to work only when a user mistypes the phrase but you own the correct spelled domain.

slight variations like having CakeRecipe.com might rank also for [cake recipes] - and vice versa - given there is no other publisher with an active website.

The rest of ranking is pure SEO work, you might notice that for credit www.experian.com ranks first, not credit.com

however, I would be interested in different/further experiences!

Regards
Arizal

[amplify]

slight variations like having CakeRecipe.com might rank also for [cake recipes] - and vice versa - given there is no other publisher with an active website.

So Cakerecipe.com may outrank Cakerecipes.com for [cake recipes]? It all just depends on the content?

[Arizal]

of course it can when one has the better SEO strategy. Having the keyword in the domain name gives you a push, having an exact matching domain name with the extension .com/.net/.org gives you a damn big push, but it's by no means a free ticket to spot number 1 (this depends also on the competition of course).

do you really do sites about recipes? we might have a chat about this very special niche. I like it.

[amplify]

I nabbed a generic typo of a developed recipe site that I wish to develop. I was wondering if the generic typo can outrank the real deal. It supposedly has quite a few type-ins a month, but would like to capture at least 5 times more through search engines by adding content.

I bought it by pure accident thinking I landed a gold-mine name for so cheap (don't drink & domain) but want to make the best of it by developing it. This is the first recipe site I will do, but if all goes well, I might go into the food niche as it is relatively easy to update recipes.

For a typo, should the content on the website have the typo or have the real name? If you have cakrecipes.com would the title Cake Recipes be better than Cak Recipes? I would only assume putting up Cake Recipes would draw attention away from the fact that the user misspelled the domain/search as well. How would that play out with the [cak recipes] search though?

[Arizal]

Honestly, that's a good question and goes somewhat beyond my experience as I never messed with typo domains.

Nevertheless, I can say the following:
If there is already a well developed site having the same name and you just have another TLD extension ranking is still easy but outranking the other domain is hard (you will need the same link juice as the other site/and or better content).

I would not try to build a site around a typo (i.e. offering Cac Recipes). Google corrects them anyhow and it might be considered as domain spamming. Better go for the real name of the recipe and just handle your site as you had the correct spelled domain. If the other site has some traffic you might grab some of it and nevertheless you might rank with some good links and content (and time).If the typo is not to ridiculous you might just add it to your site name such as CAC cake recipes , cake recipes offered by CAC (this sounds stupid, but maybe you find some opportunity). Built a funny logo explaining the typo, something like that. Let it look legitimate and credible

When you get on bottom of page 1 at Google and the search volume for that phrase is about > 10 k the domain should pay for itself, including Hosting.

If somebody has more experience with content building/ ranking for typo domains, I am waiting for news, too

[amplify]

I would not try to build a site around a typo (i.e. offering Cac Recipes). Google corrects them anyhow and it might be considered as domain spamming. Better go for the real name of the recipe and just handle your site as you had the correct spelled domain. If the other site has some traffic you might grab some of it and nevertheless you might rank with some good links and content (and time).If the typo is not to ridiculous you might just add it to your site name such as CAC cake recipes , cake recipes offered by CAC (this sounds stupid, but maybe you find some opportunity). Built a funny logo explaining the typo, something like that. Let it look legitimate and credible

It's not a missed letter, it was just an example. It's a very convincing typo and even if I didn't have a slight buzz, I might have bid on it anyway. I was researching the searches and as I did that, I was spelling it correctly. It has 22K exact searches for the correct name but only 1K for the typo. Either way, it has a decent amount searches and type-ins. I think it would be good for minisite development with what they came for in the beginning to offer.

[Arizal]

Sounds charming, especially when the typo is convincing and has alone for itself 1k exact searches. I would go for it with a mini site, name the site properly and in the footer I would put a kind of
Copyright, 2009 - 2010 TYPO here • All rights reserved

And if you use wordpress I would name the Blog correct, do the footer thing and in the tag line of the blog I would integrate the typo again, like

Cake Recipes
- brought to you by CacRecipes.com

Footer: Copright Cac Recipes, your Site for Cake Recipes

[NeeJam]

Subdomains are viewed as seperate websites.

Also folder names aren't really that important, titles are more important than them in terms of ranking.

[Banned: adonivideo]

the subs should do better if the linking is done right, plus since they are individual domains, you should get credit for back links to your own stuff, maybe not with google but yahoo and bing, example

link on home of keyword.com to sub1.keyword.com showing sub1 + keyword in title and text is a very strong exact match link

in your example diet.cakerecipes.com compared to cakerecipes.com/diet

the sub gets all the exact match values, whereas the directory would have to be cakerecipes.com/dietcakerecipes

so the SE's algorith will rate the sub as a better value in exact url matches, the keyword is a level 3 match and the sub is a level 4 match and the directories are irrelevant

www. is level 1
.com/net/org/etc is level 2
keyword (.tld) is level 3
sub.(keyword.tld) is level 4

so 100% the sub has more value

now the highest value would be to have subkeyword.com without the sub actually being a sub

so exact match level 3 is almost a direct page 1 serp unless you kill the site with something the SE's ignore (like frank schilling does)

so if you are trying to figure out what do SE's value more

100%

subkeyword.com top value
sub.keyword.com next in line
keyword.com/sub last in line

first example is exact match level 3
2nd is exact match combo level 3 and level 4
3rd is irrelevant

now you hear all this well the subs are not giving credit to the main keyword.com

so

you have 100 subs, all with anchor links to the keyword.com

if they're really 100 different sites, then right there major seo pop since you have 100 different domains (all subs) linking back to keyword.com

so without one link from an external site you have 100 backlinks

now some say subs over X amount get ignored

not true, different content will be indexed

you can search google for domains with many subs

when you see pages of indexed subs the claims over X are ignored are shown to be wrong

I'd get as many matching sub.keywords as I could to have mates

sub.keyword.com and subkeyword.com/net/org/few others

so then I would be a daisy chain of sites all interrelated

get a class C and a server and you have 100 or so class C pops all hitting the anchor

oh, use privacy to stealth the new google whois sniffer

google isn't really that 'advanced' if you understand how it rates stuff

what they're trying to patent (whois sniffers and other stuff) etc

so a nice keyword like cakerecipes.com with lots of subs and mated to sister .com's and .nets could rule that keyword and all the catgories

this is basically why a name like insurance.com sold for so much

keyword.com is a natural for subbing and mating with catkeywords.com

category subs with mates in .com and other high value tld's like net/org

will make the algorithm at google hum


wow look at all these exact phrase .com's and .net's linking to the subs on the root keyword of that industry

exact match .com's are GOLD

subs have more value than directories in the SE's algorithm and all the jive about well it's not on the main site, so what, it's another site with back links to the anchor site

is that a bad thing?

I don't think so

and a directory is not a level 4 value asset

so keyword .com is the highest value and catkeyword.com or subkeyword.com is a better value in the algorithm than the sub or the directory

so

level 3 exact matches is top value
subs next
directories last

now if anyone wants to show me info about a directory being more valuable than a level 4 sub with examples to PROVE IT, then as far as I am concerned a level 4 sub will always rate higher with a SE for name value than any directory

very few people are even aware that's how the whole net map is valueed

www.=level 1
.tld = level 2
keyword.tld = level 3
sub.keyword.tld = level 4

but that's the exact algorithm all the SE's use

it's why exact match urls can pop the SEs so easily

unless you kill them with stuff they can't read, like schilling does

[junosama]

Yeah avoid the subdomains. Have a unique html page for each type. Would prob be good to use WordPress as the content management system and then each of those could be a category.

[rush123456]

One of my biggest takeaways from the mozcon 2011 conference was not to use sub domains, rather use sub folders.

[junosama]

I would probably go with cakerecipes.com/easy-cake-recipes and use similar keywords for other categories such as healthy, fast and have recipes under each of those categories. Don't use subdomains.

[stewie]

interesting info