Help me understand subdomains.

[twells22]

How do they work with google? I see some sites getting ranked high by using subdomains. For example, say the words being searched are "red barn door". The site that comes up first is red.barndoor.com

Does it work too by doing something like for the keywords "video games" and naming your site vid.eogames.com?

[Mind]

I do not know about Google and subdomains but for "vid.eogames.com" it definitely do not works. How do you expect Google to know that you mean exactly "video games". They still do not read peoples minds.

[twells22]

Little sarcastic but ok. It reads the minds of red.door.com so I didn't think vi.deogames.com was that big of a difference.

[KING dot NET]

Little sarcastic but ok. It reads the minds of red.door.com so I didn't think vi.deogames.com was that big of a difference.

Google is not dumb to pass this subdomain but one way to find out, try it your self.

Cheers.

[draggar]

Google views subdomains as a separate domain as the main one.

red.barndoor.com would be a completely separate site (and domain) than barndoor.com in the eyes of Google. While it might be good for typing in, you may want to go with barndoor.com/red and maybe forward red.barndoor.com to the folder.

Unless they can hold their own or it is meant to be a separate site, I wouldn't bother with subdomains.

[Domainx09]

Google would see vid.eogames as vid eo games & it would see video.games as video games

[tekz999]

how about video-gam.es, will google knows it? God knows. Why not ask their support for the best answer?

[Domainx09]

?...would see it as video gam

[Mind]

Google will try to see what is natural word split using "-" "." to split and also some kind of statistical algorithm for compound words.

[Arragon]

well no opinion for this one, but you can try it for yourself. The best test is to do it yourself and stop listening to anyone since SEO got ways too much of opinions and no one can tell you exactly since We are not Google

[Gerry]

I recently read a blog that defined it and made great sense.

Google reads it according to what comes first:

barndoor.com
red.barndoor.com

But it is dependent upon the search terms entered.

barndoor
red barndoor
red barndoor paint
paint, barndoor
barndoor red paint

According to the article, google will search for exact term AS ENTERED first. And this made great sense according to the article and actual examples given.

This is the value of long tail searches and domains. The search does not stop nor is it limited to just the generic word

barn
barn door
red barn door
red barn door paint
red barn door paint color
red barn door paint color retailer
red barn door paint color retailer local

All those things that could help define the search are valuable. That is why not only are metatags important in the search terms but those same metatags are good as subdomains.

Example:

I own Local Seafood dot net.
I have not built a site yet.

It is generic enough in that this term is not specific to place.

Now I have endless possibilities

Virgina.LocalSeafood . net
NC.
NorthCarolina
SC
SouthCarolina
Tokyo
Maine
SouthCarolina
Michigan
Seattle
Venice
Sardinia

I can get as broad or as narrow and specific as I want.

It is actually pretty exciting when you think about it. This demonstrates the enormous worth of a generic or a non specific locale domain.

Why have 2012LondonUKOlympicTickets.tld?
When OlympicTickets.tld is

Non Geo specific
Non Year specific
Non Seasonal specific

Therefore, what I like to call "no shelf life". OlympicTickets can be used for any year, any location, and for Summer, Winter, and Special Olympics and Handicapped Olympics.

This is lessons learned early mistakes in domaining. In the early 1990's a client of mine wanted a web site for his team and drivers. We knew what a web site was but had no idea how it worked. As for "what name do you want your web site to be?" question, the response "lets see what you can come up with" ended up with us regging 265 domains, if I am not mistaken.

We didn't know what the hell we were doing in terms of webvertising. We sure as hell knew how to make comps, illustrations, specs etc. We did not care because all billables was passed on to clients. I believe we were paying 49.99 per domain or it may have even been 99.99. I do remember it was a company out of Virginia USA.

Anyways, That gives you an idea of how valuable a good keyrich term can be and add on subdomains. You save a ton of money to define your product or brand and draw more people in.

[Dale Hubbard]

Subdoms are okay, but draggar is right IMHO and they are treated by Google as completely separate domains. That's fine, and you can work a little SEO with it, but I think one rule is never interlink them.

I own a generic like this; engineers .net, so when I first acquired it, I was excited at the possibilty of sundomming it like:

hvac.engineers
electrical.engineers
structural.engineers
etc.

The fact is that each subdom needs to be built like it was a completely separate site. Or at least that's how I read it.

[Gerry]

Subdoms are okay, but draggar is right IMHO and they are treated by Google as completely separate domains. That's fine, and you can work a little SEO with it, but I think one rule is never interlink them.

I own a generic like this; engineers .net, so when I first acquired it, I was excited at the possibilty of sundomming it like:

hvac.engineers
electrical.engineers
structural.engineers
etc.

The fact is that each subdom needs to be built like it was a completely separate site. Or at least that's how I read it.

I have not attempted this yet.

But I wonder if you could build a "site" just basically nothing and have it redirect to your primary site.

In theory, yes you are building additional sites capturing the searches but all pointing to the one spot.

I have always loved the name, engineers . net and you often use it in your examples.

To me that is a gem.

When will you drop it?

[Dale Hubbard]

Doc, thanks for the comment. Here's the problem: The domain is TOO generic. It's a real puzzle to me what to do with it, to be frank. Regged until 2016

[Gerry]

Doc, thanks for the comment. Here's the problem: The domain is TOO generic. It's a real puzzle to me what to do with it, to be frank. Regged until 2016

Transfer over to me and I will reimburse your reg fees.

Hmm. Too generic.

I will have to put my pointy aluminum foil cap on and hook it up to my car battery to see what I can come up with. Sometimes shock therapy is a great high. Tests your pain tolerance levels. Kind of like someone trying to read thru my posts.

Have you done anything to it relating to education?

Many specialities are paying HUGE PPC as they relate to education.

Perhaps

degree.engineer
degrees.engineers
university.engineers
studentloans.engineers

Even though they are listed as subdomains, these are very good keywords for some education related searches. There is a big emphasis on retraining.

[Dale Hubbard]

Check the keyword competition and bids Doc.

[Gerry]

Check the keyword competition and bids Doc.

studentloan consolidation $35.24

down to 10 bucks student loan help

[Dale Hubbard]

But not as as a subdomain unless built right out? I haven't looked...

[Gerry]

But not as as a subdomain unless built right out? I haven't looked...

Try it as keywords if parked.

[AngelDough]

sub-domains work very well for SEO but not like vi.edo.com - more like:

makeup.laurenhutton.com
money.cnn.com
seo.primevisibility.com

make sense?

By having a 'holy grail' keyword before your domain name helps for gaining organic rankings....it also allows you to gain more than 2 rankings in search results....so you might get 4 organic rankings instead of 2...

Hope this helps...