Question

Topic: SEO/SEM

Using Subdomains For Seo

Posted by Anonymous on 7/11/2011 at 10:25 AM ET 250 Points

Being ignorant about SEO, I am afraid I do not know enough to pose my idea concisely. Aside from the lengthy explanation below, I suspect it is pretty easy to respond to. If not, let me know and I will offer more points on follow-up questions. My main question is:

1) If subdomains do, in fact, significantly help with SEO, is there a „right way“ and a „wrong way“ to load up on them? I would not want the Google algorithms to decide I was using overkill, and get hit with some kind of „Google slap.“

ASSUMPTIONS: My understanding is that if your domain name fits the search term entered into google, you will rank high on the search results. So if I were offering negotiation training and workshops in Munich,
and a keyword search on Google Analytics showed people were entering „negotiation seminars, Munich“, then a great domain to have would be www.negotiationseminars-munich.com (or .de,
for Germany.)

The .com domain for negotiation would be nice to have, but is, of course, long gone. My idea is instead to register www.negotiation with an UNUSUAL domain, perhaps one of a small country where the
word „negotiation“ is not yet taken. Germany has a local address requirement for the domain .de, but I have heard, correctly I hope, that many countries do not.
Alternatively, I could find a phrase with „negotiation“ in it, perhaps long gone with .com, but still available with .info, .pro, .org. or another not quite so
common as .com generic domain.

For example, let us say I can register www.negotiation.CG (the domain for the Republic of the Congo). Now my idea is to register subdomains, which
if my host were „1and1“ I can do for no additional charge, up to 200 of them. So I enter other common
keywords as subdomains, linking them all back to the main www.negotiation.CG, website.

Now if someone enters negotiation workshop, win/win negotiation, Verhandlung, getting-better-deals, and so forth from a German website, Google will bring him to one of the subdomain sites, because it matches his search term. Examples would be
www.workshop-munich.negotiation.cg,
www.Verhandlung-munich.negotiation.cg,
www.win-win.negotiation.cg
www.getting-better-deals.negotiation.cg

I add 50 or so combinations of words related to negotiation and with these 50 subdomains should have good SEO results, at least for a while. BOTTOM LINE - is this idea worth implementing? I suspect there is a catch to it, that I am overlooking something obvious to the expert.

The main website would have a lot of content and eventually a video on the landing page (a seperate SEO subject in of itself.)

Thanks for your feedback!

James



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  • Posted by mgoodman on 7/11/2011 at 3:31 PM Moderator
    Interesting idea, and great input from Kathleen. Thanks.

    The problem I have with the whole idea of SEO for newcomers in competitive categories is that it's usually not realistic to think that you'll be able to show up on one of the top 2 or 3 pages right away -- regardless of the domain name. There are just too many factors the search engines consider, and many of them depend on longevity/popularity.

    So the way your target audience is most likely going to find your site is through a link you provide them -- in an ad, a blog, direct mail/email, social medium, etc. Your position from natural search is totally irrelevant.

    The clever domain name only matters for SEO -- nothing more. So you better have a marketing plan to generate traffic while you're waiting to climb the ranks of natural search. It could take a while.
  • Posted on 7/14/2011 at 8:51 AM Author
    Kathleen and acourtin, thanks for the good answers, and especially for the explanation about sub-folders. This information is a great help. It will enable me to ask intelligent questions when I have a meeting with a firm (or individual) about providing SEO services to our company. (www.hubspot.com looks good, but I'd rather find a local, i.e. Munich, provider.)

    mgoodman - thank you also for responding, but want to award the points to the above two as being specifically useful for SEO. (Besides, you already have a zillion points!) I am familiar with "non-SEO" marketing, use Kotler, Jay Levinson and also Al Ries/Jack Trout when I teach it - although I certainly sometimes overlook the obvious and fail to practice what I preach.

    Will keep the question open for a bit to see if anything else surfaces and then close it July 19th or 20th.
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