Ask HN: Unique domain or subdomain? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Unique domain or subdomain?

15 pointsmaguay18 comments

I'm wanting to launch some micro-sites that cover niche topics, and am trying to decide if I should get a unique domain for each or just run them as subdomains off my main site. The only difference would be the URL, as the sites will all be running on WordPress 3.0 multisite. What are your thoughts on this? Any difference for my main site and the new sub-sites with SEO on subdomains versus unique domains?

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Why use subs over directories? If you really want to build a site and brand as well as have your hard work pay off I recommend directories over either option.

From an SEO and link popularit standpoint you will only have to worry about a single domain and all of the link building you do will benefit the site over all. With subs you need to treat each sub as a unique URL from a link popularity standpoint making your SEO efforts that much more work.

From a marketing perspective again directories feel like the better way to go. If you are building a single brand and not differentiating the products greatly other than by subject matter then directories again feel like a better way to go.

Generally I recommend subs for areas of a site that you don't want to have indexed and don't want to worry about natural search for.

As far as unique domains unless you want to operate a network of sites you would just be creating a lot more work for yourself than is probably worth it in the begining.

Well, I was thinking of having the sites feel more unique. E.g. different themes, content style. Sortof like how the Envato network of sites are all similar but unique.

So, in your opinion, would it seem too odd to visitors if Techinch.com looks entirely different than Techinch.com/apps? Would apps.techinch.com feel better if the site style is totally different? That said, I plan to get a more homogeneous overall theme by spring...

From an SEO point of view, I completely agree with solost - using subfolders like techinch.com/apps is much stronger than subdirectories or individual sites - especially if the topics are all relatively connected.

I'm not entirely sure how easy it is to do and it would take a bit of hacking with your Wordpress template, but as a compromise you could look at having each category page (so /apps, /widgets, /whatever) have it's own background image - although I imagine completely different themes or very different styles could be a bit of a nightmare.

What I ended up doing is creating http://techinch.com/apps with a full new WordPress install. Currently the main site and the new /apps site are running fully different themes, but I plan to bring them together with a customized WooThemes Canvas next year.

We'll see how it goes!

Taking a quick look, I think the experience is okay. While things are different they are not so radically different as to make me feel uncomfortable as a user.

I am not sure if this is the approach I would take, I very much like the homepage theme, however I am certain you have reason why you are doing what you are.

Good luck and keep us up to date.

Hmm ... so you would think it would be better to just keep adding more diverse topics to the main home page? Or you like the main theme and would use it on the sub-site?

What I'm thinking is that by having niche sites, I can feature a nice-designed app per day in a small post in a small post without swamping my main content. Similar to Greatwebapps.com ... and I hope to do a network of sorts of sites like that eventually. But, I'm not certain it's a good approach.

And, by the way, the content on techinch.com/apps is just filler test stuff, and is in no way the stuff I plan to use once it's publicly live.

Thanks for your suggestions ... I really appreciate them.

If you're optimizing for SEO, you want unique domains for each one. Google gives a special bonus for searches on .com/.net/.org domains. So if you get bananapeelcompost.com for your new site on that topic, you'll pick up a big SEO boost for people looking for "banana peel compost" on Google.

The downside compared to subdomains is of course the cost of the domains (shouldn't be too high if you're not a spammer), and the extra administrative cost.

Read http://www.kalzumeus.com/category/seo/ for more details on the exact topic you're looking into - he has successfully built microsites and written on the topic.

If the viewers and/or pageviews or what not are going to be aggregated for the purpose of ad sales, or traffic projections for selling the sites to an acquirer, I would go with a single domain with subdomains. It is a much simpler, easier story for everyone to understand and builds the main brand so much better.

Been there done that on separate domains. Won't do it again.

Sounds good, and in general was what I was thinking, but wanted some input. I would prefer to build my main site's brand, so very good points. Thanks for the input!

After all the thought and consideration, I honestly think I'm going to go with a unique domain and do separate sections off this. I'm trying to do something totally different than my main site, eventually hoping for some synergy between the two, but for now, I think this will be better. Somehow it just doesn't seem right doing mysite.com/somethingelse when the second section is totally different.

So, plan from here: get a new domain, something that I can use with multiple sites. I'm thinking something about "one a day" or "something per day" ... any ideas? Then, I'll have apps.newsite.com, whatever_niche.newsite.com, etc.

Thoughts?

And by the way, I'll still be taking the advice on sub-sites ... just those will be with more similar content. At least that's what I'm thinking now. Thank you so much everyone for your help ... HN is awesome!

I think most, if not all, of the answers you get will be opinions. While clearly a unique domain would be ideal for identity, I think the SEO benefits are very little if any.

Look at the number of successful services that give you just a simple subdomain, including Google services like Blogger.

Very true. And, building the main site's brand is what I'd really like to see overall. So I'm thinking of doing short subdomains (apps.techinch.com), and it should make sense, be easy enough to look up and remember, and get the Techinch name out there more.

Thanks for the input!

Subdomains are ok seo wise. However Google Webmaster allows some operations only for top level domains. The change domain feature comes specifically to my mind.

Quick poll: Which one sounds better as an iOS app gallery/review site/subsite?

- apps.techinch.com

- ios.techinch.com

- mobile.techinch.com

- something else?

- the techinch.com/whatever version of the above?

And thanks all for the input!

If it's iOS only, "ios" would certainly make sense. However, I would suspect more iOS users are searching for "apps" or "iPhone apps". So I'd go with "apps"; plus in the future you can add categories for more platforms as the need arises.

Good point. It'll be iPhone/iPod Touch apps for now, but definitely want to expand if it grows at all.

I have some domains which I wanted to use for a similar purpose but I don't need them after all: iosgame.com, ios-game.com, iosgame.net, iosgamer.com, iosgamers.com, ios-games.com, iosgames.net. I can give you them.

Thanks for the offer ... very generous of you. I'm actually not planning on covering games much, as I'm not much of a gamer. I'm aiming at covering well-designed productivity and design apps, perhaps some games and fun apps as well but that won't be the focus. Thanks anyhow!

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