Question about domain name(s)

[DrMarie]

First of all I would like to say how impressed I am with the attitudes of people on this forum. All of the responses are so nice, helpful and not condescending at all! I have learned a lot so far!

I have a question about adding niches to my website. Let's say my main website is called mywebsite.com. I would like to add several small niches that are all in the same general theme, but each niche is more specific.

My gut instinct is to use a wordpress blog for each niche and and call it mywebsite.com/all-about-so-and-so-niche.

Or, would it be better to use subdomains so that it is called all-about-so-and-so-niche.mywebsite.com.

Or, should they all be separate websites called all-about-so-and-so-niche.com?[/url]

Any thoughts?

Thanks!
Marie

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Marie,

Welcome and thanks for the kind words! We try hard to keep this a positive and friendly place.

There are various ways to do it, but ideally if the niches are tightly related you want to keep everything on one domain.

You could have a single blog on the main domain that has your main keywords in it. Like myanimalplanet.com then each animal you post about could be in the main blog, but it would be organized by and things would be separated by category; cats, dogs, birds, etc. This COULD be best for readers AND for SEO if the categories are interrelated enough.

The other option if you want them separate would be subdomains.
dogs.myanimalplanet.com, cats.myanimalplanet.com, etc.

This would be good if the topics aren't as tightly related and you could have a better chance of getting each niche ranked higher in the search engines if they each had their own subdomain.

Does that help at all?

 

[DrMarie]

Thanks so much Linda!

Let's say I wanted to have a mini-site just for canine diabetes, and another mini-site for feline urinary tract disease, etc. I may have a forum on each section (i.e. a place where people can talk about their diabetic dogs) and then a review section (i.e. where I review diabetic supplies like glucometers, etc. and post affiliate links).

If that were the case, does it make sense to have a mini site called canine-diabetes.mysite.com and another called feline-urinary-tract-disease.mysite.com?

Is it better for SEO purposes to do it this way rather than all in one blog under the same site?

Thanks!

 

[DrMarie]

Oh, and one other question...let's see if I can word it right!

If I am doing subdomains...let's say for example, I buy the domain canine-diabetes.com. If I understand it right, I point that to canine-diabetes.mysite.com. That way, the stats for visitors, etc. count towards mysite.com and not just the subdomain site.

Does that make sense? Am I on the right track?

 

[DrMarie]

Oh, and one other question...let's see if I can word it right!

If I am doing subdomains...let's say for example, I buy the domain canine-diabetes.com. If I understand it right, I point that to canine-diabetes.mysite.com. That way, the stats for visitors, etc. count towards mysite.com and not just the subdomain site.

Does that make sense? Am I on the right track?

 

[djbaxter]

Hello from a fellow Ottawan, DrMarie! You can call be DrDave.

Let's say I wanted to have a mini-site just for canine diabetes, and another mini-site for feline urinary tract disease, etc. I may have a forum on each section (i.e. a place where people can talk about their diabetic dogs) and then a review section (i.e. where I review diabetic supplies like glucometers, etc. and post affiliate links).

If that were the case, does it make sense to have a mini site called canine-diabetes.mysite.com and another called feline-urinary-tract-disease.mysite.com?

Is it better for SEO purposes to do it this way rather than all in one blog under the same site?

It doesn't make as much difference as it used to from an SEO standpoint but there are other advantages to subdomains. If your plan is to have a blog and a forum for each mini-site, or even if you think you might want to do that later, I would recommend subdomains rather than folders. That way your main mini-site can be at canine-diabetes.mysite.com, your blog at canine-diabetes.mysite.com/blog/, and a forum at canine-diabetes.mysite.com/forum/. It will tend to focus everything within the same subdomain, rather than spreading those additional folders over the main domain.

Oh, and one other question...let's see if I can word it right!

If I am doing subdomains...let's say for example, I buy the domain canine-diabetes.com. If I understand it right, I point that to canine-diabetes.mysite.com. That way, the stats for visitors, etc. count towards mysite.com and not just the subdomain site.

Does that make sense? Am I on the right track?

No. If you use subdomains, you don't need to buy additional domain names at all and there's really minimal or no advantage to doing so. If you use the subdomain canine-diabetes.mysite.com, for example, your keywords are already there in the subdomain.

 

[DrMarie]

Hmmm....I am torn! I had bought a great domain name that fits my niche. I think it looks really neat to have (for example) canine-diabetes.com rather than canine-diabetes.thisisavetadvicewebsite.com as the url.

But, I noticed that when I had the subdomain under its own domain name it lost the PR and Alexa ranking of the original site.

So, please help me decide...it seems like there are more benefits of having this site as a simple subdomain (without a cool name). Does that make sense? Is there any reasonable advantage to having the site under its own name?

Once again, thank you for helping me to understand! I'm sure this is just the first of MANY questions as I venture into affiliate marketing.

Marie

 

[djbaxter]

Hmmm....I am torn! I had bought a great domain name that fits my niche. I think it looks really neat to have (for example) canine-diabetes.com rather than canine-diabetes.thisisavetadvicewebsite.com as the url.

But, I noticed that when I had the subdomain under its own domain name it lost the PR and Alexa ranking of the original site.

1. If you use a proper 301 redirect, you will see a drop in those bstats initially but give it a few weeks to a couple of months and they will transfer to the new domain/URL .

2. Is thisisavetadvicewebsite.com the actual name of your current site? That's not very search engine friendly,

So, please help me decide...it seems like there are more benefits of having this site as a simple subdomain (without a cool name). Does that make sense? Is there any reasonable advantage to having the site under its own name?

3. What sort of hosting do youi have currently? Linux/Unix vs. Windows IIS? Shared hosting? VPS? Dedicated?

The best answer will depend on your answers to these questions.

 

[DrMarie]

Thanks so much for your help!

1. So, if I understand you correctly, I use a 301 redirect to direct info from (e.g.) canine-diabetes.com to canine-diabetes.mysite.com?

2. No...that is not my site name! It is actually askavetquestion.com

3. I have hosting thru hostgator. I believe it is Linux. It is a shared reseller account.

Thanks again!
Marie

 

[djbaxter]

1. So, if I understand you correctly, I use a 301 redirect to direct info from (e.g.) canine-diabetes.com to canine-diabetes.mysite.com?

Since you already have the domain name, you can do it either way, but yes, whichever you end up using for the actual site, you would redirect any browser (or spider) requests to the other via a 301 permanent redirect.

2. No...that is not my site name! It is actually askavetquestion.com

OK. That's somewhat better.

3. I have hosting thru hostgator. I believe it is Linux. It is a shared reseller account.

OK. The shared account limits your options compared with the (more expensive) VPS or dedicated hosting.

If you really do end up with a base site + a blog + a forum for each of the specialty areas, that's a lot to expect from shared hosting so you may end up needing either extra bandwidth and resources on your existing account (if offered as an option), additional shared hosting accounts, or an upgrade to VPS. Many shared hosting accounts run about $5 - $30 per month or so, depending on bandwidth and disk space, etc. A VPS runs about $50- $90 per month but allows you to host multiple domains or subdomains on the same account. (I'm using my host, A Small Orange, for sample pricing. Others may be cheaper but often that's because shared hosting is "oversold" and the real available resources are less than advertised.)

Hosting aside, my preference would still be for subdomains (that's what Linda is using here by the way - see the URL in your browser at the top of this page) from the standpoint of usability and SEO. If you go with that, you can use your new domain name by redirecting canine-diabetes.com to canine-diabetes.mysite.com. However, you're pretty much wasting the SEO value of the domain name by doing that, although you may gain traffic if that was a previously established domain that you bought.

 

[djbaxter]

Added: I just checked out hostgator...

They offer shared hosting packages that allow additional domains at $7.95 or $12.95 per month. This might work for you for now, although blogs and forums both require databases, unlike static web sites, so you may find you start running out of resources soon if the new additions are successful.

Hostgator also has basic VPS plans (they call them reseller plans) starting at about $25 per month. That might be your best bet.

 

[DrMarie]

Minstrel...you are awesome for doing so much to help me!

I actually do have a reseller plan with hostgator. (Sorry, I get confused with the terminology as I just started doing web design a few months ago!) If my sites get really big then I plan to upgrade to dedicated.

I'm still a little confused about the subdomain issue. I guess my basic question is, is it possible to have a subdomain that has it's own domain name but still retains (and contributes to) the PR and Alexa ranking of the main site?

 

[djbaxter]

I actually do have a reseller plan with hostgator. (Sorry, I get confused with the terminology as I just started doing web design a few months ago!) If my sites get really big then I plan to upgrade to dedicated.

Oh, okay. That's much better and gives you so many more options.

I'm still a little confused about the subdomain issue. I guess my basic question is, is it possible to have a subdomain that has it's own domain name but still retains (and contributes to) the PR and Alexa ranking of the main site?

The simple answer is no, other than by crosslinking to the main site. If you use redirection, it tells browsers and search engines that the originating URL should be ignored and all requests should be sent to the redirection URL. For example, redirecting canine-diabetes.com to canine-diabetes.thisisavetadvicewebsite.com says:

Ignore canine-diabetes.com. This no longer exists. Redirect all requests for this to canine-diabetes.thisisavetadvicewebsite.com, which is the new active address for the page or site you're seeking.​

Options:

1. Set up canine-diabetes.com on your reseller account. Use that for all the canine diabetes stuff. Link to it from your main site and link back to your main site from canine-diabetes.com.

2. Set up canine-diabetes.com on your reseller account as a small static site. Add some original content and point your visitors to canine-diabetes.thisisavetadvicewebsite.com for further information, products, the blog, the forum, etc.

3. Ignore canine-diabetes.com. Just set the nameservers to the same as those for canine-diabetes.thisisavetadvicewebsite.com and add a 301 redirect to ensure that any calls wind up going to the subdomain.

The simplest is probably #3. I've done it both ways in the past and that's my preference for mini-sites which are subtopics of a main topic. I use separate domains only for entirely separate topics.