Do subdomains automatically rank lower than root domains?

[K-One]

If you create a subdomain and use it essentially as your base url for your target page in place of the it’s root equivalent, will it automatically be inclined to rank lower?

 

[fb3003]

i have never seen a sub-domain rank higher than www

why would you want to focus on sub-domain?? create a page on main domain and focus on that

 

[xReminisce]

I have once accidently ranked my sub higher than my www
where that sub was just a test drive to the niche
It worked so well i decided to move that sub to it's own domain

So yes, I know it can happen & i seen it happen too

 

[praetserge]

i have never seen a sub-domain rank higher than www

why would you want to focus on sub-domain?? create a page on main domain and focus on that

Hold on.... isn't www,example.com a subdomain of example.com?

 

[jeffpakulonan]

it should be, the logic is, why would a sub rank higher than main, except for certain keyword that sub is mainly focused on.. example www.disease.com -> sub -> cough niche bla bla.. i think.. CMIIW

 

[K-One]

i have never seen a sub-domain rank higher than www

why would you want to focus on sub-domain?? create a page on main domain and focus on that

it should be, the logic is, why would a sub rank higher than main, except for certain keyword that sub is mainly focused on.. example www.disease.com -> sub -> cough niche bla bla.. i think.. CMIIW

Because I wanted to see how well the idea that search treats subdomain independently as far as da, pa holds true, and can’t find any notable, appropriate examples for small-medium size sites although i’m not sure if that’s because they are simply used relatively rarely or some other reason

 

[K-One]

Hold on.... isn't www,example.com a subdomain of example.com?

No it is not.

 

[xReminisce]

Because I wanted to see how well the idea that search treats subdomain independently as far as da, pa holds true, and can’t find any notable, appropriate examples for small-medium size sites although i’m not sure if that’s because they are simply used relatively rarely or some other reason

subdomains aint used as often anymore as it's own site unlike before
subdomains are more commonly used as backups/offloading or even spam nowdays.

 

[jeffpakulonan]

Because I wanted to see how well the idea that search treats subdomain independently as far as da, pa holds true, and can’t find any notable, appropriate examples for small-medium size sites although i’m not sure if that’s because they are simply used relatively rarely or some other reason

i think it is not worth your time, as you can just build a new PBN and have them point out backlink to your moneysite... hosting and domain cost around 30$ a year and that is a good investment, rather than building a subdomain, because google will think that it is 1 people managing the domain, so not so much serp movement there...

 

[praetserge]

No it is not.

YES, IT IS

https://blog.hubspot.com/website/what-is-a-subdomainhttps://stackoverflow.com/questions/486621/when-should-one-use-a-www-subdomainetc

In your view, what is it then?

 

[K-One]

YES, IT IS

https://blog.hubspot.com/website/what-is-a-subdomainhttps://stackoverflow.com/questions/486621/when-should-one-use-a-www-subdomainetc

In your view, what is it then?

No you are right, technically it is but it’s like a default value then with all older sites especially, thus automatically becoming subdomains and I doubt it’s ever been included by algos with significance of a subdomain at all. So obviously I meant sld specific subdomains, not generic ones. I thought that might have been clear from the context or at least I was hoping it would.

 

[fb3003]

Hold on.... isn't www,example.com a subdomain of example.com?

yes, it is - you are right.. .. never looked at that way!

still never have seen any sub-domains to tank higher than www or just the plain domain

 

[hideath]

subdomains could rank as good as the main domains and subfolders,
the whole concept is about internal linking and page/domain authority overflow,

if you're referring to a totally separate subdomain, it would be treated as a totally different/new domain and it could rank with the proper on/off page as much as any other domain,

while for inheriting the main domain authority, it's not the same case,
unlike subfolders, subdomains need internal links to get the juice and rank in such a case

 

[seohub]

Hold on.... isn't www,example.com a subdomain of example.com?

nupp

 

[Marco69]

rank lower? I be not so sure...
type in shopify in google and you see all their subdomains.

That means they rank multiple times in google with their subdomains/ or rank for multiple keywords with their subdomain method.

This example is very contrary what the most people tell on the web "subdomains not rank"....

I mean when I use short keywords as subdomain like:

yogablog.yogacoach.com as example
use multiple keywords as subdomain you should maybe dominate google mith multiple subdomains?

Nobody could or is willling to give me an answer on thi squestion.

And when your root domain with www is a subdomain that means in my theory that google will prefer domain without www...?

Have a nice day

 

[jennykumar]

depends on keywords you are using on subdomain and main/root domain.

say you've an article about Cars and your root domain is JohnBlogger.com and has no "Cars" keyword in domain, then it might rank lower (than subdomain) if you put same article on subdomain like Cars.JohnBlogger.com (here assumption is made that both root and subdomain has equal or similar backlink profile, on-page seo, etc.)

reason, Google treats each subdomains as different site and would see cars.example.com subdomain as niche site, if it has articles dedicated to cars, auto, car accessories, and related stuff.

Note: if you just write single article on subdomain, then it might now rank higher than root domain.

 

[Marco69]

now I typed in google this: website multisite silo use subdomains?

spot nr.3= blog.cloudflare.com is there...
spot.nr5= blog.searchmetrics.com is here....

the rest is like that:
www.mydomain.com/postname / ormydomain.com/category/postname
so the spots nr.3 and 5 are good rankings not bad ranking when subdomains generally rank lower?

For me it's an mysterious interesting thing with these subdomains I not understand.
Do a subdomain with parent pages and child pages outrank multisite subdirectories (with silo) ?

Use subdomains on multisite instead of categories?
subdomain+ parent page +topic page + child page?
or use:

subdirectories instead of categories as this:
subdirectory + parent page + cluster topic page + child page


url structure would be:
subdirectories: domain/subdirectory /parent-page/ topic-page/ child page (deeper)
subdomains: subdomain/parent-page/topic-page/child-page

I search hours and hours and not get exact helpful answers on this only that subdomains are bad for seo...
it looks for me so that most good experts or good ranking pages not will tell you the truth about subdomains.

or I have delusion mind or not good in logic thinking ?

 

[Hello Himanshu Garg]

Sub domain could rank above root domain but would need more resources to do so. It won't be a good practice to do so. Use root domains instead.

 

[Marco69]

Hi guys have nice weekend

on this subdomain debate, when subdomains itself rank lower , then I wonder why Hubspot ranks so well with their subs?
Ok they have backlins but very deep internal linking too, like internal linking in silos
(intern linking method is the same in my eyes) . It looks for my like a linkwheel, each article and post is deep internal linked, but the "main page"= the pillar page the hub (the subdomain) has one link back to the main page , like a linkwheel or link network. So the subs are ranking and the main page too.
one link per pillar page back to main page and one link (in navigation or in text) frommain page back to the subdomain pillar page. This for each topic pillar page.

But depends on search keyword, their subdomains have more listings than these so called subdirectory sites.
Oh and google make it now so that subdirectory sites (silo too) can only have 2 listings in search resutls , google not have said that this listing limit will be for subdomains too.

Correct me if i wrong.
Have happy weekend

 

[Royal96]

A subdomain can rank higher but that depends on the search term.

When someone searches for your root domain or brand name, the root domain usually ranks higher than the subdomain. But when you have a subdomain dedicated for support for example and someone searches for your brand name + support, the subdomain should appear first.

Generally speaking, root domain and subdomain are seen as separate domains by Google. So, the link juice from the root domain won't flow into the subdomain, or the other way around. Most of the times you have more content and links on the root domain, so usually it ranks for more keywords than the subdomain.