The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
November 2007, Volume 6, Issue 11

Sub-domains Revisited: Leveraging Images, Videos, and News

by Sean McCarthy, Search Marketing Specialist, iProspect

A lot has changed since our discussion of sub-domains in 2005. Back then, most people had barely heard of a newly launched video sharing site called YouTube. In addition, access to Facebook was limited to college students only, and sites like Flickr and Photobucket were just starting to move up the list of most visited sites on the Web.

But what does all this have to do with sub-domains? A lot actually.

One of the biggest changes to the search landscape over the past two years is how content is defined. Previously, mere words on a Web page were considered content, but not anymore. Now the search engines — particularly Google — have recognized that content can be all things digital. For example, images, videos, and news are now considered content that a search engine can return in the search results — even in position one. As search engine marketers, we need to organize and leverage our digital assets so they have the potential to be returned in the top position for a search query. Fortunately, sub-domains offer an effective means to do just that.

Search engines like structure and organization. It makes it easier for them to crawl through a site and index content. Such organization also helps the search engines identify "themes" within your site. For instance, with photos or videos, the "theme" would be based on the type of image, video, or news content present on the site. Sub-domains organize each of these areas of content into its own separate URL. For example, a retail fashion website would have a domain structure that would look like this: fashion-videos.retailsite.com. In this case, the sub-domain structure accomplishes several important things:

It establishes a separate domain dedicated solely to fashion video content

It inserts the primary keyword phrase "fashion" and the content medium "videos" together in the URL

It ensures all URLs for the domain have the primary keyword phrase present in the URL structure

But are sub-domains a good choice for your website? Clearly, they can be beneficial; however, keep in mind that they can be challenging to manage. Before you decide, there are a few things you should consider:

Do you have enough image, video, or news content to establish a separate domain?

Do you have the technical resources to maintain additional domains?

Are images, videos, and news already prevalent in the search results for your most important traffic-driving keyword phrases?

Is image, video, or news content an area of opportunity for your website to provide a unique value in the marketplace as a resource for your target audience?

Overall, sub-domains are challenging and need to be carefully thought-out based on the amount of content available and the amount of technical expertise needed to establish and maintain them. However, as search engines become savvier at crawling and indexing different forms of digital content, and as our definition of content continues to evolve, search marketers must find new ways to organize and optimize website content.

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The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article: November 2007, Volume 6, Issue 11

Sub-domains Revisited: Leveraging Images, Videos, and News

The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
November 2007, Volume 6, Issue 11