Tips – Page 33 – The Web Authority

January 18, 2012October 3, 2015

Can You Even Get SEO Juice From a Subdomain?

For best search engine benefits what is the best configuration for your blog a subdomain or a subdirectory? First, it is important to clearly identify the difference of a subdirectory versus a subdomain.

Subdirectory example: http://www.mccordweb.com/weblogs/

Subdomain example: http://blog.mccordweb.com

How search engines handle the two is entirely different. So set up determines the link juice and search engine capital that a blogsite will pass to the parent website (in the above example the parent site is mccordweb.com).

Here is a very concise explanation of how search engines index, spider, and count subdomains:

“… Google considers sub domains separate from their parent domains: sub.yoursite.com is considered a different site altogether compared to yoursite.com when it comes to search engine authority.” You can read the full and very interesting article here.

Although you can track subdirectories and subdomains using Google Analytics with special code inserts, how search engine weight and evaluate content that is resides off-domain as in a subdirectory domain is crucial to your organic placement strategy.

It is clear that I am not alone in finding that a subdirectory domain is considered as if it was a separate domain by the search engines. You can find out more by following this thread to the Webmaster World forum.

“It [a subdomain] is treated much more like an independent domain in many respects – for example, if urls from both the root domain and a subdomain show up on the same page of search results, they do not cluster together.”

Matt Cutts says this on the issue:

“My personal preference on subdomains vs. subdirectories is that I usually prefer the convenience of subdirectories for most of my content. A subdomain can be useful to separate out content that is completely different. Google uses subdomains for distinct products such news.google.com or maps.google.com, for example. If you’re a newer webmaster or SEO, I’d recommend using subdirectories until you start to feel pretty confident with the architecture of your site.”

The bottom-line is that a subdomain is simply a way to mask the URL of an off-domain site or blog location and give the APPEARANCE that it is installed within the server where the parent site resides. Search engines consider the content separate and will weight it an index it separately from the parent website. What is crucial to understand is that any links that point to the subdomain blog or website do not flow through and add capital to the parent domain.

For best use of blogging and mini-websites, it is still by far best to install them in subdirectories and not subdomains.

December 26, 2011December 24, 2011

Customer Feedback Forms – What They Are Saying Behind Your Back

The adage you won’t know if you don’t ask, still holds true in today’s high tech business world. Even with our global and high tech world, what people think about your business may still be veiled from your eyes. There’s no better way to find out what people really think about your services than to ask.

We ask our clients regularly about our services, their experience with us, and to rate our blog writers. We do this via online forms; allowing the client to tell us what they think about us without the discomfort of telling us face to face. Although not every client we ask will take the time to use our form to rate our services, the ones that do help us to adjust, fine tune, and improve our customer service and offerings.

I’ve had some clients tell me that they don’t want to set up review forms for their own business as they don’t want to deal with negative findings. My suggestion is that even a negative rating can make you stronger. Negative ratings should be considered as constructive criticism. Yes, negative reviews can be hard to take, but if you use them to improve your services and programs, the input is invaluable.

I’ve found that sometimes when it comes to your own business, you may be the very last to know what customers may be saying behind your back until you see sales dropping. If this happens to you, there is no better time than to create a review program, evaluate the results, make important changes, offer incentives for performance to employees, and move forward strongly as you monitor your team closely.

December 19, 2011December 19, 2011

Afraid to Test AdWords Try Google AdWords Express

Some clients may be selling a service or product that may not be a wonderful match for Google AdWords. There’s a great way to test if AdWords is right for you before taking the big plunge in regards to set up fees and click charges.

First, this is why AdWords may seem not be right for your business:

Your products or services are priced higher than other competitors in your market. For example, you may only sell products bundled into a four pack and your competitors will sell singles. This makes your superior product, seem more costly than the competition.
Your service is unique but costs more to buy due to your expertise. Others who do not have your longevity in the industry may be selling what seems to the consumer the same service but at half the price.
You are offering coupon codes to discount your products and promote them widely on the Web, but when a consumer reviews your product (which they can buy elsewhere) head to head on the Web without using the discount your product and shipping may be higher.

Second, this is how you can test AdWords for your business with minimal set up expense:

Set up a Google Places account or claim your listing. Then use AdWords Express within the control panel to show ads in up to a 50 mile radius to test the waters with your AdWords program.
Although this is a local test and not a national test, for just a few minutes in set up, and no keyword entry, you can try out Google AdWords to check the viability of your product or services on Google AdWords.
When you set up a Google AdWords Express account, Google will set your cost per click, create a simple keyword list and even create your ad text.

Third, when should you consider the test successful?

If your traffic and phone call level have improved from this limited scope test, it may be time to consider a full Google AdWords program. I recommend moving to this new level only if you have the budget to truly test a four to six month period at an ad spend of $500 to $2,000 for a 30 day period.
If you got lots of clicks and no sales or phone calls, I would recommend that you review your position in the market to one see how you can clearly differentiate yourself from low price competition, re-align selling policies and prices to be more competitive in the consumer’s eyes, and evaluate if there may be alternative ways to cost efficiently promote your products and services other than Google AdWords.

If you are looking to move into a three or four month AdWords evaluation program after testing the waters, we’d be a good match for your needs. With a strong focus on sales and lead conversions, our service and honest advice will identify if AdWords is the place for you.