Dumb SEO Questions

(Entry was posted by Liem Nguye on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 07/08/2014).

Do a domain and a sub-domain have to be the same topic.

Topic: Do a domain and a sub-domain website have to be about the same topic/niche?

Good day guys! Thanks for taking the time to read my question. I have actually asked this question on other forums a several days ago but I haven`t really got any satisfied answer. I`m fortunate enough to find this community with many SEO experts which gives me some hope.

So here`s my question:

"I have a new website, let`s call it mainsite.com about travel. On this website I will be writing articles about travel and holidays topic. 

My question is, If I create a subdomain such as "blog. mainsite" and on this subdomain, I share all sort of different topics, especially sharing viral stories and videos on YouTube, Will this have any negative side effect (in terms of SEO, Google ranking, Reputation, etc..) on my main travel website?

The reason I asked this is because I have seen many online stores selling a particular product niche, and their subdomain blog (blog.storename) is about viral stories/videos on all different sort of topics to drive traffic to their main website store from that blog. And they seem to be doing pretty well on this. I checked the stats of one of them and I saw they went from very low number of visitors/month (let says a few tens of thousands visitors/month, not sure how much exactly because of the scale of the chart is hard to read)  to 21 millions visitors per month within 6 months by applying this viral strategy which is embedding viral videos on the subdomain blog. 

Since more than 90% of the traffic to the subdomain blog is from social media, and the subdomain blog`s topic has nothing to do with the main website`s niche, I`m very concerned if this will affect the main site and if the main site will be punished by Google. 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Again, Thanks a lot for taking your time reading this. I`m looking forward to your advice. Cheers!


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YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

  • Liem Nguyen:  ;Topic: Do a domain and a sub-domain website have to be about the same topic/niche?

    Good day guys! Thanks for taking the time to read my question. I have actually asked this question on other forums a several days ago but I haven't really got any satisfied answer. I'm fortunate enough to find this community with many SEO experts which gives me some hope.

    So here's my question:

    "I have a new website, let's call it mainsite.com about travel. On this website I will be writing articles about travel and holidays topic. ;

    My question is, If I create a subdomain such as "blog. mainsite" and on this subdomain, I share all sort of different topics, especially sharing viral stories and videos on YouTube, Will this have any negative side effect (in terms of SEO, Google ranking, Reputation, etc..) on my main travel website?

    The reason I asked this is because I have seen many online stores selling a particular product niche, and their subdomain blog (blog.storename) is about viral stories/videos on all different sort of topics to drive traffic to their main website store from that blog. And they seem to be doing pretty well on this. I checked the stats of one of them and I saw they went from very low number of visitors/month (let says a few tens of thousands visitors/month, not sure how much exactly because of the scale of the chart is hard to read)  ;to 21 millions visitors per month within 6 months by applying this viral strategy which is embedding viral videos on the subdomain blog. ;

    Since more than 90% of the traffic to the subdomain blog is from social media, and the subdomain blog's topic has nothing to do with the main website's niche, I'm very concerned if this will affect the main site and if the main site will be punished by Google. ;

    Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

    Again, Thanks a lot for taking your time reading this. I'm looking forward to your advice. Cheers!


     ; ;
  • Edwin Jonk: Can you share the link to report about the sites that went to 21 million visitors?
  • Edwin Jonk: From the expert panel in this weeks SEO Questions hangout on air on 01:48:03 into the YouTube video: https://dumbseoquestions.com/q/do_a_domain_and_a_subdomain_have_to_be_the_same_topic +Liem Nguyen

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View original question in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 07/08/2014).

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