What are Subdomains? Know Their Impact on Search Engines
Have you ever visited our Support Page to seek answers to either domain and hosting related queries? In fact, if you’re our customer then, we assume, you would definitely have visited the page to browse articles and tutorials specifically curated for BigRock customers.
If yes, you would probably remember the URL – if not let me refresh your memory – support.bigrock.com
Did you ever wonder why the URL is structured this way? Are there any benefits to it, and so on?
First things first, let us understand the URL structure taking the above example,
support.bigrock.com
Here,
in – is the domain extension or TLD
bigrock – is the name of the website or a Second-Level Domain (SLD)
support – is the subdomain
Errr, but shouldn’t it be ‘www’ instead of ‘support’? Well, it is completely up to the website owner whether they want to add a subdomain to their website or not.
For example, www.bigrock.in is the link of the main website whereas, support.bigrock.com is a part of the main website. For better understanding, let us begin by understanding what a subdomain is.
What is a Subdomain?
By definition, a subdomain, otherwise known as a third-level domain, is the additional part to your domain name. The basic idea of creating a subdomain is to organise different sections of a website in a more organised manner. Usually, these sections are extensive and can be separated. In fact, this organisation of your website can also help boost your search engine rankings aka SEO ranking.
Some of the prominent websites take advantage of subdomains viz. www.google.com is the main website whereas support.google.com is the subdomain for offering support to users.
Here are some website pages that can be made into a subdomain:
- Blog
- A country market website/product page
- A subdomain for every service you offer
- Support page
- Research directories
Having understood what a subdomain is, let us now take a look at its impact on SEO in detail.
Subdomains and SEO – The Connection
Subdomains can help boost your search engine rankings. This is due to the fact that Google’s algorithm recognises and ranks your subdomains separately from your main domain.
Here are the 3 well-known benefits of using subdomains:
- Add ‘keywords’ to your URL
Ever wanted to fit-in high ranking keywords in your URL but it didn’t seem like the right choice? A subdomain is a perfect place for you to insert that word into your URL structure. Moreover, you can even use a different domain extension to suit your subdomain.
Take, for example, if your domain name URL is
www.subdomain.businesssname.com you can modify the URL to add the keyword in the following manner: www.subdomain.businessname.com/category-keyword
- Build and grow your niche
Building your domain’s authority can require a lot of time and patience. Nevertheless, when it comes to niche domains in our case subdomains the work is simpler. This is so because the market is small, and thus ranking and authority building is easier. Eventually, this can also help you to build and grow the business authority of your main website.
- Improve user-experience
If you are a content-heavy website offering numerous products and services, navigating the main website can be tiresome. Moreover, this can also make your website heavy and cluttered. This eventually leads to poor user experience as your users might find it difficult to find relevant content. At such a time, diversifying and making a new subdomain for your niche content can be quite helpful, and also help in increasing your user experience.
We hope this article helped you understand domains and subdomains and how they can effectively impact your website’s SEO rankings.
Do you use subdomains or plan to use one? Do let us know your opinion in the comments section below. Also, head to our Domains Blog Category to know more and stay updated.
