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I have a website and a blog.

My website generates business directly, my blog indirectly. These are currently on two different domains. My website consistently ranks 2-3 for relevant search terms in my area. My blog ranks 7-9 for the same terms.

I'm considering moving (completely) my blog to a subdomain of my main site.

My question is whether you think this would have a good chance of pushing my main site up to the number one spot. I estimate I'd have tripled my traffic to the one domain in this case.

Any advice appreciated.

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Google and other search engines treat sub domains exactly the same as a stand alone domain, therefore you will not benefit from the move. If you want to benefit more from the blog then hosting it within a sub folder will be more beneficial assuming that the content is high quality and on topic with the rest of the site.

This is because the blog will rank higher due to the authority of the main domain and the links generated from the blog will benefit the entire site pushing both indirect and direct leads.

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  • That's not true at all, Google consider links from subdomain to main domain as internal, but if OP blog hosted on other domain then surely it is consider as external website. – Goyllo Jan 5 '17 at 18:03
  • @Goyllo Misinformation... – Simon Hayter♦ Jan 5 '17 at 19:54
  • John Mueller mentioned this awhile back in one of his Google Hangout Videos but at no point does he say they will be treated exactly the same. They may associate the sub domain with the main domain but various case studies doesn't support the idea of the sub domain performing as good as the main or vice versa. I personally believe case studies and people's experiences, e.g Ruth Burr PS. SalesForce has a Alexa Global Rank 121. – Simon Hayter♦ Jan 5 '17 at 20:02
  • I have also read many of case study on that, but most of them have not structure their website well, they may link to their subdomain but their subdomain may not linked to main domain or vice versa. Also many of webmaster use the nofollow tag, just because to save PR on their main website so it does not pass to subdomain. If you add both property in search console, so Google search console also did not say your subdomain is external link on "who links to me" option. – Goyllo Jan 6 '17 at 5:54
  • Just search on Google Stackexchange.com and you will see many of stackexchange subdomain on the sitelinks, if Google consider them as separate website, then there should be no such links. Google determine it based on how the site is structure with links. – Goyllo Jan 6 '17 at 5:57
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I have to disagree with the gentleman above. I've read many documents/white papers that list a "keyword relevant" subdomain as a ranking factor.

Now, before anyone references some Google document, just know it is not in their best interest on many occasions to reveal accurate information.

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  • ..."keyword relevant" subdomain as a ranking factor... No. Sorry. Not a ranking factor. However, it does add a bit of semantic value to the domain name which is fairly beneficial. You have to be careful. People throw around the term ranking factor if hey think there is a benefit. However, that would mean that there must be separate metrics to influence a sub-domain name. There are not. There is only one, the semantic value of the domain name including any sub-domain. Otherwise, any metrics for the sub-domain are borrowed from the parent domain. Cheers!! – closetnoc Jan 5 '17 at 18:35
  • @closetnoc semantic value, ranking factor? Value is value – Andrew Smallwood Jan 22 '17 at 6:46
  • Do not muddy the waters and call a duck an elephant. Ranking factors are a very specific set of metrics and not a word we should be throwing around so loosely. I am not talking about you specifically, but about the SEO world as a whole. There is a lot of confusion out there already. It seems that the SEO world loves to pull the term ranking factor from it's nether regions for all occasions whether it fits or not. – closetnoc Jan 22 '17 at 16:54
  • @closetnoc I would define it as anything , no matter how small or large in value, that affects your organic rankings. – Andrew Smallwood Jan 25 '17 at 0:04
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No, probably not. Search engines generally treat subdomains as their own domains, therefor moving it to a subdomain would probably be detremental because it would require the blog site to regain it's search ranking. Moving it to a folder in the main domain would improve ranking, however.

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