Over the last couple of years we have seen a number of changes in the way in which Google handles and reads websites, resulting in some pretty major changes to the way your site will be listed in Google (if at all). While many webmasters have been using the old trick of sub domains to try and get as many of their pages listed on Google as possible - under the same search terms - Google have managed to crack down on the vast number of “abuses” of this system. So what is the story?

In reality Google much prefer to the use of sub directories within websites as they are very much easier for the spiders to read and index, they give a better feel and structure to a site and Google is able to clearly identify which domain each page is related to - therefore ensuring that no more than 2 pages are listed for any one search term. So what is the real different between sub domains and sub directories?

While ultimately they are both connected to the same “root domain”, it is actually possible to host a sub domain on a different IP address / server to the “root domain”, which is how many webmasters were able to ensure that more than 2 of their pages were listed on Google under any one search term. Prior to recent changes Google found it very difficult to differentiate between the sub domains and the main domains, especially when they were hosted on different servers. The sub directory issue is more straight forward with each folder being part of the “root domain”.

However, while they have re-written the algorithms to downgrade sub domains, primarily to ensure that there is no abuse of the search engine system, they have recognized certain sub domains which are valid and acceptable. Unfortunately there are teething problems between the recognition of “valid” and “invalid” sub domains with the possibility that those who use “same domain” hosting services for the likes of blogger.com, wordpress.com and MySpace potentially suffering from limited search engine exposure on popular terms.

Google are still working on an improved algorithm to ensure that “valid” sub domains do not suffer but in the meantime there is a chance that those who use a common host for the services mentioned above may not be “competing on a level playing field”. Watch this space..

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 11th, 2008 at 7:25 am and is filed under Blogging, Domain Names, Google. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.