To separate or not separate... that is the question

[pdstein]

I am redesigning a website that offers free web pages to users. Each of the estimated 100,000 free web page has a link on it to our homepage. Currently, the user pages are displayed using the same domain name as our main site, but we're considering separating the member pages onto their own subdomain. So, my question is... which will give our site a better ranking in search engines to separate or not seperate?

If we seperate, there will be an additional 100,000 external links to our site, although obviously they'll all be from the same (sub)domain.

If we don't seperate, our site appears to be a massive 100,000 page site, and my understanding is size is a factor in search rankings as well.

Thanks,
Paul

[Duncan Pollock]

Perhaps there's a compromise solution.
How about forming groups among the 100,000 pages and then, while letting them retain their existing individual URLs, create what could be seen as Topic pages that each assemble the relevant group pages as a list with a link to each individual one?
It isn't a perfect example (if only because my numbers are considerably less than yours), but here's what I do regarding the webpage versions of two dozen monthly newletters that I've sent out.
1. My home page mentions (and gives a link) to mydomain/mailings.html . This page lists mydomain/buyers.html : my domain/lawyers.html : mydomain/interests.html : etc., etc. As a visitor clicks on any one of the ...html links, it takes them to the relevant ...html page.
2. This allows me to avoid the cumbersomeness of mydomain/subdomain/subdomain. It also (or so I like to think) increases my chances of searchers finding me because of phrases (i.e. keywords) that each specific .html (i.e. newsletter text) page contains -- which I don't think is going to be as likely if the search engines have to go to a third level instead of a second level depth.
3. For good measure (or so I again like to think), it enables me to cross link all the individual newsletter pages to both the mailing.html and mydomain pages.
In a way, I suppose I'm thinking of a text book analogy. There's the book title itself that's broken down into chapter headings that then each have subheadings in them.

Duncan

[pdstein]

Originally Posted by Duncan Pollock

Perhaps there's a compromise solution.
How about forming groups among the 100,000 pages and then, while letting them retain their existing individual URLs, create what could be seen as Topic pages that each assemble the relevant group pages as a list with a link to each individual one?

Duncan, thanks for your suggestion. I like the idea and will see if we can do something like that. However, even if we do implement your suggestion, that doesn't really address the question of whether it's better from an SEO perspective to have our member pages on the same subdomain as our site.

Will our homepage rank better if the 100,000 member pages that link to ourdomain.com remain at OurDomain.com/member/<member dir>

Or would it be better to have them at member.ourdomain.com/<member dir> ?

Thanks,
Paul

[Duncan Pollock]

Paul, I don't/won't call myself an SEO expert, so I'm not sure. However, I'm willing to guess that you're better to stay with the links as they presently are. If you do, I think it will "add/retain weight" to your domain more than giving them their own domain, won't it? Moreover, if you choose the latter, might they not "disappear into the sandbox" for a while?

Duncan

[pdstein]

Originally Posted by Duncan Pollock

I think it will "add/retain weight" to your domain more than giving them their own domain, won't it?

Moreover, if you choose the latter, might they not "disappear into the sandbox" for a while?

Those are great questions. If I knew the answers I wouldn't be here asking. :D

I'm hoping that some SEO experts who frequent this site can shed some light on them.

- Paul

[cspelts]

Originally Posted by pdstein

Those are great questions. If I knew the answers I wouldn't be here asking. :D

I'm hoping that some SEO experts who frequent this site can shed some light on them.

Sometimes with SEO there are more questions than answers!

In my opinion the best choice is to keep the site as is. If you have 100,000 free sites under that domain, I would assume that at least some of them have backlinks? If so, those backlinks help your entire site - not just the subpages they link to.

If you divide your site under two domains, you'll eventually lose those backlinks. And for what? One site-wide backlink from the new domain? I'd rather have lots of backlinks from different sites, rather than one site-wide backlink.

There may be other reasons why splitting up your site might be a good idea - but if you're strictly looking at SEO, it's probably not a good plan.

[pdstein]

Originally Posted by cspelts

If you have 100,000 free sites under that domain, I would assume that at least some of them have backlinks? If so, those backlinks help your entire site - not just the subpages they link to.

If you divide your site under two domains, you'll eventually lose those backlinks. And for what? One site-wide backlink from the new domain? I'd rather have lots of backlinks from different sites, rather than one site-wide backlink.

Thanks for your reply. However I think you have misunderstand the trade-off or I've misunderstood your post.

Right now there is a link to our OurDomain.com on EVERY one of the 100,000 member pages. It's a requirement for the free pages. I'm not sure I would call them "backlinks" though, and I wouldn't say I have "lots of links from different sites," because they are all on the same domain as our homepage. My understanding is that they look like 100,000 internal pages with internal links.

So, I think I'm talking about trading 100,000 pages on our site each of which has an internal link to our homepage for what would look like a new 100,000 page site (because it's at member.ourdomain.com) with 100,000 backlinks to OurDomain.com.

- Paul

[cspelts]

Originally Posted by pdstein

Right now there is a link to our OurDomain.com on EVERY one of the 100,000 member pages. It's a requirement for the free pages. I'm not sure I would call them "backlinks" though, and I wouldn't say I have "lots of links from different sites," because they are all on the same domain as our homepage.

You're right - but that's not what I was referring to. I wrote above that if some of those free member pages have backlinks to them, those backlinks help your entire site - not just the free member pages they link to.

So if you have a real estate agent with a free page on your site, and he gets links to his page - those back links help your entire site, not just the real estate agent. And with 100,000 free member pages, I would think that at least some of them will have collected a few backlinks.

[Duncan Pollock]

Paul: I'm also reminded of the age-old advice that "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
And by what you've added to your original post I'm starting to think that your own site doesn't in fact comprise 100,000 pages. Rather, it serves as a kind of host to all the free pages, each of which has a specific domain (even if it is something in the way of a yourdomain/member URL) and links back to your home page.
Thus, it sounds as though you've created the likes of a directory site or a massive collection of info pages. If so, you can still turn the 100,000 list into a range of categories and sub-categories, can't you? This would retain the individual page URLs instead of changing them to, as it were, a set of remote domains. In fact, you could simply adopt my idea of a mysite.com/Mailings.html summary page that allows each newsletter to have/retain its own mysite.com/Topic.html URL.
Whatever the case, though, I'm now quite willing to guess that, from an SEO/SEM viewpoint, you're wiser to retain all the pages as they are while, at the same time, restructuring things so there isn't so much of a "one whole pile" feel to everything.
Yes? No?

Duncan