Domain vs. subdomain promotion

[BetNuts]

We plan to promote our sports betting site, www.bet4win.com. The site doesn't feature much content currently: betting lines and odds (75% of content), sports scores, betting rules, terms of use, privacy policy, contact us and about us page. Mind that the gambling niche is VERY competitive.
We would like to add more quality content in there: articles on sports betting tips and strategies, odds comparison charts, sports betting tools and more. Everything will be organized under the Sports Betting Guide section.

The question is: do we place the guide on a subdomain, or do we upload the pages to the separate folder on the main domain?

One thing to consider: we don't want our users to stick to our subdomain only. We want them to place bets on the main site.
On the other hand, in case we promote the subdomain we will have the ability to place a lot of good external links from the subdomain to the main domain pages.

So what do you guys think about this dilemma? What are the advantages/disadvantages of the domain vs. subdomain promotion?

Thanks in advance for your input.

[janeth]

I would use both.

If I was talking about betting I would place that on my main domain name but if I was talking about a specific bet like horse betting I would create a subdomain name for horse betting. I would have all my betting and general information about betting on my main site but I would have subdomain names set up that tailored to one type of betting.

[BetNuts]

Originally Posted by janeth

If I was talking about betting I would place that on my main domain name but if I was talking about a specific bet like horse betting I would create a subdomain name for horse betting.

Sounds pretty logical :-) I guess we will go for the first variant (main site) as far as it concerns the Betting Guide.

As for setting up the sports-specific sections hosted on subdomains... It's a nice idea however this will take lots of time and human resources. So many pieces of sports-specific content to be added and updated on a regular basis - sports news, injury stats, schedules and other interactive info... We can't go for it currently, maybe in the future.

Anyway, thanks a lot for the valuable piece of advice Janeth!

[incrediblehelp]

Tough niche to get in now considering most online books are closing down to US customers.

[lchrzan]

This one is a question I've been pondering. I'm about to do a site redesign for a customer who has only one competitor that consistently ranks higher for the main keyword phrase we are targeting. The competitor puts this 2 word keyword phrase, separated by dashes, in their subdomain. I'm wondering if we should do that too.

However, it would seem to me that using a subdomain requires links to that subdomain in addition to the main domain. So this would mean starting with zero inbound links on the subdomain. It would also mean a major focus on that particular key phrase, which may not be the best strategy.

[BetNuts]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

Tough niche to get in now considering most online books are closing down to US customers.

Legality issue is not going to be a problem since we mostly deal with the European customers.

As for the niche being tough, right you are Incrediblehelp :-) This is going to be a hard battle...

[jtracking]

I have a successful sub-domain seo wise with the top domain having absolutely nothing to do with the content of the sub-domain.

Looking back it would be appropriate to create a sub-domain that is relative to the top level domain but that didn't affect us either way. It didn't affect the search results for our keywords.

my point is you can do what you want. in my opinion if you like the looks or the sounds of your sub-domain go for it. you can still get the exact same results your looking for either way - in my opinion.

I know a few sites that offer business listings in directories. What i sometimes see with them is;

business-listing-domain.com

and then they sub-domain (if that can be verb)

toronto.business-listing-domain.com
mississauga.business-listing-domain.com
oakville.business-listing-domain.com
hamilton.business-listing-domain.com

In your case I may create and use a sub-domain if I was going to be making several guides but I wouldn't only for one guide.

sports-betting-guide.domain.com
pool-betting-guide.domain.com
boxing-betting-guide.domain.com

Actually I believe it may work in your benefit to deliver more relevant content whenever you get the chance - from your top-level domain. In your case the betting guide seems quite relative to you top-level domain so it should be better to keep the guide up there...

that's my most recent opinion...

[BetNuts]

Thank you so much for your input! I feel pretty sure now that we should post the Betting Guide content on the main domain and reserve the subdomain possibilities to promote specific types of betting in the future.

Thanks again!
BetNuts