Sub domains or Separate Domains?

[Michael]

Hello all,

 

Which do you think is better and why - Sub domains or Separate Domains?

 

For example:

example.com

uk.example.com

us.example.com

ie.example.com

 

Alternatively:

 

example.com

example.co.uk

example.us

example.ie

 

I'm interested in your opinions from a Search Engine point of view (better or worse), associated costs and if you're a user on these forums from overseas, (for example Ireland), do you typically use the .ie frequently or rarely?

 

Many thanks

[mb2k01]

For me it would depend on the particular site. [edit] I've selected "either" [/edit]

 

uk.domain.com / us.domain.com examples work well when the website is carrying a brand or theme and wanting to present international visitors with a different experience, yet all on the same domain.

 

When I've used .co.uk / .com I've generally either made them completely different sites, or have them redirect to the correct domain. More of a user ease thing.

 

I'm not that experienced with SEO stuff, but from my limited knowledge, I don't think it would make much difference to be honest.

[SYNACK]

I don't think it matters too much, either works fine. Microsoft have seperate domains which redirect to subfolders.

 

In response to the country TLD usage yes I frequently go to sites that are .nz

[mossj]

I do *think* tlds matter when looking at seo, I mean rarly see tlds other than .co.uk and .com. I'd assume google uses it to help work out what geolocation your site is aimed at.

 

p.s as for myself I always type ".co.uk" when looking for uk specific sites..

Edited February 21, 2010 by mossj

[EduTech]

I am pretty sure it matters on weather you want to aim for specific audiences, i think with regards to SEO.. if you offer say services say in .nz then you would want to get yourself a .nz domain name as they will see those before .co.uk and likewise for any other country domain name.

 

James

[Edu-IT]

Depends on the setup of the site, in my opinion.

 

If you have multiple instances of the site then go for .co.uk/.com/.ie, whichever is relevant, however if it's the same site but different language then uk./us./ie. is my preference but perhaps with the tld domain redirecting to the subdomain.

[Michael]

Interesting, the poll at the time of writing is pretty much equal so I am going to throw something else into the mix.

 

Working on mb2k01's brand/theme idea, how would you prevent competitors buying those domains and re-directing traffic, or alternatively people buying the domain, parking the domain and generating revenue off your brand?

[mb2k01]

Working on mb2k01's brand/theme idea, how would you prevent competitors buying those domains and re-directing traffic, or alternatively people buying the domain, parking the domain and generating revenue off your brand?

 

I've had this a couple of times! I think the answer is to get in there first and buy what you think you'd need. Even when it is company.com and company.co.uk it can get very frustrating and lengthily to resolve! I have school.com and all reasonable tld's (.net, .com, org, info but not any country specific) just to be on the safe side.

[john]

I've had this a couple of times! I think the answer is to get in there first and buy what you think you'd need. Even when it is company.com and company.co.uk it can get very frustrating and lengthily to resolve! I have school.com and all reasonable tld's (.net, .com, org, info but not any country specific) just to be on the safe side.

Must admit I need to place an order to Carl @ CSNewMedia for a few different TLDs for the school domain (I know Carl loves Purchase Orders really )

[mossj]

Interesting, the poll at the time of writing is pretty much equal so I am going to throw something else into the mix.

 

Working on mb2k01's brand/theme idea, how would you prevent competitors buying those domains and re-directing traffic, or alternatively people buying the domain, parking the domain and generating revenue off your brand?

 

I beleive if you trademark something, then you *may* have a stake to claim the domain (if it wasn't taken already).

 

However it's much easier just to buy them all... Google even goes the length of registering misspellings, such as googl.com

[SYNACK]

Totally agree, from a brand protection standpoint buying all of the ones you need is the only sane way to go about it. If you have them already for that purpose then a redirect to where ever they need to go is trivial. Considering above posts I also think that they are right on the SEO front as localized searches will use the TLD as a strating good point.

[Michael]

Well I could buy every domain name extension and any misspellings, but then of course you'd need to re-new annually and at that rate I'd probably run out of money!

 

The other problem is registering certain country domains has 'requirements' attached to it. A good example actually is the .ie (Irish domain name). Interestingly you have to demonstrate you have trade with the country prior to being accepted, so how on earth you're supposed to trade with Ireland if you're an online only business is a little baffling. I don't think they've really thought that through personally.

[Michael]

Anymore votes/opinions on this please?

[glennda]

i would say it depends on what you are setting up, for example bt use sub domains for there different companies eg businessdirect.bt.com which personally i think would be betting if it was a seperate domain not a sub domain, but country variant websites i think is okay like uk.domain.com or us.domain.com etc

 

so depends on how it is being used.

 

toby

[Michael]

Thanks to all those who have replied so far!

[Michael]

Anymore comments/feedback and I'll start dishing out 'thanks'

[gshaw]

From an ease-of-use perspective it's definitely .co.uk over uk.domain.com any day. The one that does me everytime is getting to Insight (one of our suppliers), always end up in the wrong place!

 

I use subdomains for secondary services in the same organisation so www for website, vle for Moodle and a few others that only make sense to the tech team

 

I guess there's only so much you can do depending on your budgets, .com .org and .net would be the common ones for me, all the other new ones such as .info always seem to end up on dodgy websites so generally avoid those anyway

[Michael]

Many thanks to those who contributed and voted