This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
A listener's web host offers free subdomains. Now what is a subdomain? Are there any good reasons to use them? That's what we're gonna talk about here today. A subdomain is a website directory that is hosted on the same domain as the main website, but accessed through a slightly different address.
Okay, and if that sounds confusing, it is confusing, but let's give some examples and it'll actually be quite simple. So imagine that you have a website called sidehustleschool.com. I happen to have one of those websites myself. A subdomain that uses that same domain would be something like beta.sidehustleschool.com or testing.sidehustleschool.com, let's say. Now that doesn't actually exist, either one of those, but the point is if I wanted to work on something or test something out, I might make that subdomain to do so.
I might just go and create the subdomain. It lives on that same domain, but to get to it, you have to go to that special address. So that's one usage of a subdomain. Is it the only one? There's actually a bunch of things you can do with this.
So the answer is there are several good reasons. Our listener is wondering what they might be, especially in terms of any SEO benefit. So that's what today's episode is about. Can a subdomain change your life? Or if not that, at least, what are the reasons to use a subdomain?
All right, that question and the answer is coming right up. [Music]
Hi Chris, this is Mark from Milwaukee. Been listening to the show for a while now and appreciate the great content you and your team put out each week. I wanted to ask you a question about subdomains. My web host allows me to use subdomains where I have multiple websites under the same domain without paying more for hosting.
Does this help with SEO? Should I go out and make a bunch of different subdomains and write slightly different content for each of them? Thanks and look forward to hearing from you about this. [Music]
Hey Mark, thanks so much for the call, appreciate it. Hopefully we can help get you some information here that's not too technical.
That's always my goal since I'm not that technical myself. But what I know is a subdomain is treated as a completely different website. It is effectively a partition where you'll need to upload and manage content for it separately. So what are some uses for this? Like what's the point, aside from what I mentioned in the introduction about like a beta test or something.
Well, you might see some larger companies put their help section or their knowledge base under a subdomain. It could be like help.target.com for example. Another example is for something time limited like contest.del.com or dotapple.com or whatever. And once the contest ends that subdomain can be deleted. There could also be cases where you want the page to remain after the contest is done but there could be some cases where you don't.
So, you know, delete the whole subdomain. One more is for languages. Like if you have a multilingual website that requires all content to be in more than one language, a subdomain for the second language or any additional ones might be a good idea. Last but definitely not least, there can be some SEO benefits to working with subdomains. And that's kind of the heart of the question and the answer here.
So if you search for info on this topic, you're gonna find all kinds of articles. Some of them say things like why subdomains are bad for SEO and others that will say why subdomains are your secret SEO weapon. And you're like, wait a minute, which is it? Can't be both, can it? Well, it turns out that logic wins the day here.
So in this case, at least logic wins. Google is pretty smart. If you are trying to hack its algorithm somehow, you know, always be aware that there's an entire industry of people trying to do that and also trying to prevent it. So you're probably not going to win that game. You can't just make a bunch of subdomains with the same content, but slightly different keywords and expect that this is going to somehow just all of a sudden create great improvements in your keyword ranking.
I mean, technically you can do that. You can expect it, but it's not really going to happen, okay? So that idea of like different subdomains with different keywords, probably not great. If you do actually have substantially different content, then that's when you might look at cataloging it separately using a subdomain, okay? And listen, if anybody's been confused by this entire answer, well, if you don't have a good reason to worry about this, then don't, okay?
This doesn't affect you at all. And by the way, that suggestion, like don't worry about it. If it doesn't affect you, that applies to more than just subdomains. It's always good to be learning, but it's also good to focus and keep your eyes on the prize and say, well, these are the three things I need to do next. And for the 300 things that I've heard about, I don't need to think about those right now.
So there you go. I hope that's helpful, Mark. Thank you. And listeners, if you have a question of your own, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We'll do our best to talk it out.
I always enjoyed this process. I enjoy putting the show together for you. So let me know what's going on and do come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the Onward Project.
