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Happy Friday folks, it's time to rant about clustering in SEO. The semi-official word to why you don't see the same search result from the same website in a search result, often. We will cover subdomain/subdirectories, featured snippets, and algorithms in this rant. 1/n
A year ago, I complained to a Googler on how little has been done to make clustering better. This was the kind of stuff that hadn't been touched for half a decade: https://searchengineland.com/google-domain-clustering-change-159997 (yes that's 2013) and it predates the "domain diversity update" of 2019. 2/n
Why should you care about this? Well domain clustering is an important topic because it is the basis of keyword cannibalization. Google went from 3-4 of the same website to just 1 on the first page, in most cases. So, what are the situations where clustering is lenient? 3/n
There's quite a few: bad search results, Google doesn't consider subdomains of the same site the same site, and branded navigational searches... probably more but one of these is particularly interesting. When is a subdomain a separate website? 4/n
This isn't a simple question. https://blogs.bing.com/webmaster/november-2019/Some-Thoughts-on-Website-Boundaries On one end you have sites like blogspot where subdomains are separate sites - on the other you have websites where the subdomains just extensions of the main site. Add "leasing" to the equation and it's a huge mess. 5/n
This mess, however, is what makes the subdomain/subfolder debate interesting. If you operate a house of brands (e.g. Unilever & PG) you would opt for unique domain names over subdomains over subfolders. I've yet seen search engines treat subfolders as separate websites. 6/n
If you've got a site that wants to tackle the same broad keyword but with different intents, subdomains make a lot more sense - you can double-list your web pages on a keyword you know has purchase intent down in the searcher's query journey 7/n
Subdomains are an option for those who used to rank "1st position" and Featured Snippet for a given keyword. I'm using quotes because currently in Google-speak FS's occupy the 1st position, traditional 1st positions are now 2nd in Google Search Console 8/n https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7042828
Back in the day, dominating a SERP was to show up on the full first page of a query. In 2020, it's a lot harder to do this, but you can with subdomains and cctlds. I call it the cereal isle phenomenon. It's the illusion of SERP choice. 9/n
In US supermarket's, it's very common to see a plethora of brands, but only to realize that a lot of them are by Post or General Mills. Others have coined this the serp monopoly strategy https://ftf.agency/serp-monopoly-strategy/ Honestly it's how to dominate SERPS in 2020. SEO changes. 10/n
The extension of crowding out a valuable SERP via subdomains/cctlds is ranking for SERP features and creating business partnerships with SERP competitors. It's not an SEO thing. It's a business strategy thing. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/hubspot-enterprise-marketing-playbook 11/n
TLDR;
1. Domain clustering is a moving target. Defining "what is a website" is very messy e.g. microsites, website leasing and PBN's
2. You can win both FS and top position for your site only if you're not a mono-subfolder website
3. Best URL structure depends on strategy
12/n
1. Domain clustering is a moving target. Defining "what is a website" is very messy e.g. microsites, website leasing and PBN's
2. You can win both FS and top position for your site only if you're not a mono-subfolder website
3. Best URL structure depends on strategy
12/n
Bonus aside:
If you're caught in a debate, please sit down and ask good business questions. e.g.
"Based on what you've told me, I believe your blog should be in a subdomain because you'd like to capture both position 1 and the FS for X, because it drives significant $" 13/n
If you're caught in a debate, please sit down and ask good business questions. e.g.
"Based on what you've told me, I believe your blog should be in a subdomain because you'd like to capture both position 1 and the FS for X, because it drives significant $" 13/n
Or for most small websites with <50 pages.
"Because we've got a huge content strategy gap to fill and very few backlinks to our website, we should build that microsite within a subfolder"
These are real examples. Find the implicit issues beyond subdomain vs subdirectory 14/n
"Because we've got a huge content strategy gap to fill and very few backlinks to our website, we should build that microsite within a subfolder"
These are real examples. Find the implicit issues beyond subdomain vs subdirectory 14/n
The frustrating part about all this though? How will clustering evolve again? FS? What is a website?
We'll have to keep our ears on the ground and adapt - but most importantly... unlearn a lot of the things we've learned over the years. Don't assume, and stay humble.
15/end
We'll have to keep our ears on the ground and adapt - but most importantly... unlearn a lot of the things we've learned over the years. Don't assume, and stay humble.
15/end
Enjoyed this rant? Well, there's an internet-rabbit-hole of rants just for you from prior Fridays.
Monthly search volume (MSV): https://twitter.com/victorpan/status/1251229009310035970
Monthly search volume (MSV): https://twitter.com/victorpan/status/1251229009310035970
