SEO Blog

What is the difference between a sub-domain and a sub-directory? In the electronic eyes of GoogleBot, not much though one is easier for the bot to deal with and the other is (in certain circumstances), easier for a webmaster to deal with.

A sub-domain prefixes the domain-name at the host level as such: ppcassurance.metamend.com/. A sub-directory is a set of files that are seen as a suffix to the domain-name such as, metamend.com/blog/.

Up until a couple of months ago, a general piece of SEO advice was to separate distinct topics addressed under the same URL to sub-domains. This was done to help search-spiders differentiate between topics and also so search-spiders would treat the information at a sub-domain as they might a unique website. Using sub-domains, SEOs could conceivably capture a far larger number of Top10 placements under the same keyword phrases for different parts of the same company. In that way, SEOs could offer five or six (or more) of ten first page placements as opposed to the more frequent two front page placements under the same phrase.

PageRank valuations are fluctuating wildly again nearly three weeks after Google began targeting sites that bought and sold text-links. Earlier today, reports started coming in to SEO writers and blogs tracking PageRank. This time however the trend seems to tend towards terminal as Google has been assigning a bunch of PR0 valuations to several sites, including some that do not buy or sell links.

rustybrick from Search Engine Roundtable points out the latest PageRank discussion thread happening at DigitalPoint forums. This thread is a good read because it is where a bulk of SEOs are discussing, dissecting and hopefully solving the riddles associated with Google’s means of page-trust evaluation.

European SEO writer Andy Beard has a lengthy post, “ZERORANK” outlining the recent five phases of what appears to be wider PageRank update. Andy also reports on several specific cases in which websites with average or above-average PR valuations have dropped to PR0. Part of his post includes the process of filing a “reconsideration request”.

For the past six or seven years, one of the most dominant factors in determining page or document placement has been an evaluation of incoming links. Google pioneered the method, known as Pagerank, in its original algorithm and has refined it ever since. The recent flap over Pagerank revaluations might provide SEOs a broader hint at changes happening behind the scenes at Google and other major search engines. While unintended, Google might be signaling a step away from Pagerank as a primary means of recommendation and valuation.

A shift away from link based scoring methods would be an enormous step for Google to make however, looking at the evolution of the Internet, it is a logical step to make. Information transmitted over the Internet is changing rapidly as are user-habits. While it will continue to be a primarily text based medium, today’s Internet infrastructure allows easier access to a multiplicity of file types and formats, many of which are not conducive to the link-loving Google grew up on.

Thousands of businesses brokering in paid-links received a rude surprise this week as Google appears to have lowered the Pagerank scores applied to their sites.

About six months ago Google’s Quality Czar, Matt Cutts told the SEO/SEM community that Google was going to devalue the weight of paid-links, causing a swell of controversy in SEO/SEM circles. On Wednesday, the engine took action by decreasing the Pagerank of thousands of sites known to trade in links. Some of the sites include the Washington Post, Forbes.com and Search Engine Journal.

Pagerank, as understood by those working on the outside of Google is reflected in a tiny green section of the Google Toolbar rating the worth of individual web documents on a scale of 1 - 10. Most sites fall within the 2 - 5 range with “authority” sites earning Pagerank values of 6 - 8. It is very rare to see 9’s and even rarer to see a Pagerank value of 10.