Hi Cricket,

I am interested in learning more about subdomains.

When, if at all, is it best to investigate this option as an add-on to your main domain?

For example, the purpose of my main site is to offer virtual office administration and business support services. One of my long-term goals is to utilize my creative side even more by offering custom corporate gifts such as greeting cards, and company promotional items, created from my artwork or photography.

Before I get to this point, I would like to know if an entirely new domain would be more appropriate, or if a subdomain would suffice?
 

Sincerely,

Renée Dawson, Ontario
North Shore Business Services

Hi Renée!

When you can make a strong correlation between the main website and the subdomains, such as you are considering, you can get by with using subdomains. However, I would not fully share navigation between the main site and the subdomains.

In the example that you mentioned, if I were to use subdomains, I would probably add a category section in the main site navigation for additional business support services, and then add custom corporate gifts, corporate greeting cards, and company promotional products as subcategories. I would not add all of the pages (of the subdomains) into the navigation, just the main categories, as shown below.

Additional Business Support Services
- Custom Corporate Gifts
- Corporate Greeting Cards
- Company Promotional Products

Of course you would need to research the exact key phrases you selected for the category and subcategories.

The subdomains should have their own navigation, with a link back to the main page of the primary site. Because of all the niches you mentioned are highly related to each other, they could easily be located within just one subdomain.

One possible negative of using a subdomain for this venture is that you may lose the benefits of having a domain name that includes keywords. You also will need to be more careful not to end up with excessively long file names by the time you add everything together.

When comparing domains vs. subdomains for this type of project, I would be most apt to choose one separate domain for the business support services you described.

If you have a web hosting company such as 1and1 that allows you to host multiple domains within the same account, you may find things a bit easier to organize. You will also likely experience a few advantages in your search engine optimization and marketing efforts.

I WILL DEFINITELY SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Ask Cricket Small Business Marketing Consultant and SEO Training Specialist
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