Moving domains/sub-domains & Unbounce WordPress plugin

  • 15 October 2017
  • 5 replies
  • 11 views
Zoe_Tattersall
Userlevel 6
Badge +3

So I’m thinking about to moving our brand’s blog from the sub-domain and onto the main domain in a sub-directory, then use the Unbounce WordPress plugin.

The current set-up is –

  1. Main landing page: www.detoxcleansenourish.com > Pointed to Unbounce pages
    (plus we use many sub-directory pages)

  2. Blog: blog.detoxcleansenourish.com > Wordpress site.

What I think would be more consistent (and possibly better from an SEO point of view?) is this –

  1. Main landing page: www.detoxcleansenourish.com >

  2. Blog: www.detoxcleansenourish.com/blog > Wordpress site. With Unbounce plugin to manage all the landing pages.

Considerations –

  • We have hundreds of brand partners that are currently set up with unique links to track their leads.
    e.g. www.detoxcleansenourish.com?team=Zoe-Tattersall
    Therefore I do not want to change the main domain to a sub-domain on Unbounce (i.e. join.detoxcleansenourish.com), as trying to get them all to update links would be a nightmare and I’m not willing to go down this path.

  • Nor do I want more than 24 hours of downtime/links not working, as they’ll all panic!

  • I’ll need re-directs set up for the blog, so if anyone has good tips/plugins for that, please let me know.

Basically, I feel pretty uncomfortable making these changes as I can just see a whole lot of things going wrong and me panicking! 😂 My questions to you guys are –

  1. Do you think this is worth the effort and is it a better set-up in terms of SEO? (I’ve read articles that support both sides so I’m confused now).

  2. Is there anyone here that I can pay to do this all for me and get it magically working, without me stressing?! 💸 (@Hristian I’m thinking this could be you?)

We’re more than just your type. We do awesome, too. And website design, graphics, product photography, video content & more. https://sevahcreative.com

5 replies

Jess
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +1

These are excellent questions!! So I’m going to loop in a few folks who are pros in this area.

@Cody_Campbell is our in-house SEO overlord and has a ton of insight into this topic. I’d love to see what he may have to say about that. 🙂

Cody_Campbell

Hey @Zoe_Tattersall!

I’m going to ask you a few questions to clarify your main concern. I’ll also shoot you a response to your question above based off what I understand. If it’s way off, let me know and I’ll #dobetter.

First off, what is your main goal?

  1. To ensure the content on your blog ranks better?
  2. To make the content on your root domain rank better? (Unbounce lead gen pages like the ones listed below)
  1. To make your URL structure and/or navigation experience more consistent?

The reason I’m asking is because each of those goals will have different recommendations.

1. Increasing blog rankings
If you just want to increase rankings for your blog, I don’t think moving it to a subdirectory on your root domain will give you the boost you’re hoping for. Normally I say if your blog is already on a subdomain, just leave it there because these days you likely won’t see much of a benefit from moving it. Generally, if a subdomain has good internal linking to a root domain, the SEO value will pass fine.

2. Increasing rankings on your root domain
Now, when we look at your root domain, it seems like most (if not all) of the pages have been created with Unbounce and have no navigation. Are you planning to have all the pages on your root domain be lead gen landing pages like the ones listed above?

If so, you likely won’t care about link value passing from your blog to these pages (if you’re not trying to rank them in search engines). However, right now Google has found and indexed a bunch of pages on your root domain so maybe you are trying to rank them? Let me know.

Let’s work through those questions and then I can help you with the rest 🙂

Cheers,
Cody

Zoe_Tattersall
Userlevel 6
Badge +3

Thanks @Jess! 🙂

Hey @Cody_Campbell – thanks for your response, you’ve made me think on this a lot more already!

The main goal was getting the blog content to start ranking better (I’m in the slow process of merging my old brand www.zomt.com.au, and re-publishing some of the better traffic posts onto blog.detoxcleansenourish.com site, then setting up re-directs). I’m also working on a better look/feel for the blog so it’s more of a central hub for all our content and it will link off to various Unbounce landing pages too.

But also for the consistency, I was thinking it looked better all being on the one domain – and I won’t have to pay for extra SSL set up which I need to do on the blog as well to get some new fonts working (and which seems rather pricey on GoDaddy for just an extra subdomain!).

The root domain is all Unbounce pages, and there are about 5-8 main ones that we use. Most of the traffic to these pages is via social media or our brand partners, so I wasn’t too concerned about ranking – but that said, who’s going to say no to free traffic right?!

I probably haven’t helped much with my answer as I just realised I sort of said all three things were the goal ha ha – I think the core of it is that I’m a perfectionist and it annoys me that it’s not all on one domain 😂🙄 but the goal I should be focused on is better ranking. 😉

We’re more than just your type. We do awesome, too. And website design, graphics, product photography, video content & more. https://sevahcreative.com
Cody_Campbell

Haha you want it all hey @Zoe_Tattersall?!

To get more traffic to the blog, the thing that’ll have the most impact will be good ol’ keyword research and some careful attention to crafting your title tags and body copy. Other than that there are some things you can clean up through the SEO Yoast plugin like noindexing the author and date archives. Since you’re using categories and tags, there are opportunities to optimize those higher level pages for more general keywords like “Gluten free recipes” or “[some descriptor] breakfast recipes”. The best way to do that would be to add some unique copy to the top of those /category/ and /tag/ pages and optimize their title tags. Try going after some long tail keywords there because the baking/cooking space is pretty competitive.

As for the URL consistency, I don’t think it’ll matter much to users. It’s more of a biz decision on your end when it comes to SSL and all that.

And ya if you want to rank the lead gen pages on your root domain, it is possible. Since your blog links to those pages, it’ll pass SEO value so all you have to do is optimize those pages for specific keywords you want to target. If you have trouble ranking your pages, it’ll likely be due to the competitiveness in your space. If that’s the case, then getting more links back to your content is what will make the difference in your rise up the ranks.

P.S. The “7 Day Blitz” link in the top right corner of your blog header is broken

Zoe_Tattersall
Userlevel 6
Badge +3

I want it all, and I want it via overnight delivery – such is the difficulty of being a Gen Y! 😂

OK yes, I definitely need to work on my SEO. To be honest, it bores me so I’ve never spent a lot of time on it, which is so bad. I’m more into the writing, content and photos 😉

Maybe I need to just get someone to do that for me – any suggestions of awesome SEO peeps I can throw cash at?

p.s. oops. Fixed that button, thank you!

We’re more than just your type. We do awesome, too. And website design, graphics, product photography, video content & more. https://sevahcreative.com

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