Effect of subdomain on the ranking of main domain

[tanya_SEO]

Hi!

My company is an e learning company and i want to bring its website in the top 10 on google for 'e learning', 'e learning solutions provider'. Now the problem is that my website is a corporate website and not a niche site on e learning. My boss doesnt allow me to increase the size of the website or add any web page which directly doesnt have anything to do with the company or its products/services, no matter how relevant it may be for e learning.


My website right now is not much relevant for the keyword 'e learning' as the keyword appears only twice or thrice on each page and there are not many articles on elearning.There are around 30 pages on my website. Its is just a few days old. The page rank is zero and there r no google back links.



I think of buying the sub domain 'elearning'. Like elearning.mywebsite.com and add as many articles related to e learning there as possible. Do u think this will work? What will be the effect of this subdomain on the ranking of www.mywebsite.com


Here i fear that if i do this, it will bring elearning.mywebsite.com in top 10 instead of www.mywebsite.com. Please advice. Also tell me how much time it will take to bring the website in top 10 on google, yahoo and msn as e learning is higly competitive search term and my website is brand new.


Thanks a lot in advance

[pro_seo]

Hello Tanya,

Firstly,you are targeting a very competitive keyword right away, I'd have started off by targeting a e-learning related keyword that has lower competition and after I got decent rankings for those keywords, would have moved on to the competitive ones.

Secondly, you need more keyword rich content on your site. Buying a subdomain sounds like a good idea for adding content. As such the subdomain will not hurt the main site, but have chances to rank better than it if it has more content and links Put the best articles there and publish all other articles in major article sites like ezinearticles.com etc. Place a link to your main site URL with your targeted keyword in the author bio section.

As your site's homepage lacks textual content, you have to compensate that through backlinks. Run a full time backlink building campaign and be sure to use variations in your anchor texts.

Also I believe I should warn you against the Google sandbox. As you have a new site and it is trying to rank for a very competitive keyword, chances are there to get into the Google sandbox.

Do the following to dodge the sandbox.

1. Use variations in your backlink anchor texts.

2. Place a couple of links to other related authority sites from your site.

3. Build links slowly.

[fathom]

Hi!

My company is an e learning company ... My boss doesnt allow me to increase the size of the website or add any web page which directly doesnt have anything to do with the company or its products/services, no matter how relevant it may be for e learning.

A learning company eh? One that doesn't wish to do any learning no doubt.

You need to be realistic to start with... the boss does not want top ranks - forget the website in organic search... use PPC.

[tanya_SEO]

Hello Tanya,

Firstly,you are targeting a very competitive keyword right away, I'd have started off by targeting a e-learning related keyword that has lower competition and after I got decent rankings for those keywords, would have moved on to the competitive ones.

Secondly, you need more keyword rich content on your site. Buying a subdomain sounds like a good idea for adding content. As such the subdomain will not hurt the main site, but have chances to rank better than it if it has more content and links Put the best articles there and publish all other articles in major article sites like ezinearticles.com etc. Place a link to your main site URL with your targeted keyword in the author bio section.

As your site's homepage lacks textual content, you have to compensate that through backlinks. Run a full time backlink building campaign and be sure to use variations in your anchor texts.

Also I believe I should warn you against the Google sandbox. As you have a new site and it is trying to rank for a very competitive keyword, chances are there to get into the Google sandbox.

Do the following to dodge the sandbox.

1. Use variations in your backlink anchor texts.

2. Place a couple of links to other related authority sites from your site.

3. Build links slowly.

Thanks but I am still confused. On one side u tell me that the subdomain may rank better if it has more contents and links and on the other side u want me to publish my best articles there. If i publish my best articles on e learning there, than i dont see any reason that y my sub domain should not rank better than my main domain.

Should i go for subdomain or drop the whole idea. Is there any alternative other than the back links. Also could u tell me how much time (approx) it will take to bring the website into top 10.

[tanya_SEO]

A learning company eh? One that doesn't wish to do any learning no doubt.

You need to be realistic to start with... the boss does not want top ranks - forget the website in organic search... use PPC.

Thats very disappointing

[fathom]

Thats very disappointing

It is, isn't it... "THE BOSS" may indeed decide what you can and can't do but it's foolish for them to think you can rank for things you are not.

Demand the boss reconsider his position or ignore organic results.

[pro_seo]

Thanks but I am still confused. On one side u tell me that the subdomain may rank better if it has more contents and links and on the other side u want me to publish my best articles there. If i publish my best articles on e learning there, than i dont see any reason that y my sub domain should not rank better than my main domain.

Should i go for subdomain or drop the whole idea. Is there any alternative other than the back links. Also could u tell me how much time (approx) it will take to bring the website into top 10.

If you plan to put all elearning related articles on your subdomain, most probably it will rank higher than your main site against keywords related to elearning as your main site hardly have any elearning related content.

I think that Fathom's idea of going the PPC way would benefit, coz for organic results you have to tweak your main page and add more related content.

[Chris42]

I think that building a strong site on the subdomain is a good idea. It is of course important that you link from it to the main page. That way, at least some of the backlink power will be transfered on to the main page. Secondly, if the subdomain page gets lots of visitors and if you place the link(s) to the main page prominently, the main page will see at least some or a major part of these visitors.

Fathom is correct in the sense that your boss demands best results for a highly difficult term and at the same time forbids you to do what is necessary. Thus, your task is almost certainly bound to fail. You have to make your boss realise this.