Subdomains for SEO and clarity

Am curious abut the best practice for choosing a domain name for a diversified, service oriented, as of yet to be branded, business.

having taken all the usual items into consideration:

  1. without spaces, do the words spell something inappropriate or unintended.
  2. easy to communicate ( or as easy as possible)
  3. easy to remember/ not too long to type
  4. descriptive word about the services offered.

Here is my dilema however.

I could put all my eggs in one basket:
theBrandTheService.com
( I heard I should avoid theBrand-theService.com)

or

I could have a domain that is then utilize the descriptor as a sub domain

theSrevice.clientName.com
(for accutal example: wedev.sitepoint.com)

I like that the business could evenutally diversified without required a separate domain, and thus maintaining the clientName.com brand

theSrevice.clientName.com
anotherSrevice.clientName.com
thirdSrevice.clientName.com

what I am not certain about is if there is a cost, SEO or user clarity with going down that path? Maybe there is no difference from one to the other. I would like to know what the expert think :slight_smile:

Thanks as always.

Choosing a domain name is not easy but I think you should go for your brand name. Once you have a domain on your brand name then you can have your focus on services/ products accordingly. Now a days sub-domains are not treated differently by search engines but they are a great way to differentiate between products / services. Go for you brand name as yor main domain and choose the sub-domain wherever you need.

Would this still apply is the “brand” is a person’s name tho?

for example: developer.yourName.com

A person’s name can be a brand; this doesn’t apply just to naming a website either.

After reading your original post, it appears you may not have grasped the idea of a subdomain. Subdomains set content apart, you can see this in mobile sites, Disney, Google, and others.

You need to do a lot of research so you can make an informed decision on the name of the website, and when/why to use subdomains vs. subfolders.

Clarifying…

  • The company itself is a newly established endeavor it has little not no actual brand equity ( from my perspective).

  • The person is using his own as his brand/business-name ( for example ‘Brian G. Pet Grooming’)

We were pondering whether he, rather than committing to a service by including it as part of his domain name choice (BrianGPetGrooming.com), would benefit from “broadening” his brand…and buying only BrianG.com, and for the sake of SEO/business expansion have PetGrooming.BrianG.com for his web address.

The main worry is , considering currently the nearly non-existing brand precence, if that thinking would be too unconventional, and people, misremembering the actual URL, would end up going to “BrianGPetGrooming.com

I hope that is clearer :slight_smile:

That helps a lot actually, but makes the argument more indecisive.

If the only business was pet grooming, then yes it appears best to use his name and business type as URL. But what happens if he decides on expanding to dog walking, or another pet-related service? Then it wouldn’t be useful as the website name would need revamping, or a new domain name would be required.

As far as just his name, no. There’s nothing that would set him apart or identify the business, unless he was famous.

Now, mind you that petgrooming as a subdomain is not good. Come up with a top level domain name first. Use subdomains for any content related to the website, for example blog.briang…

Sorry for being so vague, but I’m responding just before needing to work.

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