Google Classifies Sub Domains as Part of the Main Domain Now

The Google Webmaster Blog made a recent announcement that ruffled quite a few feathers. Some changes have been made regarding the way Google Webmaster Tools classify Sub Domains.

Before this, sub domains were considered separate sites and a link from them would be perceived as an external link by Google in its reports. From now onwards, the search engine will consider these are internal links.

To explain it better, consider this example. If you try to link from forums.abcd.com to www.abcd.com, the link is no longer from coming in from an external domain rather one flowing in internally.

Google happens to have an explanation ready for this. It says most people think of example.com and www.example.com as same these days. This will, it says, change from now. Links from both the ‘www’ versions and ‘non www’ versions will be categorized as internal links.

The idea is applicable to other sub domains as well, as people owning domains also tend to own their sub domains.

What does this augur for the future, especially for webmasters?

Will Google list lesser sub domains as individual results in its search results? In a certain way, yes it would. This has already become evident with the new site mega site links, as they do not apply for searches.

This important even has to be kept of, and it is especially applicable for aspiring and upcoming webmasters.

Contributed by:

IDS Logic