New domain vs sub-domain

[TheShortStack]

Hi there,

I'm considering buying a mobile domain for the mobile traffic to one of my sites.

Let's say I have the domain playpoker.com. There seem to be two ways that I could do this:

1. Set up a sub-domain (mobile.playpoker.com)
2. Purchase a separate domain (like playpoker.mobi) and re-direct releveant traffic there

Can someone help me out with the effects of these two options as far as SEO goes? To be honest, I'm leaning towards the separate domain. I'm guessing that the sub-domain option would allow me to pass some sort of PR value to the mobile pages instantly, but I'm not sure how important that is given that people will be directed there directly from my main pages.

Plus with a separate domain I'd be able to install a dedicated mobile theme for visitors.

You guys have any thoughts on this? I'd certainly like to hear them.

Cheers,

[Shay]

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Addz123 just did a post on this, which is linked above. Google seems to suggest the sub-domain route, which I'd suspect is more seo friendly and is less confusing to the visitor.

[TheShortStack]

Hi Shay - thanks for the reply. Yeah, I noticed Addz's blog post, but I don't necessarily want to convert my entire site: just set up a simple landing page for all mobile users.

As for SEO, this is kind of why I posted up the question. I almost don't mind about SEO on this mobile site. It's only really going to have one page on it and as long as my main site continues to rank well it will always get traffic as I'll just automatically re-direct anyone accessing the site on a mobile/tablet to the new domain.

Therefore, from a practical point of view it makes sense to go with the new domain - I just want to make sure I'm not going to damage my main site in the process ...

[addz123]

I think it depends on what your ambitions are for your mobile site.

If you just want 10 mobile-friendly pages for a little bit of mobile traffic, then definitely (without question) make a new mobile friendly site on your root domain. It just isn't worth the effort making a small mobile site on a new domain (presumably you'll have to buy) or SEO'ing it if you only intend on sending a small amount of traffic to it.

The only reason I would recommend starting a new site is if you plan on building a proper mobile site with 50+ pages.

I know you could still re-direct mobile users to a new site (regardless of doing any SEO to it), but if I was a user I wouldn't want to be re-directed to a different site entirely, plus at least with m.playcasino.com it will still have enough juice to rank in google's mobile serps. If you made a completely new separate mobile site then you wouldn't get any mobile SEO traffic to it.

[parttimepoker]

I think that this problem is going to be solved more and more often by using responsive layouts that adjust layout / element sizes to screen size.

Making multiple sites is a cumbersome solution, and there's no guarantee that your mobile version will perform the way you want across all of the various mobile browsers / screen sizes / etc.

[Ridge]

I'd say do yourself a favor in the long run and expand one of your current sites. Unless you have an awesome exact match, otherwise allow your current site to grow and offer a more comprehensive resource for your traffic. This, as we know is where the latest google algo updates are pushing things. Robust information site can and will never be a bad thing.

[TheShortStack]

Thanks for your thoughts Ridge. Part of the appeal of using the .mobi domain is that it would be the same domain as the main site as well as having some good keywords in it.

I think my gut is telling me to use the sub domain but I like the idea of having a nice separate keyword domain which also protects my brand.

[Ridge]

Ah I didn't realize it was an actual .mobi domain - I guess I thought it was a mobilexxxx.xxx type thing - So yeah I can see what you are saying. I don't have a lot of experience with actual mobile domain extensions, I've read maybe 3 case studies, but nothing compelling.