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      Subdomain Landing Pages

      Overview

      Nyla can be used in two ways:
      1. to power a full website
      3. or on a subdomain independently from the “main” site
       
      Some of our customers start with the subdomain approach and then later look at switching to full site mode.
      Website URLs can impact SEO, so it’s important to understand the potential impact a subdomain approach might have on the SEO of a website.
      In this article, we’ll cover
      • Best practices for SEO to follow when using Nyla on a subdomain
      • Frequently asked questions about using Nyla on a subdomain
       
      NOTE: The following notes are provided by way of reference based on our experience working with merchants. We advise you to engage an SEO subject matter expert to advise on best practices periodically and prior to any important changes to your site.

      Best practices when using Nyla on a subdomain

      Site Settings
      Make sure that in Site settings, you enter your specific subdomain in the Domain field.
      Set Canonical URLs
      If you are making exact copies of existing pages (for example copying product pages) that also exist on your main site, make sure to set the URL of your corresponding product page as the canonical URL. You can do this in Page Settings > SEO > Set Canonical URL and type the URL of the page you want search engines to consider “canonical”. This needs to be done a per-page basis to ensure search engines don’t get confused.
      Moving from Landing Page to full Nyla
      If you want to upgrade your subdomain site to full Nyla, you should keep the subdomain active for at least a month or so and set 301/308 redirects for each page so that the page authority transfers to the new site.

      FAQ

      Will my main site SEO be negatively impacted if I have Nyla running on a subdomain?

      While we have no inside information on the the way Google algorithms work, Google consistently claims their algorithms are smart enough to understand and properly index subdomain content. Regardless, be sure to take the steps listed above to safeguard your SEO just in case.

      If I’m using Nyla on a subdomain to power landing pages and later decide to go with full Nyla, will I be able to carry over the SEO “juice”?

      Yes, provided 301/308 redirects are set on a per-page basis following the transition to full Nyla.

      If I decide to stop using Nyla, will I lose any domain authority accumulated on the subdomain?

      You should never simply delete a URL with SEO value. Provided you have sent sufficient traffic, you can decide to maintain the subdomain and set individual 301/308 redirects set to corresponding pages on your main site for some time (Google recommends at least a year, other experts we’ve talked to have suggested at least 6 months).

      Can I use Nyla for landing pages on a subdomain as a long term solution?

      As of this writing, we are not aware of compelling evidence that long term usage of subdomains for landing pages results in less “SEO juice” overall. Usage of subdomains for delivering landing pages long term is a common strategy used in a variety of cases. That said, it is logical to suppose that — contrary to what they might claim — search engines could directly or indirectly prioritize content directly housed on a domain more highly than that found on a subdomain. Regardless, in light of the many other benefits of using Nyla for full sites, we have observed that Nyla customers who start with a subdomain implementation generally do move to full site implementations over time, such that we do recommend this as part of a long term strategy.

      References