Help understanding sub-domains please?

[Frank B.]

If I have a exact name domain that I manage to rank number one on Google, can I spread any of that glory to a sub-domain?

For instance if I rank number one with browndogcollars.com how would Google read big.browndogcollars.com? Would I be competing with myself if I put a separate line of products on the sub-domain?

Can someone please tell me how that works?

Thanks,
Frank B.

[Nik]

If you're trying to rank for the same keyword with the "big" sub-domain, in a way, you will be competing against yourself. As far as SEO, google considers sub-domains as if it was a separate domain so any authority your main domain has will not be transferred. If you're trying to get a double listing in google I would do "browndogcollars.com/big". This way all you need is to rank on the first page with the second url and you will get number 1 and 2 listings.

[Frank B.]

Thanks Nik,

Your answer makes it perfectly clear. The fact that Google treats the sub as a separate domain is the piece I was missing.

[kindsvater]

Although treated as separate domain, I do not believe it has the same ranking power.

That is: apple.com has more inherent ranking power than apple.yourwebsite.com

[Nik]

That's right, as far as ranking for the word apple, the exact match domain will have more power.

[Frank B.]

How about on Wordpress or Blogger?

Would apple.com still rank higher than apple.wordpress.com?

[Nik]

Not necessarily, this isn't the only factor that google takes into consideration when it makes the decision to rank one domain over another.

For example, if you type the word "maps" in google the first domain that shows up is maps.google.com , not maps.com .

All things being equal maps.com should outrank maps.google.com . This is why it's important to pick the right domain name when we build niche websites. It determines the amount of effort we have to put in before our website ranks for the keyword we've picked.