(9)
Last week, we reported Google changed how Google Webmaster Tools reports links from subdomains.
There was speculation that this change also meant that Google has changed how they handle subdomains for ranking purposes. That is not true.
Googler, Pierre Far said in a Google + post that this is not true. He said it is only related to reporting within Google Webmaster Tools and not for how Google handles ranking.
Let me quote Pierre:
Dear webmasters: A lot of people have seen the recent announcement about the recent reorganization of backlinks in Webmaster Tools and are saying it's a reflection of a new way that Google handles links for ranking purposes.Wrong.
This change is only for how Webmaster Tools displays link data to help webmasters understand their links a bit better. The most common use case is for links to both www and non-www versions of the same site, even if these two different hostnames are canonicalized correctly. Previously, Webmaster Tools considered the links to each separately even though webmasters (and everyone else) considered them to be the same site. That situation was not ideal and so this change helps simplify things quite a bit.
Are we clear now?
Glad Google cleared that up.
Forum discussion at Google +.
Comments:
David Johnston
09/06/2011 04:23 am
Only a matter if time. ;)
Colin
09/06/2011 09:29 am
Interesting!
Syed
09/06/2011 03:48 pm
Agreed.
Joe Youngblood
09/06/2011 07:14 pm
i thought it was a gust of wind, but it was just HubPages CEO's sigh of relief after reading this. I had my doubts that Google would make such a drastic changed, but of course this whole year has been insanity.
Dewaldt Huysamen
09/07/2011 11:51 am
Never thought it was anything related to new ranking signals
Dan Patterson
09/07/2011 03:21 pm
Glad they cleared this up!
SEO Chester
09/13/2011 06:42 am
Good to hear how it actually is :)
Gabriel
01/26/2012 11:42 am
I'm not sure this one is good news, but at least we know how they consider.
istvan juhos
01/26/2012 11:52 am
Do you consider if your subdomain deals with a different topic than your main domain, could effect google's view about your whole interest, S engine presence and rankings? Think of anchor text, links comming from a different niche ...