Alternate to using a subdomain If you don’t have the restriction and would like to build everything on HubSpot, I recommend only one primary domain. This will build SEO value towards one domain instead of multiple domains.
www.yourdomain/lp – Landing page URL, will need to manually ad lp/ for each post
If you’re not using HubSpot for your main website hosting (like WordPress) but just use it for landing pages and blog. I would recommend this approach.
yourdomain.com – Main website hosted on another CMS like WordPress (notice no www)
I've also used: inbound.[domain].com for landing pages know.[domain].com for the knowledge base
I would only use a subdomain if the a content cluster is becoming "heavy". Or if, in the case of landing pages, we prefer it to be separate to make it easier for us to look at the analytics.
Otherwise, as other have said, best to keep it simple.
The other two more popular ones I've seen are "Corp." and "Help."
I'm a fan of keeping them really simple and not open to interpretation. I've seen some businesses go rather flashy and try to come up with clever names related to their brand or a particular product but, in all honesty, it means you are using a subdomain that can only be used on a limited amount of pages. I want to ensure that I'm getting the most bang for my buck with each subdomain, so if it's own that I can host an entire catalog of content with then it's a winner in my eyes.
I like the idea of using subdomains for it, though and the way you're using it makes most sense. I wouldn't complicate the naming scheme just to be a little different. If I was visiting your domain and I know that you're using something so straightforward, it would make most sense to me rather than things like: ourteam.domain.com or letsgo.domain.com
Even though they are 'hip' it doesn't always make sense to sacrifice simplicity for the sake of branding.
I completely agree on the naming conventions, I see a lot of 'hip' names for traditional pages on a website, these might feel like you are trend settings, but they do nothing but confuse the user and add blockers in place for conversions.
I think the way you do it @Yazz is better because sub domains are considered a separate entity by search engines. I prefer to keep all my website content on the same domain for this reason.
Sep 2, 202011:59 AM - edited Sep 2, 202012:00 PM
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Best Subdomain Example Names
@LloydBirch - That is the exact reason why we tag it at the end of the URL. We keep subdomains for things that are separate entities but need to be associated with the website, like our Knowledge Base, for example.
@Yazz That's actually one of the main reasons I'm not using the blogging and landing page tools within hubspot, I don't want the content sat on seperate sub domains. Do you use hubspots landing/blog page tools?
I am using HubSpot for both and I strongly encourage you to do the same. You do not have to use subdomains in order to use HubSpot's Blogs/Landing Pages, you just have to create your own URL naming scheme.
Then, when you create a new Landing Page, HubSpot inserts the "www.domain.com/" portion automatically, but you have to remember to follow the naming convention this way: /lp/name-of-your-landing-page
@Yazz this option only works if they are on the HubSpot CMS, correct. There's no way to keep the domains set to www if they're hosting their main site on WordPress ...? I've been digging into this with our developers and just wanted to confirm before setting up our next client. 🙂
Wondering what you decided to do in terms of Blogs/Landing pages and subdomains in hubspot. We are not using the Hubspot CMS but I'd like to utilize Hubspot's Blog/Landing Page capabilities. Did you find a good solution for your clients that did not sacrifice SEO too dramatically?
Hey @Kierstin - I don't see why it wouldn't be possible to only use www instead of subdomains on Wordpress. If I'm not mistaken, that's the default setting for Wordpress as well. Subdomains always take the 'if you want to go this route' approach, otherwise stick with 'www.domain.com/page-name/topic-name'. Hopefully I understood your question here, let me know if I need to elaborate.
@Yazz Sorry, I meant having the blog and landing pages on HubSpot, yet not using HubSpot's CMS. So the www is pointed at another host (WordPress was just an example). If the DNS is pointing the www record at the other host, you can't host the directory-based blog and landing pages on HubSpot, right? I don't manage this part of projects anymore, so I just want to make sure there's not something I've been missing out on. 🙂
I wish I could, with full certainty, state that I know the answer to that, but I do not. I would think that you cannot because you have to tell one CMS that you are hosting with it and therefore it controls the domain fully. Maybe reach out to HubSpot support/sales and see if that's possible. I would, from personal experience, state that Wordpress is a great CMS and hosting tool but with HubSpot's new UI for website editing and all the rest that it has naturally built into it, I would urge to go full HubSpot on that solution. Just makes life so much simpler 🙂 Hope this helps!
@Yazz That's exactly what I thought and I agree 100% - move to CMS! 🙂 That is in the plan, but there are higher priorities we have to execute on first. 🙂
Thanks @Yazz I'll look into it. I'm returning to hubspot after a while with salesforce so still catching up with all the newer features and initially it looked like it would only work on a sub domain so I'll have another good look into it now that everything else is properly up and running!