Had an all too short trip to M3AAWG. It was great to see old friends and meet new folks. I have lots to talk about and a poll to get into the field once I get caught up on client work.
While I’m deep in the depths of my inbox, I thought I’d share a bit of insight into the question of new domain vs. subdomain that often comes up.
I can’t stress this enough. subdomain.example.com can/should/will inherit things like reputation and history and other good (or badness) from example.com, where as somethingnew-example.com starts at ground zero and looks suspect/phishy/killit with fire to anti-abuse eyes. I can’t tell you how badly my kill it with fire instinct was twitching when I saw the Equifax breach domain name. Guy who Writes the Filters at an ISP you Know.
Equifax’s domain choice was so bad their own customer support folks were sending concerned consumers to the Wrong Domain. DNS is a hierarchy. Use it!
Subdomain. Always subdomain. ALWAYS. A different ISP rep said much the same recently – subdomains inherit some reputation from the parent domain.
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Hey Laura,
Do you find it necessary to warm up traffic when using a new sub-domain (similar to an IP warming plan)?
At Gmail – yes. Other places not so much, but it’s a good idea to prepare for changes.
This is a good point when it comes to transactional. If there is inheritance, it might make sense to keep transactional (higher engagement) at the root domain. I always suggest this based on trust (familiarity) but never thought of it for reputation.