Plugin Author
Stiofan
(@stiofansisland)
Hello,
You could make your site a WordPress Mulstistite, this lets you either create sub sites as subdomains or as a new directory /folder/. This i think is what you are after, it lets you share the same user login tables etc. and you as the super admin can easily manage each site. This is not specifically a GD feature, it is a WordPress feature, https://developer.ww.wp.xz.cn/advanced-administration/multisite/create-network/
Most hosting will support multiste WP, but i have seen some that don’t, its best to check with your hosting first.
If you have any further questions, or if i have misunderstood anything please let me know 🙂
Thanks,
Stiofan
Hi Stiofan, thanks for your reply. I definitely do not want to go down the road of a multisite configuration.
I’m simply trying to avoid creating an entirely new website at the subdomain that doesn’t have the benefit of my ecommerce implementation, my customers, my payment gateways, and everything else that I can’t think of in advance that will be an issue with two isolated websites.
I simply want your product to not instantiate the directory at /directory and simply instead do it at a subdomain. I’m assuming this is not a herculean task and can be accomplished with enough dev intent. It sounds like this is not available in your product.
Please confirm my understanding. Equally, let me know if my concerns are unfounded and if I’m missing something about how your product could be used in a way that mitigates or eliminates my concerns.
Plugin Author
Stiofan
(@stiofansisland)
Hello,
Let me start off by saying:
Can it be done: YES
Should it be done: NO
Exactly what you want can be done but its a pretty complext thing to do and nothing about it is standard in WordPress, it would take custom re-writes and reverse proxies which are both fragile things…
Your options:
1. If you really want it as a subdomain, you should use WP Multiste, this shares user logins, it also shares all plugins and themes but each site can activate different plugins and themes. I assume you are using WooCommerce, this would have its own orders and customers tables, so if you wanted everthing in once place for things like orders, you would need some custom code to pull that in.
You have to do some adanced things with cookies to be able to share the session so that loginng in on one logges you in on both.
2. You could just install GD on your main single site and not have these issues, the very basic URL structures you can have for GD would be something like:
/places/
(this is the archive of all listings, you can change places to almost anything ie: /listings/)
/places/joes-burgers/
(this is the minimum ULR structure for an individual listing, though you can have much more complex ones including the category and all location slugs.)
I guess the question is, what is your reason for not wanting it on the main sites?
Thanks,
Stiofan
Thanks much for your detailed response, Stiofan. The reason is that we already have an authoritative and full-featured ecommerce site that is well established with the search engines when it comes to fitness & health information, products, and services.
It is our belief, that from an SEO perspective, introducing a Directory portion of the website onto the main domain brings forward significant risk in terms of topic dilution. Right now, we are authoritative and credible for heavily researched scientific information when it comes to fitness and health. We also provide some products and services that are tightly aligned with the same subject matter.
So, we are strongly concerned about our long-term performance with search engines by now also introducing a directory (such as gyms, doctors, etc.). Please let me know what your experience shows of your customers that have introduced a Directory and if you feel our fears are unfounded.
Plugin Author
Stiofan
(@stiofansisland)
I would guess it depends on how unique your content is and how many listings, but i’ll ask our SEO Expert for his thoughts.
Thanks,
Stiofan
Plugin Author
Paolo
(@paoltaia)
Hi,
If the concern is topic dilution, it likely comes from not being fully confident about the type of content to publish in the directory. If the directory offers high-quality, relevant information that genuinely helps the same audience already trusting the main site, there should be no fear of harming SEO. In fact, it would strengthen topical authority. The real issue comes if the content is thin, off-topic, or perceived by users as unrelated.
That said, if the worry persists, the safer option is to run the directory on a subdomain. As Stiofan mentioned, that means setting up a new WordPress install or converting the current install into a multisite network. Beyond that, there isn’t much more flexibility.
So the choice comes down to confidence in content quality and relevance:
- If the directory will be strong, well-researched, and useful, it belongs on the main site.
- If doubts remain, best to isolate it on a subdomain.
Thanks,
Thank you, Paolo, I appreciate the discussion here and your comments.
Here’s a specific example of a top brand (Peloton) and what they did.
They have this https://www.onepeloton.com/classes – workout classes on the main domain. Exercises are done with their equipment so makes sense here.
https://www.onepeloton.com/showrooms- Product showroom locations on the main domain https://hotelfinder.onepeloton.com/en/ – but hotel directory finder? That’s on the sub-domain
The information is not trivial and we obviously wouldn’t want to go down this path if it wasn’t valuable to our audience. But, the concern is that a doctor/facility/gym directory simply isn’t as tightly relevant to the rest of what we have to offer that the search engines are very comfortable in understanding about us.
Finally, I may be making too much of the fact that it’s undesirable to just create a completely different website on the “directory.” subdomain for this purpose. Can you guide my thinking here? I was thinking of capabilities such as charging for premium listing and other potential interaction that may happen between our Customers, providers, and other factors where it would be compelling to use one website instance/database/WooCommerce/payment gateways/etc. instead of multiple websites.
But, please let me know if I’m overthinking it or putting too much value on such potential synergies where they may not exist. And, thus, I should just support a separate new website on that subdomain and that’s the best path.
Plugin Author
Paolo
(@paoltaia)
I personally believe the best approach is to create a separate website on a subdomain. Even if you decided to install the directory in a sub-folder, I would still recommend building it as a standalone site. This way, the directory infrastructure won’t affect the performance of your eCommerce site, and vice versa.
Thank you, Paolo, much appreciate the detail and guidance.
