WebProNews

Subdomains may no longer result in several individual listings on Google's search engine results pages (SERPs). Word from Matt Cutts at PubCon Las Vegas says that soon subdomains will be treated like folders, limiting results to 2 URLs per domain.

News of the impending change comes via a thread by "Tedster" at WebmasterWorld:

"Matt Cutts informed us that Google will very soon begin treating subdomains and subdirectories the same in this fashion: there will be only 2 total urls from a domain in any set of search results, so no more getting 3, 4 or however many spots via subdomains. We didn't get any more information than just that basic heads-up."

The change could be beneficial to some and costly to others as some lose dominance in the search results and others gain exposure by moving up.

"The implications can be huge for companies," writes Barry Schwartz at SearchEngineLand. "Besides for the traffic implications, companies need to also worry about reputation management issues."