Domain structure
Domain structure is how a website's domain, subdomains and folders are organized, which shapes how people, search engines and AI read it.
Domain structure is how a website is laid out across its domain, any subdomains and its folders. fernhillcoffee.com is the domain. shop.fernhillcoffee.com is a subdomain. fernhillcoffee.com/blog/ is a folder. Country sites might sit on their own domains, like fernhillcoffee.de, or in folders, like fernhillcoffee.com/de/.
The choices shape how search engines group your pages, how links to one part of your site help the rest, and how easily anyone can tell which pages are yours.
Subdomain or folder?
This is the question most teams argue about. A folder keeps everything under one site, so it's simple to manage and measure. A subdomain can make sense when a section runs on different software or is run by a different team, such as a help center or a shop.
Whatever you choose, keep it consistent and readable. Google's advice on URL structure is to use plain words in addresses, keep them short, and avoid piles of parameters.
Why it matters in AI search
AI answers cite pages by their address, and tools that measure those citations need to know which addresses belong to you. When your content is scattered across a main domain, a few subdomains, an old campaign site and a separate domain for each country, it's easy to miss some of the times the platforms use your pages.
For example, Kestrel Roasters runs its blog on blog.kestrelroasters.com and its shop on kestrelroasters.co.uk. Answers cite the blog's brewing guides often, but if only the shop domain is listed as Kestrel's site, those citations look like someone else's.
A clear structure also helps the platforms understand you as one brand rather than several unrelated sites.
In AnswerOrbit
Add every domain you own under Names in Settings, so we can tell your pages apart from everyone else's. Sources sorts each page by owner: your website's exact address first, then your other domains, then your competitors'. You can also group domains and pages, and tick Include the pages under it to follow a whole section of a site. See Settings and Sources.