Subdomains — category-based with path routing per tool

decision Thu Jun 25 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) decisionbrandingsubdomainseocategoryrouting

Subdomains — category-based with path routing

Decision

Tools no longer get one-subdomain-each. Instead, tools live at <category>.oriz.in/<tool>. Example: finance.oriz.in/emi, finance.oriz.in/sip, finance.oriz.in/tax-80c. The category subdomain is the SEO anchor; the path identifies the specific tool. Function-based per-tool subdomains (e.g. emi.oriz.in, sip.oriz.in) are abandoned.

Why

• Topical authority compounds — every internal link from /emi to /sip raises both for "finance.oriz.in" in Google's eyes. Per-tool subdomains fragment that signal.
• One CF Pages project per category — fewer projects, less build-quota pressure, simpler analytics rollup.
• Better cross-tool UX — users on the EMI calc see related calculators in the sidebar without crossing domains.
• Aligned with category consolidation — one finance repo serving ten routes is cheaper than ten repos serving one route each.
• Subdomain real estate stays focused — <category>.oriz.in reads as a destination ("the finance toolkit") rather than a single-purpose page.

Implications

• Existing per-tool subdomains (e.g. emi.oriz.in) either get 301-redirected to finance.oriz.in/emi or freed entirely.
• The 11 archived tools (eleven-saturated-archived-2026-06-25) free their subdomains automatically.
• CF Pages DNS provisioning workflow targets <category>.oriz.in, not per-tool.
• Sitemap-of-sitemaps registers one entry per category subdomain instead of one per tool.
• Per-app knowledge bundles consolidate too — one knowledge/ folder inside the category repo covers every tool route.
• Where a tool deserves its own subdomain (a major standalone product, not a calculator), it can still claim one. The default is category routing.