Domain vs. Subdomain

Sub-domains don't rank well in the search engines. When people use them to create private blog networks or whatever, they get whipped out with whatever update comes along. If you were going to create a site, it should look like music.com/amps.

Joey

If you use sub-domain with wordpress you can get technical problem with some plugins.

The top domain gets more ranking from Google than a sub domain. If you plan to do some SEO it is best
to only use the main domain.

That... Is complete garbage.

Completely untrue, unless you're running a multisite.


What John Hocking said is spot on.

There is no penalty from google for having subdomains because google treats them as separate websites, but usually values links between a subdomain and its domain lower than it would other links throughout the web.

What you are suggesting is, however, more difficult in terms of SEO as a whole for ranking just 1 single website. But there is no "penalty" with subdomains.

Example: Anything attached to wordpress.com or tumblr

A subdomain is viewed by google as a separate website. So let's say you have 3 topics and each has a subdomain like so:
topic1.example.com
topic2.example.com
topic3.example.com

None (or very little) of the SEO work that goes into any of the 3 topics helps the primary domain directly. It would be possible to link and direct people to the primary domain, but the main google-juice is leading to the subdomains.

But if you have sub-directories, then the primary domain gets ALL the google-juice that flows in. The primary domain ranks. Sub-directories would look like
example.com/topic1
example.com/topic2
example.com/topic3

With subdomains the 3 topics are each completely different websites that do not benefit each other and only minimally benefit the main domain. With subdirectories the 3 topics benefit each other because they're all attached to the same site.

Subdomains = different houses in the same neighborhood.
Subdirectories = different rooms in a large house.

Practically there is no penalty. But yes the link juice will be distributed all through. If you use sub domains , there is a chance search engine will consider all the sub domains as all different URLs. So in order to avoid the same, its better to go with the sub directories or sub folders making sure that only one website is being SEO'd.

The only difference is ranking..

If you rely on SEO, and search engine ranking, then stick with domains.

OK Now I'm learning

I was worried that a sub domain would not be usable because free websites are subdomains and I think (or heard/read) that free websites are really hard to get ranked. Is this because the domain itself has a bad name? Maybe too many sub domains are marked as spam?

But if I understand correctly, all things being equal as far as work put into the site, content on the site, etc. is concerned
amps.com = amps.music.com = music.com/amps

and things only get messy if I want to ADD a guitar section then
music.com/guitars > guitars.music.com (because music.com is now bigger and has more weight)?

I think I just hurt myself!

I have had better luck using sub directories over sub domains, it is possible to rank with sub domains but its a lot harder than using a regular domain name. There are some tricks and kicks you can use but mostly its about traffic and content.

Go to google and type in "tumblr guitar" and see what the results are.

Having a free site on something like blogger, tumblr, or wordpress.com is not a good idea because you don't really own the website. But they can still rank with a search engine.

No.

Work put IN, yes. But what you get OUT, not exactly, for the reason you mention right after this comment.

It will depend on your goals. It sounds like for you the equation you gave would be true. For others it will be different if the topics are different enough.

For example, I know of a small community news website where about 4-5 opinion writers each have their own subdomain. Everything about each of the subdomains in terms of webdesign is exactly the same as the main site, so everything looks and feels and functions the same way for visitors. But having subdomains allows each writer to categorize and organize articles differently. Technically, the articles they write could draw in juice for the main site if they weren't in subdomains. But the goal of that website isn't to do that, they just want things to be easily organized.

I have a website that runs on 1 software, but I don't like that software's blogging and CMS ability, so I have a subdomain with a wordpress install for the blog. I might be losing juice, but the tradeoff is that I don't have to worry about the technical details of making a wordpress install work in a subdirectory of a main website (which is possible).

You need to map out your goals to help decide what is going to work best for you.