Subdomains or subfolders better for SEO?

11 replies
  • SEO
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I recently mada a blog and forum on my website. I am wondering from an SEO standpoint is there an advantage to having them in a subdomain or in a folder extension?
#seo #subdomains #subfolders
  • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
    There are very few reasons I would consider using subdomains over folders. Google treats subdomains as separate domains.
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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by MikeFriedman View Post

      Google treats subdomains as separate domains.
      They still associate sub-domains with the root domain.
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      • Profile picture of the author AzzamS
        HIt and miss really on this one. Sure Google does state that it will treat a sub-domain differently, tbh this only came about due to sites attempting to game google by using multiple subdomains to rank. however, once Google changed the rules sub-domains had to build positioning on their own merit. However a sub-folder will receive the weight of it the root domain.

        With that said I have seen plenty of sites linking from the main root domain to the subdomain from a site-wide link usually in the header nav menu and give a lot of weight to it. This is really dependant on how much weight in the eyes of Google your site carries, for both the root and sub-domain
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        • Profile picture of the author savidge4
          I think there is a fine line here. subdomains are treated as separate domains, and sub folders are not. So the question of your intent comes into play. Are you looking to target unlike topics, or are you looking to control related topics?

          example of subdomain use:
          cars.domain
          trees.domain

          Example of folder use:
          cars .com/Honda
          cars .com/Porsche
          cars .com/Kia

          using the subdomain option is going to define for Google what the SITE is about. Using folders is going to define for Google what the PAGES within that folder are about.

          The fine line is SITE vs PAGES. and that is what I use to dictate on vs the other.
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          • Profile picture of the author yukon
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            Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

            subdomains are treated as separate domains...
            Google obviously returns sub-domains when doing a site:domain.com.
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            • Profile picture of the author savidge4
              Originally Posted by yukon View Post

              Google obviously returns sub-domains when doing a site:domain.com.
              Yes you are correct they are within the same root domain.

              Specifically how Google treats the content within the subdomain vs the folder is what I am referring to. Not so spoken "best practices" would show that content out of context to one another is best served by separating with subdomains. if you are wanting to keep some amount of separation ( SILO ) of content within the realm of related context you should be using folders.

              You simply do not see this done very often today because it is far easier to auto setup wordpress in subdirectories than it is to manually set it up in a folder. but the REALITY is if you are concerned with SEO and which way to do it.. there IS a difference between the 2.
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  • Profile picture of the author maninthemiddle
    I would only use a subdomain if the content there has a very different topic from the root site. The folder content usually benefits from the root domain earned authority, while by placing content in a subdomain you'll have to start from scratch.

    I recently read a good case study about this (the source was addressed in Moz's February 6th whiteboard friday):
    https://iwantmyname.com/blog/2015/01...subdomain.html
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  • Profile picture of the author moshiurmax
    I prefer subdomain over folder . For SEO , subdomain has advantage over folder .
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  • Profile picture of the author TeKn1qu3z
    Subdomain has great value, while subfolder works for only small purposes. If you are thinking to build a large site then go with subdomain. Both are good for SEO however, subdomain urls makes annoyable.
    I used with one of my site using Drupal cms and mybb forum in subfolder got some problems when it grew up.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bejan
    We were just questioning this and found that it's generally better to use a single domain and keep content within folders in that domain. The examples and rationale are explained here: Moz's official stance on Subdomain vs Subfolder - does it need updating? | Moz Q&A

    Follow the link to the whiteboard video and there is further rationale.
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  • Profile picture of the author SEO Power
    It's largely a matter of preference, but I recommend installing your blog in a subfolder because it's easier to optimise that way and the blog benefits from the authority of the homepage.
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