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subdomain vs subdirectory

by michaeloslier
5 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi guys

I'm looking to create some landing pages for different products that I have but I'm not sure whether I should use subdomains or subdirectories.

Could someone outline the pros and cons for both?

I'd love to hear about people who have made this decision and what they have experienced.
#subdirectory #subdomain
  • Profile picture of the author loaf1011
    Michael - as a former subdomain addict, I've finally got myself to commit to subdirectories instead. Search engines treat subdomains differently (especially when it comes to root to root links, which is a main SEO factor), while subdirectories are much easier and cleaner.

    Here's what Rand Fishkin from Moz recently said about the issue:
    Originally Posted by Rand Fishkin

    Hi James - I would still strongly urge folks to keep all content on a single subdomain. We recently were able to test this using a subdomain on Moz itself (when moving our beginner's guide to SEO from guides.moz.com to the current URL SEO: The Free Beginner?s Guide From Moz. The results were astounding - rankings rose dramatically across the board for every keyword we tracked to the pages.
    Source: Moz's official stance on Subdomain vs Subfolder - does it need updating? | Moz Q&A
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    • Profile picture of the author michaeloslier
      Originally Posted by loaf1011 View Post

      Michael - as a former subdomain addict, I've finally got myself to commit to subdirectories instead. Search engines treat subdomains differently (especially when it comes to root to root links, which is a main SEO factor), while subdirectories are much easier and cleaner.

      Here's what Rand Fishkin from Moz recently said about the issue:


      Source: Moz's official stance on Subdomain vs Subfolder - does it need updating? | Moz Q&A
      Why were you a subdomain addict before?

      This all makes sense from a SEO perspective.
      Are their any pros at all for subdomains?
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  • Profile picture of the author loaf1011
    I personally would just rather tell someone to go to "blog dot domain dot com" rather than "domain dot com slash blog." I like the simplicity of subdomains. But over the years I've seen far too many people type www.subdomain.domain.com and cringed, so I'm completely sold on subdirectories now.

    And no, I cannot see any pros for subdomains. I think the most recognized "proper" use of them is for different languages (ie en.website.com versus es.website.com), but even then I see this trend dying.
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  • Profile picture of the author forthright
    I'm looking to create some landing pages for different products
    How many landing pages and are they related. If they are completely different I'd use a subdomain for each. If they are related create folders for them. But it doesn't make much of a difference. The average internet user may be confused by subdomains. But domain.com/landingpage is a familiar url.
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  • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
    Subdirectory is just a (virtual) directory under your current site, but from a technical point of view subdomain is actually another independent website. You can link both the same way, and pass link juice to your pages just fine, but in my opinion there's no reason to divide your backlink profile among several subdomains if you can just use one domain.
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    Links in signature will not help your SEO. Not on this site, and not on any other forum.
    Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

    What's your excuse?
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