When is it wise to use subdomains?

by chassm

Posted: 15 years ago 9 replies

WEB DESIGN

Hi,

I'm about to add a blog to my static site and I'm wondering if I should add the blog on its own subdomain, so rather than have this: mysite.com/blog/ it would be something like this: blog.mysite.com. Has anyone experienced a better result using either one of these methods? I've seen a few authority sites in different niches using the subdomain method and their PR is through the roof, makes sense but I'd really like some feedback from you guys.

The same thing goes for other related or lateral subjects within a niche, not blogs, I mean instead of creating subfolders like this: mysite.com/lateralsubject/ do this instead: lateralsubject.mysite.com. Does this work ok or does it even matter?

Thanks a lot

Charlie.

#subdomains #wise

pavondunbar 15 years ago

In my opinion, chassm...

Any one will do just fine.

I personally like www.yourdomain.com/blog instead of blog.yourdomain.com.

I guess it's a matter of an individual's preference, but maybe someone else on here can offer more insight...

Maybe one will rank better than the other in search engines, for example...

Happy New Year and best of luck to you!

Pavon
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- chassm 15 years ago
  
  Yeah I was kind of sold on doing it this way: mysite.com/blog, but then I ran into a site that ranks pretty well and shows the other style for their subfolders or lateral subjects and their blog. So I stated to get ideas about it, and I really want to do this right so it's a little tough to decide for one right now without getting some opinions.
  
  Thanks Pavon.
  
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  pavondunbar 15 years ago
  
  No problem...
  
  Like I said, I think other people that respond to this post will give you more logical reasons to use one over the other...
  
  I was giving you a personal reason...
  
  In any case, best of luck to you...
  
  Pavon
  
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kowulz 15 years ago

I'd recommend a separate URL if ranking matters to you. I use HostMonster and its less then a hundred bucks a year with pretty much unlimited AddOn domains. Most SEO people will probably agree that the FrontPage or Index page gets the most attention generally. Some Spiders will go a couple of levels deeper.
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- 440Music 15 years ago
  
  If this were my site and I want ed to ad a blog I would /blog it. The reason I would do it that way is because when you blog.site that is called aliasing and is seen by the search engines as a separate site alias. Like mail.site or www.site every time you alias the site the information is seen as not related. Although if you do decide to blog.site make sure you have a link to the www.site so people can go from one to the other.
  
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Lloyd Buchinski 15 years ago

Let me see, how would cnn do it? OK, here it is,
News and Information, Diet, Fitness, and Mental Health from CNN health

Well, it doesn't show because of the display text, but basically
they just use cnn.com/health, and they seem to rank ok. This
keeps popping up, not just with blogs.
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rarebiz 15 years ago

Subdomain is like having almost entirely new site. Have to promote it from zero.
You might want subdomain, if:
- your main domain has too much content
- separate between language, eg. en.domain.com, us.domain.com
- different service, eg. mail.domain.com

Niche content site, it's better to focus on subfolder. Based on experience.
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cristina12 15 years ago

If you want to build a separate topic, use a subdomain. Search engines have traditionally looked at subdomains as a separate site. You don't want to pay for hosting another site, but you want to build a blog about another topic. You can do this by using a subdomain. You can create a blog about turkeys by simply adding a subdomain. The search engines will treat it as a separate site and you're good to go. You might want to use this approach if your domain has a lot of brand recognition. If your site is a household name, it would be wise to get that name in there as much as possible, even if the new site is about a different topic.
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ThalesMM 15 years ago

Now that makes me wonder what should I do.
Well, I'll stick with my idea of one niche = one website. I haven't had success with subdomains, unless it is a blog... sitename.com/blog, that's better...
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