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Tuesday 11 August 2015

Sub Domains vs Sub Directories ‐ Which Is Better for SEO?


The URLs and the navigation of a site
do matter for SEO but the elements of site structure that affect SEO
don't end here. For example, take sub domains and sub directories.
These are another example of a site's structural elements that do
influence how Google ranks results. While the difference between when
a page is in a sub directory (also called a sub folder) vs when it's
on a sub domain might not be always huge, there are cases when it
really matters if you use sub domains or sub directories.


The Difference Between a Sub Domain and a Sub
Directory


Before we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of sub domains
and sub directories for SEO, let's clarify the difference between
them.


Basically, when you use sub domains, your URLs will look like
this:


subdomain.domain.com


Notice the 'subdomain' part before your main domain. This part
tells Google and your visitors that the contents in the sub domain is
separate from the contents of the rest of your site. A typical use
for sub domains is for a business site where the blog is separate
from the rest and it resides on a subdomain of its own ‐ i.e.
blog.companysite.com. Sites with forums (and other content, for
instance articles) also frequently separate the forum part on a sub
domain, such as forum.contentsite.com.


Unlike sub domains that precede the domain name, sub directories
follow it. Like this:


domain.com/subdirectory


The difference is not purely in the syntax. It goes beyond that
and it's related to the type of content you have. There isn't a rule
when to use sub domains and when to use sub directories but basically
if the content is a good candidate for a separate site, then you go
with sub domains. If the content isn't that much different from the
main content, you go with sub directories. For instance, if you have
a blog about web design, you can have separate sub directories for
tutorials, free stuff, your artwork, etc., but put the shop where you
sell templates and designs on a separate domain.


SEO Benefits of Sub Domains


It's hard to say if sub domains are better for SEO or not because
it depends on many other factors. However, one of the cases when you
would benefit from a separate domain is when you have multiple pages
for a single keyword.


Google usually limits the number of search results per domain,
unless they are very relevant but this doesn't apply to sub domains.
In other words, if you had a domain with sub directories and you have
10 relevant results, most likely Google will show only 2 or 3 of
them, while if you had 5 sub domains, chances are 2 or 3 results per
sub domain (or 10-15 altogether) will be shown. However, don't take
this for granted and don't rush to sub domaining just to trick Google
to show more results from your site ‐ this might not work and you
will have wasted your time and effort.


Another advantage of sub domains for SEO is that you can put your
keywords as sub domain names. This is especially good, if your main
domain name lacks them ‐ i.e. if your main domain is
healthsomething.com but you have lots of stuff about addiction, it
makes sense to create a separate sub domain
addiction.healthsomething.com with your keyword in it. Of course, you
can do this with sub directories as well but somehow a separate sub
domain with your keywords has more weight.


SEO Drawbacks of Sub Domains


The advantages of sub domains for SEO are tangible, however they
also have drawbacks. For instance, sub domains are harder to set and
manage.


Another disadvantage, and it's a major one, is that sub domains
don't always inherit metrics from the main domain (i.e. if your main
domain is PR5, your sub domains could be PR0 because for Google both
are not closely related). In many cases, this alone is enough to make
you give up the idea of using sub domains at all ‐ since the sub
domains are not inheriting metrics, this means you practically have
to optimize them from scratch.


SEO Benefits of Sub Folders


If you expect a longish list of SEO benefits of sub folders, there
is no such list because basically sub folders have only two
advantages.


First, similarly to sub domains, with sub folders, you can have
the keyword in your URL. Second, sub folders inherit the metrics of
your root domain, which means that if your site is doing well on a
whole, any content in a sub folder automatically benefits from this,
while with sub domains you might have to start your SEO efforts from
the very beginning.


SEO Drawbacks of Sub Folders


The main SEO disadvantage of sub folders is that they could limit
your exposure, if search results are already saturated with pages
from your site. As I already mentioned, Google generally limits the
number of search results per domain to 2 or 3, so if you have more
pages that are relevant, they might not show in the main search
results.


When to Use a Sub Domain and When to Use a Sub
Directory?


Use sub domains for larger topics ‐ i.e. if you have a health
site, it makes sense to create separate domains for each major group
of diseases (i.e. cardiovascular, respiratory, etc.) and then create
a sub folder for the separate diseases in this group (i.e. heart
attack, flu, etc.)


Also, as already mentioned, if your site has a forum and or/a a
blog in addition to your corporate pages, you should use sub domains
for the forum and the blog ‐ i.e. forum.domain.com and
blog.domain.com.


Of course, these are just general recommendations and you don't
have to follow them blindly. As usual, the ultimate test is to try
and see what works for you and what doesn't.


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