Should I structure my site using subdomains or subdirectories?



I’m interested in finding out how Google currently views subdomains — whether there’s any difference between a site structured as a group of subdomains and one structured as a group of subdirectories.
Bob, Somerville, MA

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30 thoughts on “Should I structure my site using subdomains or subdirectories?”

  1. First of all, sorry for bad English. 🙂
    Regards to all, I was looking for a solution to the problem.
    Problem is:
    If you add subdomains for mobile responsive, you got two web site to maintain and double work to do. Google bots will need double work and time to scan document, but google bots have limited time to scan document. So result will be bad because google bots won't scan all what they need. Google have limited storage resource and bad way is to double requests for resource.

    If you add subdirectories domain.com/m, probably the content will not have a HTML structure for mobile or the opposite. In that you are deprecating content and you lose trafic.
    Another problem for subdirectories is: you can't change image resolution. Image resolution 1920 px is for desktop but on mobile it's so bad looking then you need to create copy with 700 px resolution for small screens but you can't because it's not separate storage and it's same HTML structure.

    My idea for solving this problem is: Request only parts that are needed. Do not request whole document from server just for mobile content.
    An example: default resolution for image is 1920px for desktop, and when user visit web site, sending request just for pieces that we need and in this case is requesting same but smaller image resolution 700px to go to place instead of the first one. Ofcorse folder need to contain both images, so take one that we need right now.

    I'd like to hear your opinion. Is this feasible?

  2. I was wonderin i have mydomai.biz that I wan't a social community and forum aspects to be stronger than on a social marketplace where ecommerce takes a lot of space and puts aside the blog and forum community aspects. So i decided to seperate it in 2 sites the socila community on one and the marketplace on the other. I was wondering what indexes better should i perform better using 2 seperate domains one mydomain.biz and the other one mydomain.market (it'S a new domain extension) or should i attempt to deal with subdomains and use either Market.mydomain.biz or mydomain.biz/market? If so wich is better I think you answer that in this video (when a subdomain is in a /subdomain it'S more conveniant to transfer than subdomain.maindomain? so does th .market index better or the subdomains?

  3. . Just have one question about the content in most forums. Which tends to be low quality .specially in nontechnical forums such fitness, cocking, movies etc. They are fill up with images, poor keywords and short length articles. So If put the forum in main directory, isn’t that will hurt you overall ranking?

  4. You should mention SSL certificates due to the ability to cover all subdomains with a single wildcard SSL certificate rather than individual certificates required on a main domain.

  5. Is there any affect on customer review syndication between a sub domain and a sub directory? In other words, if multiple business review websites are installed on their own sub domain, is there less chance of their reviews being syndicated? Example: bizA.domain.com, and bizB.domain.com have customer reviews for their respective businesses. Will Google and/or other websites display "reviews from domain.com" or will they use "reviews from bizA.domain.com" or neither?

  6. Can you honestly tell me that all domain level ranking factors governing trust and authority are inherited by a sub domains in the same way they are inherited by a sub folder?

  7. he seems to contradict himself, here. he's saying the traditional reasons (gaming the 'crowding' algorithm) don't apply anymore, but he's not coming out and saying that subdomains are equivalent to subdirectories from an SEO perspective. "Basically equivalent" doesn't cut it, especially when people who do SEO for a living are telling me they're not. i think the real answer is that the question doesn't have a straight answer.

  8. This should not make a difference. It doesnt have extra redirects. If you are expiriencing problems with speed, consider moving WP to wpengine.com. This is the only host I am marginaly satisfied with hosting our wp sites.

  9. Well… Subdirectories are almost always a lot easier and more convenient to use that's why most people prefer it over subdomains. But then again, there's always an exception to the rule.

  10. First, whether it is on or off will slightly change the actual Analytics code. Secondly, with it "off" traffic between your sub-domains and main domains will be tracked like each is a completely unique website. In Analytics, you would then see sub-domains as traffic sources, pages where people went from one sub-domain to another would have high "Exits" or "Bounces", and your average pages/visit and time on site would be low.

  11. Wow, this is one of the few videos where Matt actually gives an explanation behind the question instead of just humming and hawing for 4 minutes before declaring that he somehow answered the question.

    Thanks for the legitimate answer on this one. Let's keep it up!

  12. I feel like this is answered but – doesn't subdirectories take away from the root domain authority? Isn't that almost the sole benefit of using subdirectories. Or is that what Matt meant by it's scrunched now?

  13. Is it bad for my company domain to have sub domains/directories that cover multiple niches?

    And if it is a bad thing, then why are ALL the Big Names allowed to do it? and their sub domains/directories ALL rank just fine in the SERP's. Both blogspot.com & facebook.com have an endless amount of sub domains/directories in multiple niches created by their members that rank #1 … So can I do the same?

  14. Awesome, Google found a way to eliminate more spammers. Get em Google. Never have been a big fan of sub-domain usage but it is a powerful way to generate more results.

  15. Though depending on your use case, you might have to configure your php.ini for allowing sessions across all sub-domains + ajax doesn't work cross-domain due to the same-origin policy. So I guess it's also a matter of trade-offs outside the realm of seo.

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