What is the point of using subfolders when Google will no longer treat them as independent entities from the root domain? Vanessa Fox writes at Search Engine Land:
“Google is no longer treating subdomains (blog.widgets.com versus widgets.com) independently, instead attaching some association between them. The ranking algorithms have been tweaked so that pages from multiple subdomains have a much higher relevance bar to clear in order to be shown.”
I would have to agree with Loren Baker from his blog post “Subdomains or Subfolders : Which are Better for SEO?”:
“So, in conclusion, if you’d like to build the equity of one web site or entity, I suggest using a subfolder. If you’d like to build an entire new entity with its own equity, launch a subdomain.”
However, when client ask me if they should have subdomain in there web structure I tell them, “I personally would put the website into subfolders before I put it into subdomains.” From my experience, I have seen Google giving more credit to the root domain when I have the site in a subfolder format. But then case studies like the Home Depot example in Loren Bakers blog will prove us subfolder preacher wrong.
So at the end of the day, what is your method? subFolder or subDomains?
The two are very different in terms of how you get indexed. Directories off the root are just more content that is generally less important than the home page. The sub-directories on the other hand are viewed as separate sites. You can even get individual sets of SiteLinks on Google for a sub-domain. You can even add specific geo-targeting to a sub-domain. The biggest trick to dealing with a sub-domain is to be extra careful to not have any mistakes like content duplication, bad headers, etc.
Gary,
This is a topic that has interested me since I got into the SEO industry. I definitely think using a subfolder is the better option. Even though I’ve heard that Google can tell that a subdomain is actually a part of the root domain I don’t think they’ve perfected the science yet.
Regardless if Google, or the other engines, can tell and we just don’t know it yet, I would be uncomfortable taking a chance on a recommending a subdomain – which runs the risk of being treated like a separate site – until it becomes common knowledge that it’s treated the same as a subfolder. And that’s assuming it will ever get to that point.
As one certain car insurance company would say…play it safe.