3 replies to this topic

[christelle]

1) I'm confused. Can you explain clearly to me the difference between a subdomain and a sub directory and give me an example of each please?

2) Also, i heard that subdomains are viewed by the SEs as/similar to rootdomains. So, if i have a blog i, can place it on the root domain, or blog.mydomain.com, or in a subdirectory. i hear that each option has a different effect. for instance, if i put my blog on mydomain.com/blog, then the size of my root domain will grow (since the blogs will be updated frequently).

3) then i also heard that if i place the blog on a subdomain instead of a subdirectory, the links from the subdomain (considered on par with the root domain) that points to other pages in the site are more powerful ie. they carry the weigh of inbound links from an external site.


can you go through each of these points and explain them for me please. Please disprove or prove these "myths". Please, thanks!

[torka]

1. Subdirectory: mydomain.com/blog
   Subdomain: blog.mydomain.com
   Not sure what else you need in terms of an explanation.
   
2. You can place your blog where ever you want. What difference does the "size of your root domain" make? I'm not sure I understand what you think the implications of this are supposed to be.
   
3. No. Links are links. I have seen nothing to prove to me that links from other domains carry more weight than links from the same domain. There's all kinds of speculation from people who are generally simply repeating stuff they read elsewhere, but in my many years of running "standalone" domains and three years of running a site made up of three heavily-interlinked domains (two individual domains and a subdomain of one), I haven't seen any evidence that would make me believe this assertion. And as it happens, I have a few good reasons to believe it's not true above and beyond my own observations -- so while nothing is certain in the world of search engines, in my opinion this is a myth that needs to be put to rest.

Keep in mind, the SEs index and rank pages, not sites. Inbound links are links that point to a page from another page (regardless of domain). Outbound links are links that point from a page to another page (regardless of domain).

It does appear to be true that the SEs at this point treat subdomains as a separate domain. There can -- at least for the moment -- be some benefit in the SERPs if you have two domains (or one domain and a subdomain) that rank well for the same search phrase. But I wouldn't advise making a business decision (which is what we're talking about here, really, when we're talking about where/how to set up a blog) on what the SEs are doing at this point in time -- as they can change their minds at any time.

--Torka

[Jill]

We do have some previous threads on  subdomains vs. subdirectories[/hr] as well, which you may want to read through.

[christelle]

thank you, thank you, thank you