Sub-Domains vs. Sub-Directories

What is better for my site a sub-domain? Or sub-directory?

When a client is considering a sub-domain versus a sub-directory whether it be for their blog or for a separate language version of their site (international SEO) it is best to use a sub-folder (sub-directory).

Industry News: Google’s John Mueller (he’s the Webmaster Trends Analyst and the biggest spokesperson for Google) was interviewed at a conference recently. A lot of insights came out of it, including talk of sub-domains which SEO team gets a lot of questions about, especially when it comes to blogs.

TLDR: Google does sometimes treat sub-domains differently. In general, create new content areas in sub-folders rather than sub-domains, and consider moving sub-domains into sub-folders with appropriate redirects etc. If client’s try to put their blog or other information on a subdomain, they probably aren’t getting any credit for it on their main site.

See this article for more details.

Sub-Domain

Example Blog: blog.fareharbor.com/

Example Multi-Language Site: fr.fareharbor.com/

Pros of a Sub-Domain

• For international SEO
  • Allows you to design a different site based on the needs of the language/culture
• For blogs
  • None

Cons of a Sub-Domain

• For international SEO
  • You are basically starting from scratch and can’t use any domain authority from your current site, you are building a new site with no rankings, no links, no authority, no SEO presence.
• For blogs
  • Your content will have no bearing on the performance of your main site or boost your SEO efforts
  • If you move a blog from the main site to a sub-domain, expect a loss of traffic and rankings as Google will treat it as a new site even with redirects

Sub-Directory

Example Blog: fareharbor.com/blog

Example International SEO: fareharbor.com/fr

Pros of Sub-Directory/Folder

• For international SEO
  • Uses authority of the main domain and you have a better chance of Google crawling and indexing your pages more quickly
• For Blogs
  • Uses authority of the main domain and you have a better chance of Google crawling and indexing your blog pages more quickly
  • Blogs are a great way to gain links, you want the link juice to help your main site rank better for other keywords

Cons of a Sub-Directory/Folder

• For international SEO
  • Stuck within the framework of the main domain
• For Blogs
  • None except having to work within the current framework of your main site