Normally I would be the one answering a question like this but right now I am in the situation where I cannot see the trees because of the forrest. Let's say we are building a nation wide directory for real estate all 50 States, Canada, and then rest of the world (sorry not discriminating, just trying to keep it mainly continental ) Anyways, what would you guys do, have 52 subdomains or 52 folders? like http://california.realestateforum.com/sandiego/agent vs http://www.realestateforum.com/california/sandiego/agent ? I would like to focus on the seo aspects but also anything else that may come into play such as brandability and so on. Please place your opinions here. We mean business with this and I rather do things right the first time Mike
Personally i wouldn't bother with either as it would take alot of time to organise and update, especially having to modify the content of 52 folders! IMO you should use a database and if you REALLY wanted to make some kind of distinct seperation like folders, you could use Mod_Rewrite to make it seem like folders Of course you could just as easily have it as a ?cat=Indonesia jobbie Just my 2.5 cents, YoungCoder
I think that SE's like easy to read URL's and it helps SERP placement, look at what the folks that are coming out at the top are doing and copy them.
I only smoke cigarettes But seriously this is important. The subdomains vs folders, or other. From an seo standpoint I am flexible now since everything seems to work (disagree if you like).
my real estate forum is only the beginning of what is yet to come. and I don't want to make any mistake which could be prevented.
Like I told you already, go to your main competition and see how they are doing it, I know that there is another big Real Estate forum that a member here linked to a hell of a lot.
Sub-domain ------------------- Pros: - Looks more attractive in the address bar - If one subdomain gets sandboxed/penalized, less likely to affect others - Keywords in hostname - possibly gives more weight? Cons: - Technically more difficult to setup/maintain - SEO benefits might not pass down as well from parent www. sub-domain? Directories ------------------- Pretty much the converse of the above
I don't care about the competition. They don't see the big picture. This is about what will work best in the next few years to come. seo, server and visitor wise, what looks best in the browser and what brands a domain name best, no matter what will be on it (cannot get into details, patent pending)
Thank you! - Looks more attractive in the address bar but will it still brand the name well? - SEO benefits might not pass down as well from parent www. sub-domain? ic so bascially the folder can help more but can cause more damage if an agent does something goofy
Hey ST! I think if you want to 'brand' each state in the directory separately I would go with subdomains. It may be more work on the technical end, but certainly much easier for you to promote. The bigger picture may be that it's easier to simply market your primary domain and leave it at that. This is always the big debate for any business...do you do what's easier for you, or what's easiest for your target audience. Put yourself in their shoes and go from there. Of course investment costs also play into this. How do you want to organize your content? Can you afford a backend setup that supports that, as well as work within a subdomain structure? Nothing is ever easy...lol.
Here's another thought... Some of the most successful Internet sites are surprisingly low-key when it comes to layout. They focused on the most simple easy to understand format. Example... www.Craigslist.com.