Hello I have a popular sports blog that i want to add a forum to, is it better to add the forum as a sub-directory of my site, ex, mysite.com/forum/ or as a sub domain? forum.mysite.com What are the pros and cons thanks
Sub domain is counted as a separate website , till folder is counted part of the website. The Sub folder will give weight to your main page till sub domain will not. At least that's my understanding on this from the Google's forums. Correct me if Iam wrong .
I will just give you an example: http://www.seobook.com/blog Check out the URL structure and decide for yourself
You can add more directories in your site in almost every hosting . But Hosting companies limiting the number of Sub domains. Better is always use Sub directories.
You are correct that the sub-domain is seen as a separate web site for the main domain and a sub-folder is seen as part of the web site for the main domain. I think both are just as easy for users to type and remember. In most cases there is really no significant difference from an SEO perspective whether you use a sub-domain or a sub-folder ASSUMING your interlinking of pages is identical except for the URL you link to: www.example.com/blog vs. blog.example.com, for example. From a user perspective I think either is just as easy to use. They each have their pros and cons from a coding an SEO perspective... Pro of Sub-domain: Google typically only shows 1-2 URLs in the first page of the SERPs for a given domain. Since a subdomain is seen as a separate site/domain, if your blog and your main site both rank very well for the same keyword phrase(s) then it is possible to get up to 4 listings on page one of the SERPs (2 for your domain and 2 for your sub-domain). Cons of Sub-Domains: 1) Since sub-domains are seen as separate domains, they won't inherit certain domain level ranking factors like domain trust and domain authority from the main domain. For most sites, this is a non-issue because they have very little of either. 2) From a coding perspective, if your site is based on a CMS then frequently navigations and menus are built dynamically thru code by displaying a page's (for example, the home page's) children pages in the navigation. If you want the sub-domain to show up in these navigations it typically has to be hardcoded since it doesn't live under the main domain's home page in the CMS. Pros of Sub-Folders: 1) Since sub-folders are part of the main domain, the DO inherit all domain level ranking factors like domain trust and domain authority from the main domain. Again, most sites have very little of either. 2) Since it IS part of the main site's domain, if your site is based on a CMS and you are building navigation menus dynamically, it doesn't typically require hardcoding to get a link to your blog to show in the navigation. Cons of Sub-Directories: Having your blog as a sub-directory means if you only have a chance for 2 items on page 1 of the SERPs if both your blog and other pages on your site rank very well for a particular keyword phrase. Deciding Factors for Me: If I were deciding which to use it would come down to weighing the ease of coding navigations on my site (if applicable - i.e. if I am using a CMS) and the likelihood that several pages on my blog as well as several pages on the rest of my site will rank well for the same keyword phrases. If I use a CMS and want to build navigations dynamically and there isn't much chance of the blog and other parts of the site ranking for the same terms, then I'd go with the sub-directory to make coding easier. If I use a CMS but my navigations are hard coded anyway and/or my blog and other parts of the site are likely to rank for the same terms, then I'd probably go with the sub-domain in hopes of having more real estate on page 1 (up to 4 listings) for certain keyword phrases.
Thanks for the great answers. The purpose of this question is that i want to add a forum to my sports blog. The forums discussion will likely be an addition to my already blog comments. Users can create new topics add video and pictures, something they can't do in a blog comment system. So its better to use a subdomain in hopes to get different serps?
the sub domain will be seen by search engines as another site, so it means you may have to do additional promotion to promote it, but not using a sud domain means they see it as part of your site
And search engines, unfortunately don't rank sites... they rank individual URLs... So as long as you link to blog.example.com everywhere on your site that you would have linked to example.com/blog, the effects are identical... You will be passing blog.example.com the same amount of PR that you would pass example.com/blog... no difference in PR. And either way, both will get credit for the link text... again no difference. It's really 6 one way... half a dozen the other... except for the few exceptions I mentioned above. Very few sites have enough domain trust and domain authority for using a subdirectory to actually have even a small SEO advantage over using a sub-domain.
i will choose sub-domian anyway , it's seen separate, so your blog and your main site both rank very well.