Hi there, I'm thinking of adding on some forums to my site, and would welcome any thoughts on whether there is any advantage to setting up the new URL as a sub domain (such has http://forums.mysite.com) as opposed to www.mysite.com/forums. Is there any difference between the two? Thanks alot,
It would depend on how you managed it. While I only have limited experience with that scenario, I use sub-domains to set-up separate accounts so that other people can administer the section of the site. For example, your sub-domain forum.whatever.com would be a completely separate FTP/login account than your whatever.com root domain. I can't comment on SEO, but I assume that sub-domains would supersede folders? From a user's standpoint, I prefer to see a sub-domain for major items like blogs and forums rather than a folder. It just makes it seem like the website's administrator took the time to make it work rather than just throwing it in a folder.
No they would not supersede the folders, both would appear as the same... forums.name.com and the name.com/forums would both be separate FTP logins if you set them up correctly. I would recommend forum.name.com rather then name.com/forum