I'm wondering what the key benefits for SEO are for having a link such as.. forums.domainname.com vs domainname.com/forums Is there any key element that I'm overlooking for having a sub-domain of "forums"? Perhaps it's only good for people looking up "forums" in a search engine that has to do with my site? Btw, tried doing a search for this question but I just got a ton of forum this and forum that, not this question.
If u say benefit of forums.domainname.com on domainname.com/forums then i wud say that u cud run any forum not relevant to your niche. Otherwise i don't see any benefit. forums.domainname.com is totally a different address and don't has any relation with your domainname.com. And if you promote this sub domain then you have to give efforts from starting. This is the drawback of using forums.domainname.com & vice versa in case of domainname.com/forums So i just wanna say if you wanna run a forum relevant to ur niche then go for domainname.com/forums and if you wanna run a different niche forum then go for forums.domainname.com.
Reason why I was wondering this, is sites like World of Warcraft and their forums, they have a forums.worldofwarcraft.com, for example. I see the point though, if your having a relatively large site or plan to at some point for a variety of niches, one could be supplies.domainname.com, freestuff.domainname.com, etc.
It's quite obvious that people always try for subdomains for making large network for variety of niches. Here, I am not saying it is bad way to do or it has any negative impact. But main thing here subdomain is totally a diferent address u need to give optimization effort from starting. It wud create more work pressure. But in sub folders u cud do same thing with liitle efforts. If you have niches just relevant to your domain. If you haven't then the best option is sub domain...................