Forum on subdomain or not?

Im about to setup a new forum.

Is there any difference to setting it up on a subdomain or not?

forums.domain.com or www.domain.com/forums

 

the technical answer is no, but I still prefer a subdomain

 

Thanks for your answer frankcow..

If I understand correctly subdomain.domain.com would be treated as a separate domain by SEs? Would there be any other implications?

 

I'm not aware of any other implications

 

What would be the different effect if I link to and from

forums.domain.com to www.domain.com

OR

www.domain.com to www.domain.com/forums...

 

The main difference and reason why people use subdomains or directories is that it'll allow you to have the word "forum" in the URL, or any other keyword you want.
Having your keywords in the url is good for SEs

EDIT:
Forgot my opinion,
Having keywords in the url is good for search engines, but i suggest you to just put the forum in the main directory. It's cleaner, you don't have to redirect etc.
Unless you have something else to put in the root directory put the forums there.

 

Doesn't matter much either way. I prefer the subdomain, personally.

 

I really prefer my forums on a forums.domain.com domain. No reason, it just seems cleaner to me.

 

Ok guys. Thanks for your opinions and replies.

I will be going for the subdomain!

 

I find it a little harder to get links to a subdomain sometimes -- which is why I put forums in their own directory.

 

Thats a good point joeychgo... Nevertheless I went for the subdomain option.

Overall very content with the result.

 

a Question ..

I have my forum in ***.com/forum

and i made subdomain forums.***.com

when u type the subdomain it turns automatically to ***.com/forum

unlike here , in this forum , it doesn't turn , still forums.digitalpoint.com

how to avoid this ..

thx in advance

 

You need to change the URL in the Setting of your forum admin to make it same at the exact URL.

 

from what I know

***.com/forum ---allows you to get a better PR rank faster of your main domain

forums.***.com --- PR0 back to the drawing board..../

but you know what. I still love --- forums.***.com

just my 2 cents

 

sorry seems that i didn't get you , but i can't find this in the setting

 

Here is nice debate at V7N Forums

 

Good info guys. But I have a question. What about search engines and ranking, etc. Does it depend on the forum package you're using.

And sub domain is better because a forum might not index properly and putting on a subdomain and then linking it from you main page is better. Or it does not matter if I keep the forum on the main page and have no intro or sub domain.

Thanks,
ivnj

 

Depends. I have forums that are on the root directory since they're the only thing in the site and also forums that are in a forum directory since there's a main site and then the forums. For sites that are only forums I always place the forums in the main directory, on the domain. As far as the SEO and rankinsg issues .. I am not that good into this unfortunatelly

 

i would prefer a subdomain.

 

I'd go with the subdomain.