Site Size, Subdomain, Sub-directory Conundrum

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by Ajeet, Sep 12, 2004.

  1. #1
    Hi,

    I hope that my skills at forum search are not too poor, but I think that this issue has not been resolved before.

    In a couple of months, I will be creating a content/info portal. It will have about 20 different areas (kind of unrelated) with about 100 articles each. So, I have to decide whether to go the (i) subdomain.domain.com/article.htm way or the (ii) domain.com/subdirectory/article.htm or the (iii)domain.com/article.htm.

    Examples:
    (i) pregnancy.infocrux.com/article1.htm onlineeducation.infocrux.com/article2.htm
    (ii) infocrux.com/pregnancy/article1.htm infocrux.com/onlineeducation/article2.htm
    (iii) infocrux.com/article1.htm infocrux.com/article2.htm

    Method (i) I like because it helps in branding the sites separately. Method (ii) might be worthwhile in case there is a significant enough bias for bigger sites, and assuming that subdomain pages are not counted in figuring out the size of sites. Method (iii) would help only if there was real reason to believe that one level deep domains do better.

    Help appreciated.
    Thanks
    Ajeet
     
    Ajeet, Sep 12, 2004 IP
  2. mark1

    mark1 Peon

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    #2
    search on google: "site:forums.digitalpoint.com subdomains" You'll find a wealth of information
     
    mark1, Apr 23, 2005 IP
  3. fryman

    fryman Kiss my rep

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    #3
    (i): You will end up with 100 new sites, since each subdomain is treated as a new site. Can be good or bad depending on how much work you are going to do to get backlinks for each one of them.

    (ii): I think this would be a good option, put up each category into a folder, and then put the corresponding articles in each folder

    (iii): You can end up with hundreds of pages in your root folder and turn it into a huge mess. (believe me, it has happened to me and it is not a nice thing)
     
    fryman, Apr 23, 2005 IP
  4. mark1

    mark1 Peon

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    #4
    hey fryman...

    with point (iii) so what did you do about it?
     
    mark1, Apr 24, 2005 IP