From the article I cited above: For smaller sites, go with subfolders, especially if you don't intend to increase it beyond the basic 5 pages in your root folder.
If you have 5 pages listed in 5 different subfolders, the search engine will still only index the 5 pages and will not be fooled into thinking that you have more content than you actually have.
Really? What do you base this on? I don't believe TwisterMc is talking about the same 5 pages in each of the 5 subfolders, if that's what you're thinking...
Minstrel where on earth do you come up with these ideas? No one said anything about putting the same pages in each folder??? The search engine will only index the actual page contents of your site, and will not be fooled into thinking you have more content than you do just because there are some subdirectories.
I don't know what the hell you're talking about, Mel... if you have 5 folders each containing 5 pages, that's 25 pages in one site. In most cultures, 25 is greater than 5.
Get your specs changed Minstrel, Nowhere did I say that there were 5 pages in each of five directories, I said that there were five pages in five directories in other words one page in each directory Is Canadian English that different than American? Or have you got your knickers in a bunch again?
The scenario was originally posed by TwisterMc -- you misinterpreted that, I think, to indicate that he was suggesting taking a 5-page site and creating 5 one-page folders. Unless your point is that you are ignoring his question and inventing your own again, not for the first time, I suggest that you inspect your own "specs". Go back and tell me where he actually discussed dividing up a 5 page site in the ludicrous fashion you suggest. As for your underwear fetish, give it a rest -- no one seems excited about that but you.
Well that looks to me like someone is suggesting that a five page site should use subfolders, which I quite agree is ludicrous, and to which my answers were addressed together with the erroneous premises in the article you referenced. As for your knickers it is only of interest in that once you get them twisted, your responses are less and less coherent.
See the words "root folder" up there, Mel? Did you read TwisterMc's original posts at all? It's almost amusing to see you complaining about the coherence of my posts when you misinterpret something and run with your misnterpretation for several posts...
*sigh* yes, Mel... I think everyone here realizes that. You start with the root folder and 5 pages.You want to add pages on a different topic or theme. If the root folder is to remain at only 5 pages, do you add the additional sets of pages as subdomains or subfolders? My answer: if you have no intention of increasing the number of pages in the root folder beyong the original 5, then add the other sets of pages in subfolders not subdomains. NOW do you understand? I have never been able to figure out whether you honestly don't understand English or whether you are intentionally obtuse to be aggravating. But then it doesn't matter anyway, really - you and this thread are now on ignore.
So it appears that the question relates to a small five page site and not to adding more pages on another topic (which you tried to use as your smokescreen) and which was answered by: to which you replied: Now the way I read English the "it" refers to the smaller sites not the root directory. NOW do you understand Minstrel? BTW thanks for the ignore it will make posting here much more pleasant.
Ok play nice. Here is a real world example.... site : http://www.itwister.net subdomain : http://mp3-downloads.itwister.net/ Would it be more beneficial for small sites like the mp3 one to be located at mp3-downloads.itwister.net/ OR www*itwister*net/mp3-downloads/ ( sorry had to use *s because I didn't want that turning into a real link. )
Okay - having the actual link makes it easier to visualize the site. It looks as though at the moment the main site at http://www.itwister.net is like a portal to a number of other sites and subdomains, some within the twister.net complex and others offsite? For those not offsite, you seem to have a number of different and logically separate enterprises going on. From a customer/visitor standpoint, I would think that subdomains might be more clear. However, from an SEO standpoint, if you review the article from highrankings.com, it would depend on how large those different subdomains or subfolders are going to be. If you are looking at a number of small "subsites", each with only a few pages, you might do better to have them in subfolders off the root folder. If one or more are going to be larger sites in their own right, I would be inclined to create subdomains for those (e.g., perhaps the mp3 site you mention above would fall into that category).
That's exactly what I've been looking for. Thanks. Now, what would you consider a larger site? More than 5 pages? More than 10? More than 50? I don't see my sub-domain sites ever getting above 10 pages. They are just small ideas that don't necessarily go anywhere. Thanks for help so far.
I don't think there's any hard and fast rules... If the site is a stand-alone site and has 10 pages, I'd probably think about making that a subdomain. Smaller than that, probably a subfolder but there can be good reasons for wanting the greater separation of sites that you'll get with a subdomain.