Hey guys, I have a blog that has been doing pretty well, and I want to add a forum to build up a community. For indexing and general SEO, is it better to put the forum on it's own subdomain like this? forums.blog.com Or in it's own directory like such? blog.com/forums What are the pros in cons of each? Thanks in advance!
It is my understanding that a subdomain and directory are treated exactly the same. I really wouldn't worry about it. Why would Google prefer one over the other? It wouldn't make sense.
Agree with zac439 - it shouldn't make any difference from SEO point of view. However, forums.blog.com might be easier to remember for your readers!
Alright guys thanks! The reason I was asking was because I remember hearing something about google treating subdomains as an entirely different website. But they was a long time ago, I think I'll go with the subdomain route
They do treat subdomains as a separate sites in most cases. For example, Google will only show 2 results for a domain on a single SERP... However, we frequently will get 2 results for our main domain and maybe one or two more results on the same SERP page for our subdomains. This would be one of the advantages of using a subdomain over a directory. It's my understanding that for certain domain level ranking factors like domain authority, domain trust, etc. a subdomain typically has to start all over building trust and authority where the directory, because it is part of the main domain, would already be considered trusted or authoritative because it is part of the domain. Supposedly, subdomains whose main domains have really high domain trust and/or really high domain authority can inherit these from the main domain, but typically the subdomain is starting from scratch again. So for less trusted sites it would be an advantage to use a directory over a subdomain... if you don't want to start over building trust and authority. But there are advantages and disadvantages to both from an SEO, coding, and usability perspective. I wouldn't worry to much about it and do what fits your needs best.
+1 that the subdomains and subfolders are treated the same. I prefer subdomains. Also, always add a CNAME record so that visitors can also visit, say, www.subdomain.domain.com (not just subdomain.domain.com). My suggestion.