subdomains vs subfolders - DNForum - Domain Sales, Domain Forum, Domain Appraisals, Domain Registrars

**webcomplete.com** · 01-01-2005, 10:35 AM

subdomain.domain.com vs domain.com/subfolder?

what is better for improving search engine rankings?

**OgieOgalthorpe** · 01-01-2005, 01:23 PM

I can't think of why either would be handled differently by a search engine.

**DeCal** · 01-01-2005, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by webcomplete.com

subdomain.domain.com vs domain.com/subfolder?

what is better for improving search engine rankings?

Not sure if this is still the case but i know a while ago, Google was favouring subdomain.domain.com over domain.com, think the algo's changed alot since then though.

**webcomplete.com** · 01-01-2005, 07:39 PM

This what Im trying to figure out. What is currently more favorable to search engines in improving ranking and relevancy?

My preferences currently is to use subfolders because it is easier to setup jsut by creating a folder and an index page. But subdomains requires me to reconfigure server settings and restarting the server (using apache tomcat). However subdomains have an advantage too in that you can have some subdomain forward to another server using DNS, so that you have redundancy if the webserver goes down. In that case, even if the main domain goes down, the subdomain can still function providing limited service.

But I have some other sites that cant past PR 5 even though it has thousands of links already. So every single optimization technique would be helpful.

Anyone else have current information on this topic? subdomains vs subfolders?

**RMF** · 01-01-2005, 08:10 PM

I'm finding that subdomains will appear in search engines more often then subfolders. However, google is another story. I'm still trying to figure out what google likes and dislikes. They changed something big on dec 17. Just don't know what yet.

**Moondancer** · 01-01-2005, 10:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RMF

I'm finding that subdomains will appear in search engines more often then subfolders. However, google is another story. I'm still trying to figure out what google likes and dislikes. They changed something big on dec 17. Just don't know what yet.

I don't know what they changed either but I hope I can finally get out of the sandbox with one site I have.

**tbt** · 01-04-2005, 08:14 PM

Doesn't google look at subdomain.domain.com as a whole different domain? If so, you may want to stick with subfoldiers.

**webcomplete.com** · 01-04-2005, 08:24 PM

is that a fact or a guess?

**lukeeales** · 01-04-2005, 08:29 PM

Just look at what the big sites are doing.

iGN and their network all use subdomains. cheats.ign.com. forum.teamxbox.com.

They are ranked excellently. They are a gigantic business, so I'm sure everything about the way their sites are run is optimised.

**tbt** · 01-04-2005, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by webcomplete.com

is that a fact or a guess?

I am pretty sure I read that on an SEO site, but it was a while back and I'm not sure if Google continues to do this. Short answer, I'm not sure.

**Moondancer** · 01-05-2005, 06:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tbt

Doesn't google look at subdomain.domain.com as a whole different domain? If so, you may want to stick with subfoldiers.

no, it doesn't... not really, google will provide links using the subdomain url but if you do a link popularity check all those links will come up in the results, too. what might seem like separate accounting isn't. In addition, if anybody pays attention to Alexa rankings, if you own multiple extensions of a domain name, those will get lumped together for traffic rank, even if you aren't using redirects but run them as separate sites.

**cwsteam.com** · 01-05-2005, 08:43 AM

yes, I have tested several times, a subdomain is counted as an entirely new domain. If this was not the case, instead of links, people would start buying subdomains like xyz.web.com etc etc !! I have tested this. subdomain.domain.com is like a new domain, gets 0 benefit from main domain. And depends how/what your needs are, to use subfolder or subdomain.

**ParkQuick.com** · 01-05-2005, 08:12 PM

For big sites like About.com Google treats subdomains as if they were different sites. I'm the Guide for mentalhealth.about.com and I get my own pagerank, etc., that may not be related to other about.com sites.

I'm not sure that they treat smaller domains the same way, though.

**tbt** · 01-05-2005, 08:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by healingsites

For big sites like About.com Google treats subdomains as if they were different sites. I'm the Guide for mentalhealth.about.com and I get my own pagerank, etc., that may not be related to other about.com sites.

I'm not sure that they treat smaller domains the same way, though.

I wouldn't see a reason why Google would treat big and small sites differently, agreed?

**webcomplete.com** · 01-05-2005, 08:56 PM

I dont think you get your own page rank just because your in a subdomain. You always get a different page rank for each page in a current directory/domain, so that means you can get different page rank for each subfolders and subdomains.

I think to really answer this question, I will have to setup a subfolder and subdomain with same content, get them indexed or spidered, then see what ranks higher in search results on the same keywords.

...to be continued