Subdomain vs Subdirectory Blogs: What Is Better For SEO?

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Are you trying to determine whether to use Subdomain vs Subdirectory? Both options come with their unique benefits and drawbacks. In this blog, we will explore the advantages of each and why you should consider them. Stick around to find the best choice for your business and how it can positively impact your site's performance. Let's dive into the pros of Subdomain vs Subdirectory and the many benefits of blogging for business.

What Is A Subdomain?

Subdomains are subdivisions of a larger domain, typically used to organize and categorize content within a website. They appear as a prefix to the main domain name, followed by a dot. For example, in the URL "blog.example.com," "blog" is the subdomain. Subdomains are often used to create separate sections of a website that serve different purposes or audiences.

Why Use a Subdomain?

Subdomains offer a flexible way to organize and structure content within a website. Subdomains are ideal if your business houses a lot of content that would be difficult to manage all on one website. By using subdomains, you can categorize different types of content or services, making it easier for users to navigate and find what they're looking for. For example, a company might use subdomains to separate its blog, e-commerce store, and support resources, each with its own distinct URL.

Impact of Subdomains on SEO

Subdomains may not fully benefit from the backlinks the main domain has garnered over the years. Google treats subdomains as distinct websites, which means they crawl and index subdomains separately. As a result, you may have to work on gaining backlinks for each subdomain separately to improve their rankings. Without that added effort, content on those subdomains may not rank as well as it could’ve if it were hosted on subdirectories instead.

The more subdomains you have, the harder it can be to maintain your website overall. It's possible to end up with duplicate content or poor interlinking between the main domain and its subdomains. Collecting and analyzing data for SEO reports can be more difficult when you’re dealing with multiple subdomains since it may require additional tools or settings to merge data effectively. For all these reasons, SEOs usually recommend using subdirectories instead of subdomains.

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Use Cases Of Subdomains

1. Blog

A subdomain dedicated to a blog helps separate the content from the main website. For example, "blog.example.com" hosts all blog posts and allows users to easily find and access relevant content without cluttering the main site.

2. Store

E-commerce websites use a subdomain for the online store, like "store.example.com." This separation helps to create a distinct shopping experience for users and allows businesses to focus on sales without distractions from other website content.

3. Support

Companies often create a subdomain for customer support resources, such as "support.example.com." This dedicated space helps users find help articles, FAQs, and contact information easily, streamlining the support experience.

4. Mobile

A subdomain like "m.example.com" serves mobile-friendly versions of a website, tailored for smaller screens and touch interfaces. The organization of content allows for optimized experiences for mobile users, enhancing accessibility and user experience.

5. Testing

Development and testing environments use subdomains like "dev.example.com" or "test.example.com" to experiment with changes separately from the live site. This practice helps avoid unnecessary disruptions to the main website while allowing developers to test new features and updates.

What Is A Subdirectory?

Subdirectories are divisions or sections within a website's main domain, indicated by slashes (/) in a URL. They are used to organize content hierarchically and appear as folders or directories in the website's file structure. For instance, example.com/blog. Subdirectories are a key feature to structure your website's content in a nested format, similar to nesting dolls. Each folder can be built off the other almost indefinitely, allowing for a hierarchical structure.

A subdirectory can improve your website's navigation and categorization of content. A logical hierarchy can make it easier for users and search engines to find and understand the relationships between different sections of the site.

Advantages of Using Subdirectories

Subdirectories can make it easier to manage and update content, especially for larger websites with extensive content libraries.

Content creators and administrators can easily locate and edit content within specific subdirectories, streamlining the content management process.

They provide a clear and logical hierarchy for organizing content on your website, making it easier for users and search engines to navigate and understand different sections of the site.

SEO Impact of Subdirectories

Many SEO experts believe that subdirectories are more SEO-friendly compared to subdomains. This is because Google sees subfolders as a part of your website, keeping any earned backlinks, domain authority, and page authority closely tied to the root domain.

Subdirectories also allow for simplified website management, as everything sits under one domain name, leading to fewer technical headaches. You can easily create new subdirectories for different sections of your website, such as your blog or news section, and tracking website data is more straightforward with subdirectories.

Why You Should Use Subdirectories

Subdirectories on your website can significantly impact SEO performance, making it easier for search engines to understand and index your content more effectively.

The logical hierarchy created by subdirectories can enhance user experience, leading to increased engagement and improved search engine rankings.

By leveraging subdirectories, you can effectively organize your website content, which is key to a successful SEO strategy.

Simplifying Blog Management with Feather and Notion

Feather is an SEO-friendly blog that allows you to publish blog content through Notion, and it requires no coding or design skills. Feather allows companies to write blog content on Notion and automatically publish it to their Feather blog. Feather allows you to set up a Subfolder blog (domain.com/blog instead of blog.domain.com, because subfolder is better for SEO).

Feather enables companies to get the HubSpot experience through Notion by allowing them to manage all of their CRM and website blog management through Notion. We also offer options to change design with custom CSS, collect Emails, and much more. Write on Notion, and automatically get that published to SEO-friendly blog – Collaborate with the entire team easily during the publishing process.

Try Feather’s notion to blog software for free today — create a new account and go from notion to blog in minutes!

Use Cases Of Subdirectories

Organizing Blog Posts

When it comes to structuring a website to contain a variety of blog posts, subdirectories play a vital role in organizing content effectively. By categorizing blog posts into subdirectories based on categories or topics, visitors can quickly navigate through related articles.

For instance, a website can create subdirectories such as "Technology," "Travel," "Food," and "Fashion," each containing blog posts of similar themes. This categorization helps users find the specific content they are interested in and boosts overall user experience on the website.

Categorizing Product Pages

E-commerce websites often use subdirectories to categorize products by type, brand, or functionality. This allows shoppers to easily browse and compare similar products within specific categories. For example, an e-commerce platform may create subdirectories such as "Electronics," "Apparel," "Home Decor," and "Fitness Equipment," enabling consumers to find products within their preferred category effortlessly. This type of organization helps in presenting products effectively and streamlining the shopping experience for customers.

Showcasing Different Services

Businesses that offer various services can use subdirectories to showcase their different service offerings. By creating subdirectories like "SEO Services," "Social Media Marketing," "Content Writing," and "Email Marketing," a business can offer detailed information about individual services.

This level of organization allows visitors to find the exact service they are interested in quickly and efficiently. It also helps in presenting each service comprehensively, thus enhancing the overall presentation of services on the website.

Organizing Localization-based Content

Websites targeting multiple geographic regions or languages can use subdirectories to organize content based on location or language. This helps in tailoring content to specific audiences effectively.

For instance, a global company can create subdirectories for "US," "UK," "Europe," and "Asia," each containing region-specific content. This localization not only enhances user experience but also ensures that the website is catering to the needs and preferences of its audience in various regions effectively.

Categorizing Resources and Knowledge Base

Websites providing resources, guides, or knowledge-base articles can use subdirectories to categorize content by topic or theme. This facilitates easy access to relevant information for users seeking specific answers or solutions.

For example, subdirectories like "FAQs," "Tutorials," "Case Studies," and "Whitepapers" can help users find the exact type of content they are looking for quickly. This type of categorization boosts user experience and ensures that users can efficiently access the resources or information they need.

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Exploring The SEO Debate For Subdomains vs Subdirectories

Subdomains are used to create separate web entities with unique content and functionality, while subdirectories are used to categorize related content within the main website's URL structure.

Subdirectories help organize the content within the site and make it easier for users to navigate. Subdirectories are used when the site has different categories to organize where the content is numerous and could be much more useful than using subdomains.

Using Both a Subdomain and a Subdirectory Structure

Subdomains will usually have at least a few subfolders within them to organize content, but likely not as many as a subdirectory. That’s because there is a smaller variety of content covered on a subdomain than a root domain with subfolders. Hence it’s important to understand what the primary structure of your website will be.

How Subdomains and Subdirectories Affect SEO

Subdomains are separate entities from your main domain; some websites have different content on subdomains that aren’t associated with the main site, and sometimes the subdomains are controlled by other organizations.

Subdirectory: yourdomain.com/blog/ is treated as part of yourdomain.com by Google's algorithm.

Subdomain: blog.yourdomain.com is treated as a separate domain from yourdomain.com - subdomain.

Google’s algorithm doesn’t take into account the content; or valuable assets, such as backlinks on a subdomain, when ranking the main domain.

Sometimes it makes perfect sense for a subdomain to be seen as separate from the main domain, primarily when representing different businesses or divisions.

Advantages of Using Subdomains vs Subdirectories

The argument is not that subdirectories are superior to subdomains for SEO or vice versa. In fact, Google treats both subdomains and subdirectories equally, as stated by Google itself.

Google's John Mueller gave a better view into the subdomain vs subfolder debate in a 2017 video. Check it out here.

“Google web search is fine with using either subdomains or subdirectories.”

— John Mueller, Google.

The critical point here is to know when to use one or the other.

Let's say your company has a lot of online content that can't all fit on one website. Creating multiple subdomains would distribute the content and help people find what they're looking for more quickly.

Let’s take a look at Disney. The Disney corporation is so massive that putting all its content on one domain would make it cumbersome. For that reason, Disney has broken up their content into subdomains to make it easier for its millions of customers, clients, subscribers, and searchers to find what they need.

Thus, Disney has subdomains for its videos, parks, different properties (Marvel, Pixar, Fox, etc.), and several more.

But unless you're a massive corporation like Disney, using a subdomain for your site is not the best approach.

Subdirectories - The Best Option for SEO

Subdirectories can help organize content by topic, thus negating any confusion for crawlers or users.

Structuring a site with subfolders supports search engine optimization in several ways — let’s look at link equity and domain authority.

Link Equity

Link equity refers to the ability of links to transfer value and authority from one page to another, making it an essential factor for search engine ranking. The equity passed by a link depends on the quality of the referring site and its thematic relevance to the content on the linked page. When authoritative domains link to your site, it signals to search engines that your content is valuable and trustworthy.

Domain Authority

Domain authority scores are metrics developed by third-party companies, Moz and SEMRush, to quantify the authority of websites. These are trailing metrics, not ranking factors. As a trailing metric, domain authority can only gauge a site’s potential to rank higher than its competitors in search engine results.

If you prioritize the ranking factors for your main website domain, you're telling Google that your website is valuable and relevant to searchers. This can lead to better search rankings for your website.

Better put, your subfolder is part of your main domain, so whatever your subfolder (subdirectory) ranks for also impacts your main domain.

Subdomain vs Subdirectory for Blogging

Bringing this conversation to blogging, the best choice will be the subdirectory.

If you have a website, your main domain has likely gained authority over time. If you create a blog within a subdirectory of your main domain, you can leverage the existing domain authority to help your blog rank better in search engines. Essentially, it's like building on top of a strong foundation to create a more robust website overall.

For example, if your root domain's domain authority (DA) is 85, your blog is also starting at a DA of 85. If you were to add a subdomain to a root domain of 85, it’s counted as a new domain, so it starts with DA 0.

This is why starting your new blog on your root domain is the best approach, you won’t have to rebuild all the authority you’ve built up over the years.

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Use Notion As Your Blog CMS With Feather

Feather is an SEO-friendly blog that allows you to publish blog content through Notion, and it requires no coding or design skills. Feather allows companies to write blog content on Notion and automatically publish it to their Feather blog. Feather allows you to setup a Subfolder blog (domain.com/blog instead of blog.domain.com, because subfolder is better for SEO).

Try Feather’s notion to blog software for free today — create a new account and go from notion to blog in minutes!