Blog on Subdomain vs. Subdirectory - Best Practices
-
Hi,
I have recently been told that it no longer impacts authority or rankings if a blog is set up on a subdomain (blog.domain.com) rather than a subdirectory (/blog). However, I am reluctant to do so because I remember learning how blog subdomains did not adhere to SEO best practices.
Would anyone be able to shed some light on the latest SEO best practices regarding this topic?
Many thanks,
Erin
-
Can Moz weigh in on this please? There is a lot of really good discussion on this particular topic across multiple threads but no clear direction. What does Moz recommend and why? The why is important and here's why.
If I have a client with an established blog that uses the blog.domain versus domain/blog structure, should I be recommending they migrate to a different structure?
-
Thanks Greg,
Super helpful video.
I have a Blogger blog and it is much harder to host it on a subdirectory and extremely easy to host it on a Subdomain. That video was extremely helpful in making a decision as to which one to use. It just saved me lots of hours of toil and pulling my hair out getting a subdirectory set up and configured, when from the horses mouth, it looks like a subdomain is just fine.
-
An interesting discussing. This is something I have been looking into recently for a blog of mine.
Thanks
-
Interesting point. Thanks for sharing this video!
-
Does the advice still hold true given this video?
-
Thanks everyone for your responses!
-
Hi Erin,
Sub directories are the preferred method. This has been asked many times on SEOmoz so I'll post a few links so you can have a look at some of the responses and exactly why they are preferred:
http://www.seomoz.org/q/blog-vs-blog
http://www.seomoz.org/q/best-place-for-a-blog-blog-mydomain-com-or-mydomain-com-blog
http://www.seomoz.org/q/subdomains-vs-subfolders
Hope that helps!
Brad
-
Well there is a very old debate and many SEO will recommend you using sub directory instead of sub domain.
Reasons why you should use Sub directory instead of sub-domain:
- Search engine still counts sub domain as another website so if the blog is in sub directory it will be considered as the part of the website
- Your over all SEO efforts will impact on sub directory which is not the case in terms of sub domain.
- Its way easier to rank for long tail keywords with sub directory instead of sub domain.
If SEO is not a problem for you are you are more interested in branding then i think subdomain goes well as its easier to remember and write directly in the URL bar.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is it OK to put a Blog Post and a Page within the same folder on a Wordpress hosted website?
Our education company website (hosted on wordpress) has evolved into having content on key topics distributed across both blog posts and pages. For example, "top-pharmaceutical-companies" lends itself to being published as a page. However other content "top-pharmaceutical-companies-usa-2016" lends itself to being published as a blog post as it's more temporal in nature. Now we'd like to establish topical domain relevance for the root keyword "pharmaceutical companies" and build a folder www./ourcompany/pharmaceutical-companies/ But when we look through our blog content, we notice we have "Blog Posts" that would be an excellent fit for certain folders within our "Page" url structure. So would it be OK to amend these blogs post urls addresses to place them within the folder structure of the pages.
On-Page Optimization | | GetReskilled0 -
Using Hidden Text Behind the Logo as H1 is good seo practice?
Hello Experts, For my website if I use use logo as h1 for homepage but that logo will not be actually h1 but hidden text ( text is my brand name or website name) behind will be h1 so it is okay to use in this way? Using hidden text as H1 is fine as per google? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | pragnesh96390 -
Rel="canonical" Wordpress 2015 Best Practice
There are forum posts about how to insert rel="canonical" tags in Wordpress, but I've read about lots of changes in this space recently (updates to Yoast, for example). I'm having a problem with duplicate content on one of my sites, and it seems to be coming from multiple indexes of the same pages. I'll have a blog post show up under the posts, then the archives, then the tags. So, my question is, in early 2015, what are the current best practices for adding rel="canonical" tags in Wordpress? Thanks! Tim
On-Page Optimization | | TimLlew0 -
Moving/deleting blog
I have a website with a blog attached to it. It is a wordpress blog which we have not updated since 2013. However, it has a lot of pages going back to 2010. I am moving my website to weebly so I can't move my blog over. I could recreate all the posts and make redirects to the new url. However, the posts are old and outdated so it doesn't really make sense, aside from seo. I need advice. Would I take an seo hit if i start over with a blog and leave the old posts behind? Thanks!!!
On-Page Optimization | | bhsiao0 -
Best practices for marking up product pages on eccomerce site (SEO noob)
After analyzing the code on various competitors eccomerce sites I wanted to seek advice on best practices for marking up individual product pages for keywords and descriptions. My competition is all over the map as far as utilizing keywords and descriptions, some have few keywords while others have many and vice versa for descriptions. What is the best method for marking up product pages on an eccomerce site for keywords and descriptions? In addition, is it okay to utilize the same keywords for multiple products that may be under the same category? or is this considered duplicate content? Thanks for the help, if you have any resources for SEO and eccomerce sites I would greatly appreciate the guidance best,Michelle & Blake
On-Page Optimization | | LeapOfBelief0 -
Best place for tutorial videos on e-commerce site
Just wondering where I should put my tutorial videos on my e-commerce site. I have two options 1. On the category pages - this makes sense as the videos are related to the products within the category 2. Create a help section of the website that would host all the help videos. Which would be better for ranking and usability? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | DavidLenehan0 -
The best way to redirect to www
What is the best way to redirect non www to www. I saw a lot of the solution. is this one ok? RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www.seomoz.org [NC] RewriteRule (.*) http://www.seomoz.org/$1 [L,R=301]
On-Page Optimization | | bruki0 -
What should I do with my blog...V2
Hello again! The other day I was asking about my blog which is on http://cheshireweddingphotographyblog.co.uk/ Based on the answer, I decided I wanted to move it within my website. So I emailed Photobiz saying I wanted it to become: http://www.celynnenphotography.co.uk/blog They want me to make it: blog.celynnenphotography.co.uk They say the benefits (re: SEO) would be the same but that there would be more downtime if I wanted it done my way. Are they right in saying the benefits would be the same for blog.celynnenphotography.co.uk as it would for http://www.celynnenphotography.co.uk/blog ? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | IoanSaid0