Forum on a Sub-domain - Thin Content?

[cakaranbatra]

I have wordpress blog installed on my Domain and now I intent to start a Forum.

I understand that the content on the forum would be thin-content which may attract Google Penalties. So, would it be wise to start the forum on a sub-domain to avoid any penalty.

My query is:-

1. If the content on the sub-domain is thin, can it impact my main domain as well.

2. Should I install the forum on a sub-domain or an entirely different domain so as to avoid any penalty? My preference is a sub-domain provided google does not levy any penalty

I also intent to display RSS Feeds of the Forum on the Home Page of the Website.

[cakaranbatra]

hmmm.... Thanks for your inputs...

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Well, as I said, open the forum up to Google, but no-one can give a cast-iron guarantee that there will be no impact to the main from Google. It's unlikely to cause issues, but that is as much of a guarantee as I could give.

-Andy

[cakaranbatra]

I'm an Accountant and focus on Tax related issues.

There are some things which we cant write on our blogs but we can always discuss it with our colleagues and clients. Such things are being searched for on Google but no-one can vouch for it on our blog. For such things, people come to forums through Google..

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Well, Google is recognising a subdomain as part of a TLD now, so I couldn't give any guarantees of what could happen here, even though my suspicions are that it would be absolutely fine.

Can I ask why you don't wish to noindex the forum if you are already concerned about thin content?

-Andy

[cakaranbatra]

Thanks Andy for the prompt response

However, I would prefer not to noindex the forum.

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Rather than worry about thin / lack of content, just noindex the forum itself in the robots.txt file by disallowing access to it. You can then host it happily on your main site without having to look at a subdomain.

If you prefer it on a subdomain, just do the same thing here.

It would look like this:

Disallow: /forum/

-Andy