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  4. Franchise sites: Should each franchise have a subdomain or subdirectory?

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Franchise sites: Should each franchise have a subdomain or subdirectory?

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  • ideasandpixels
    ideasandpixels last edited by Dec 18, 2014, 6:21 PM

    One of my clients has about 40 franchisees who are going to have their own sites on a WordPress multisite installation. The question they're wondering: should these be on subdirectories (thesite.com/this-franchise) or on subdomains (this-franchise.thesite.com)? Which is best for SEO?

    Thanks!

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • TheeDigital
      TheeDigital last edited by Dec 18, 2014, 8:59 PM Dec 18, 2014, 8:59 PM

      As the parent company, I would want any individual work done to benefit the main site and as a store owner, I would want to have some benefit from the parent company as well. There need to be policies in place to prevent bad practices, but it should be all stores and the parent company helping each other. If they want to be treated as a separate entity then they should probably build a website themselves on a separate domain. Most major retailers have the stores in subfolders. Go check walmart.com as an example.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • ideasandpixels
        ideasandpixels @TheeDigital last edited by Dec 18, 2014, 8:33 PM Dec 18, 2014, 8:33 PM

        Thanks for the input. What if they want to be treated as separate sites? Do you think they should want to be treated like separate sites? The idea is these are franchises all over the country, so they have vastly different audiences/geolocations.

        For us, we're really on the fence about which route we should take.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • TheeDigital
          TheeDigital last edited by Dec 26, 2014, 9:54 PM Dec 18, 2014, 8:16 PM

          Best for SEO is with a subdirectory. Subdomains can be treated as separate websites.

          ideasandpixels 1 Reply Last reply Dec 18, 2014, 8:33 PM Reply Quote 3
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