Sub Domains vs. Root Domains
Martin Espericueta
[Question] My site is currently structured as such:
city.example.com/
To improve my Google rankings, should I restructure it as
such:
www.example.com/city/
It believe it will eventually help for BL's...but are there any
other advantages?
[Answer] It actually depends on what you're doing with
your site. For example, if you host several different "themes"
on your domain example.com, I'd create a sub domain, b/c as we
know, SEs see them as a separate site. That way,
city1.example.com can contain 1000's of sub
folders/pages pertinent to city1:
EXAMPLE #1
city1.example.com/events
city1.example.com/dining
city1.example.com/recreation
But, for example, if you have:
EXAMPLE #2 www.example.com/city1
www.example.com/dog-grooming
www.example.com/classic-cars
You are now not capitalizing on the ability to create
keyword-rich URLs, as you can do with creating your sub domain
(IE: dog-grooming.example.com
You'd then consider each sub domain vs. domain.com/sub-folder as
separate sites, and work on separate SEO strategies (IBLs, etc.)
for them.
PS: Imagine your sitemap for EXAMPLE #2? It'll look like a link
directory! As apposed to EXAMPLE #1 - which would show SEs the
"theme" for your site.
With my own site on search engine optimization tips, I've created the sub
domain for just this exact reason.
About the author:
Martin has been involved in the web design standards
movement, as well as a semi-pro at search engine optimization tips.
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