Which is better: Subdomains or Subdirectories?
 by Kristi Hagen

Which is better: Subdomains or Subdirectories?

  • We are moving our WordPress website, but we're unsure whether to use subdomains (name.domain.com) or subdirectories (domain.com/name).

    From an SEO perspective, which is the better choice?

Answer:

As a general rule, we almost always recommend using a single domain with subdirectories rather than subdomains.

While there are exceptions to this rule, this approach typically works the best from an SEO perspective.

However, there can be times when technical reasons to use subdomains makes sense. For instance, an Apache WordPress blog on a subdomain and Windows Server on the main site.

Another example might include a case when the content just doesn't belong on the same website — like a password protected dealer site that's separated from the main retail site by using a subdomain.

The fact that subdirectories inherit ALL of the quality and page rank signals from the main domain gives them an SEO advantage over subdomains which are generally treated as a totally separate website in the eyes of Google.SEN article end

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