A Blog Structure Dilemma We're Facing...

[SEOPA]

James: do you have a source for the statement that Google now treats subs as a key site element?

[Cairmen]

The problem with this idea, it occurs to me on second thoughts, will be comments. Having dynamically user-generated content will be tricky with this workaround.

Aside from that, rsync and W3TC are both enterprise-level stable solutions, so it SHOULD work - but I agree, it's doing something new, and new's always a bit risky.

Would you be able to go into any detail as to why you can't host WP? Is it a hosting company issue, a platform language issue, or something else?

[SEOPA]

Here is a post from earlier in the year with a similar discussion (didn't see that one before I posted this). Also looks like similar differences of opinion, though some more sources sited. http://www.seomoz.org/q/corporate-blog

Because of the lack of consensus, I'm curious to research more. Just want to make sure I/we didn't miss anything over the past few months.

[EGOL]

No opinion here.

In late 2010 we redirected to popular subdomains to folders in the root.  The results have been kickass.  Kickass.

[SEOPA]

It's a platform issue. BigCommerce. Everything else has been fantastic with them, but our only option for WordPress is to host on a subdomain.

The clear answer is that having it in a directory is better, but doing so means we need to have a very manual setup and lose the efficiencies/functionality of wordpress.

[Cairmen]

Hm. It seems to me that you've just got a routing issue - there MUST be a way to fix this.

Can you run a mod_rewrite .htaccess or similar on the server?

[Cairmen]

Hm. Right, I think I have another suggested solution of sorts - it's tricksy and you'd need an expert to set it up, but it'd solve your problems.

In short, if you run a reverse proxy serving your site itself on a server which ISN'T your BigCommerce server, you can tell it to fetch your main site for your www.yourdomain.com URL, and your blog (live, not cached) for www.yourdomain.com/blog. Probably your best option would be to use a reverse proxy like Varnish or Nginx, both of which are normally used for performance reasons - however, they can also be used to effectively "combine" two servers into one.

So, you'd move your DNS record to point to the reverse proxy, then set the proxy up to fetch content from your ecommerce site and your blog site.

Issues:

• You'd need another server, and you'd need root access and an expert sysadmin to set it all up.

• I don't know how well BigCommerce would handle a reverse proxy - but frankly, they SHOULD be able to handle it OK if you talk to their sysadmins.

Advantages:

• This would also give you massive redundancy in case of high traffic - reverse proxy setups are usually used to improve performance. You'd be Digg-proof!

It's complex, but I can see it working! Just another suggestion.

More info on reverse proxies - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_proxy

[Scottt]

Thanks, Hugh!  I'm in the same boat as SEOPA with 3dcart and this seems like the best solution.

This post by Slingshot SEO seems relevant (What is a Reverse Proxy and How Can it Help My SEO?).

[Dr-Pete]

Agreed - Google is consolidating subdomain links in Google Webmaster Tools, but as far as I know, that does not reflect a change in how the algorithm works. Subdomains can still fragment and split link-juice. The change is more of an accounting trick, for lack of a better word.

[SEOPA]

Great idea -- and the link Scot posted is perfect. However our platform doesn't give us access to mod_proxy or htaccess, so we are unable to setup the reverse proxy. unfortunately. Sigh.

[AlanMosley]

I also noticed that the sitelinks often include links from subdomains.

And Matt Cutts has said its a personal choice, and GWMB states it  makes no difference to them.

I have had good results so far with Sub Domains, I remeber asking you for advice about a year or 2 ago. you recommended good linking between sub and root domains to show the connection.

i have followed that advice, and the sitelinks for my sites in google reflect the subdomians as sub categories of the root.

so i am convinced subdomains act like subfolders, at least they have so far for me.

[AlanMosley]

Matt Cutts

Subdomains vs. Subdirectories What's the difference between using  subdomains and subdirectories? When it comes to Google, there aren't major  differences between the two, so when you're making that decision, do what works  for you and your visitors. http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/01/feeling-lucky-at-pubcon.html

Deb, it really is a pretty personal choice. For something small like a blog, it probably won’t matter terribly much. I used a subdirectory because it’s easier to manage everything in one file storage space for me. However, if you think that someday you might want to use a hosted blog service to power your blog, then you might want to go with blog.example.com just because you could set up a CNAME or DNS alias so that blog.example.com pointed to your hosted blog service. http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/subdomains-and-subdirectories/