Blog on Subdomain vs. Subdirectory - Best Practices

[HiddenPeak]

Hi,

I have recently been told that it no longer impacts authority or rankings if a blog is set up on a subdomain (blog.domain.com) rather than a subdirectory (/blog). However, I am reluctant to do so because I remember learning how blog subdomains did not adhere to SEO best practices.

Would anyone be able to shed some light on the latest SEO best practices regarding this topic?

Many thanks,

Erin

[MoosaHemani]

Well there is a very old debate and many SEO will recommend you using sub directory instead of sub domain.

Reasons why you should use Sub directory instead of sub-domain:

• Search engine still counts sub domain as another website so if the blog is in sub directory it will be considered as the part of the website
• Your over all SEO efforts will impact on sub directory which is not the case in terms of sub domain.
• Its way easier to rank for long tail keywords with sub directory instead of sub domain.

If SEO is not a problem for you are you are more interested in branding then i think subdomain goes well as its easier to remember and write directly in the URL bar.

[bradkrussell]

Hi Erin,

Sub directories are the preferred method. This has been asked many times on SEOmoz so I'll post a few links so you can have a look at some of the responses and exactly why they are preferred:

http://www.seomoz.org/q/blog-vs-blog

http://www.seomoz.org/q/best-place-for-a-blog-blog-mydomain-com-or-mydomain-com-blog

http://www.seomoz.org/q/subdomains-vs-subfolders

Hope that helps!

Brad

[HiddenPeak]

Thanks everyone for your responses!

[gregalam]

Does the advice still hold true given this video?

watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_MswMYk05tk

[HiddenPeak]

Interesting point. Thanks for sharing this video!

[angelfysh]

An interesting discussing. This is something I have been looking into recently for a blog of mine.

Thanks

[photoseo1]

Thanks Greg,

Super helpful video.

I have a Blogger blog and it is much harder to host it on a subdirectory and extremely easy to host it on a Subdomain. That video was extremely helpful in making a decision as to which one to use. It just saved me lots of hours of toil and pulling my hair out getting a subdirectory set up and configured, when from the horses mouth, it looks like a subdomain is just fine.

[DonnaDuncan]

Can Moz weigh in on this please? There is a lot of really  good discussion on this particular topic across multiple threads but no clear direction. What does Moz recommend and why? The why is important and here's why.

If I have a client with an established blog that uses the blog.domain versus domain/blog structure, should I be recommending they migrate to a different structure?