Website Redesign - Blogger To WordPress Platform URL Structure

[InternetRep]

I am transferring a website (www.EXAMPLE.com) From Blogger To Wordpress.

Currently, the website content is specific to cover the Colorado Market.  In the near future, I plan on covering the same market in other state.

I have seen regional websites like this that have the URL structure - (STATE.EXAMPLE.com)  I have also seen websites with URL Structure - (EXAMPLE.COM/STATE)

Is there any advantage using one URL structure over the other in term of SEO & otherwise?

In the process of transferring the website, I would like to clean-up the URL structure but I don't want to lose a significant amount of  link juice/organic traffic.  Do you recommend I restructure the URLs at this time?

[Andy.Drinkwater]

Hi Bethany,

There are a couple of schools of thought on sub-domain vs folder. One postulates that a sub-domain will be like starting afresh in the eyes of Google, and it will take you months to gain rankings. The other will tell you that going down the folder route, this just benefits from your current structure and you are just creating new pages and won't have to wait to be ranked.

Just so you know, sub-domains no longer take an age to start ranking - it can be a matter of days, but it all depends on what you are wanting to achieve.

That said, unless there was a reason to go down the subdomain route, then I would go with the folder route - it is much more straight forward.

If you are wishing to restructure your site, then just remember to not make the URL's too long; keep them on target and not spammy, but remain descriptive. Something like www.example.com/state/content is absolutely fine and there can be no questions in anyones mind where they are if they see this.

When restructuring, make use of 301 redirects in order to point old pages to the new ones, but never 301 a 301 - this will result in a much greater loss of link juice.

I hope this helps.

-Andy

[InternetRep]

Andy - Thank you!  Very helpful.  I will use the folders option.

Jane - Thank you!