Sub-domain or not???

[CommT]

Hi,

We're setting up a forum for our users (our target audience responds extremely well to forums).

I was wondering if it should be set up on a sub-domain or not. I'm leaning towards sub-domain, but our devs say this will impact how they approach it so I'd like to give them an answer asap so we can proceed with planning it!

Thanks,

Amelia

[TomRayner]

Hi Amelia

Would a subfolder not achieve the job equally as well?  If we take out the SEO perspective (I think any links the forum eventually gets you would have virtually the same benefit in a sub domain or sub folder), let's look at it from a user POV.

As you say, your audience responds very well to forums.  How do you think those users usually find them?  Would they be more likely to type in www.example.com/forum/ or would they type: forum.example.com?  My gut feeling (based on no data) would be the subfolder solution - as it's the same way you might go about finding a contact page or an about us page.

You could attempt to quantify that by doing a google search.  Try this Google search:

inurl:forum "keyword"

Replace keyword with your industry keywords, of course.

Take a look at some of the results that come up and note which ones use a /forum/ structure or a forum.site.com structure.  Both variants have the chance of turning up (like in this search).  That will give you some idea on what the typical structure is.  Now, that doesn't mean you have to be typical!  But it might give a slight correlation between what structure users in your niche might expect.

Ultimately, I don't think it would make a huge amount of difference - so maybe giving the devs an easy ride could be a good shout!

[Lumina]

To answer this question, I think we'd have to know how closely the forum relates to your main site's content. If a forum is something more strongly ingrained in the kind of service/product/culture your business provides, then I would advise you keep the forum in the same domain. If not, then it's a question of how closely related it is and whether users would/should see it as extraneous content.

[DSM_UK]

Hi Amelia,

Making things easier for the devs is certainly not a bad thing!

However it is important to consider what type of content will be on your forum in terms of SEO, whilst a folder on a subdomain will increase your sites size in terms of indexed pages, it is going to be doing so with content not written by yourself, and could include content that could be detrimental, in terms of both context and keyword density.

Having it on a subdomain is the safest way to keep control of content on your website, and should be just as easy to install than a subfolder, (though obviously that's not accounting for your personal server and website set up).

Kind Regards

Jimmy

[CommT]

Hi Tom,

Thank you for your quick response!

I was leaning towards the sub-domain rather than sub-folder simply because I'm anticipating that we will at some point get hit by spam. This is inevitable I think, and I'm putting a plan in place to try and limit it as much as possible, but I am pretty sure it'll happen - it always does! The forum will be moderated by a human as well. I was thinking that if some bad links got posted in the forum they would be less likely to affect the main domain. This may be daft. Please say if it is!!!

[CommT]

The forum will be a place for UK landlords to discuss their businesses.

We sell landlord mortgages. So I think this is pretty close. We also provide advice articles.

I want to carve a bit of a niche for us in terms of subject though, and try and veer towards finance for landlords as much as possible.

[CommT]

Jimmy, this is why I am leaning towards a sub-domain. Though the previous posters seem to have very valid points about why a subfolder may be better for us...

As for making it easier for the devs, that wasn't exactly what I meant... They've said they need to know which way we want to go in order to put together a plan. I think it will impact how they set certain things (I don't understand) up so will make a difference to the time scales etc - which is what our boss is asking for!