Brand directory or brand subdomain

Which is better?

[Wail]

For discussion;

I've one site and a few brands to promote.

I can see arguments for having a subdomain for each brand. I could submit to directories which only accepted domain level URLs, it's a shorter address and it might be a clearer concept.

I can see arguments for having a directory for the brand. I mean, websiteurl slash brand. Wouldn't that allow me to collect more PR and spread it around throughout the entire site.

Which do you think is best for SEO? A collection of branded subdomains or a main domain with many branded directories?

[choster]

From a marketing (not SEO) standpoint, it would depend on whether the parent company's brand name was important to promote alongside the product's brand name or not. But I suggest that your search engine marketing should work in sync with your overall marketing efforts-- don't promote one url if your direct mail or magazine ads are promoting another. So I offer two examples:

Windows is nothing if not Microsoft Windows. So windows.com redirects to microsoft.com/windows and the latter url is the one advertised.

On the other hand, the fact that Tylenol is produced by a unit of Johnson & Johnson may not even be known by most consumers. It is also much better known than many of their other products, even consumer products. In fact, Tylenol is so well-known that other consumer products are not advertised as "by McNeil-PPC, a division of Johnson & Johnson," but "by the makers of Tylenol." In this case, promoting tylenol.com makes much more sense than jnj.com/mcneil/tylenol .