How much do SEs care about what server (IP) a subdomain is on?

What if photos.mysite.com is hosted on a server different than mysite.com?

[ThatAdamGuy]

I have mysite.com, and it does pretty well in the search engines.
I've decided to outsource my photo albums and possibly a wiki to hosted-solutions companies... pointing photos.mysite.com and wiki.mysite.com to their server.

To my visitors, it'll be transparent. It'll look like they're on my main site.

But will the search engines care? Will link popularity with wiki.mysite.com contribute to mysite.com just as if I was hosting wiki.mysite.com on the same server?

[Also, is this posted in the right forum area? Apologies if not!]

[Dabu The Dragon]

I don't think you have anything to worry about by using a subdirectory. Just be careful with excessive cross-linking and you should be ok.

[Brett_Tabke]

I wouldn't use subdirectories as they are the #1 thing that can get quickly banned by search engines. Instead, use a good subdirectories.

Cross linking is not an issue from what I have seen over the years. I've never seen a single bit of evidence to indicate a problem. Just make sure to have plenty of inbound links.

[ThatAdamGuy]

Okay, but I'm very confused. These aren't subdirectories, these are subdomains... no different than somesite.blogspot.com... and those sites certainly seem to get fine rankings! :)

[instinct]

I *think* Brett might have meant don't use subdomains. These have been taken advantage of greatly by spammers and as a result they might set off a filter easier than a subdirectory.

From reading past posts of his and others I'm pretty sure thats what he meant.

(but I certainly don't want to speak for him :-)