Redirect subdomain to folder?

Is it a good idea to redirect subdomain to folder

[MrBlack]

Hi,

I want to start running a blog on a subdomain of my main website. If I 301 redirect the subdomain to a folder of my main website

e.g subdomain.mydomain.com to www.mydomain.com/subdomain

will Google see it as a new subdomain and therefore treat it as a new website or will it treat it as new content for my main website?

Regards

[tedster]

It's not a new subdomain, but it is a new directory and therefore a new url. As long as you use a 301 permanent redirect for all the old urls, you're not creating a duplicate url issue. But it can take some time for Google to fully process the new urls for your older content.

[Robert Charlton]

...If I 301 redirect the subdomain to a folder of my main website

e.g subdomain.mydomain.com to www.mydomain.com/subdomain

will Google see it as a new subdomain and therefore treat it as a new website or will it treat it as new content for my main website?

If I'm reading you correctly, if you 301 the subdomain to a folder, Google will no longer index the subdomain. The old url in a 301 effectively ceases to exist. Google will follow queries to the subdomain, but bots will be redirected to the new url and index what's in the new url (which is to say what's in the folder).

So, if, as you say, you "want to start running a blog on a subdomain of [your] main website," this scheme doesn't make sense to me, because after the redirect, that subdomain won't be there. Again, I may be misunderstanding what you're asking.

[MrBlack]

After doing some research I have decided it is best in terms of seo to install the blog in a folder of my main domain and not set it up in a new subdomain. e.g http://www.example.com/blog

However, I currently have a forum set up in a subdomain... http://forum.example.com

What I really want to know is if I 301 redirect it to http://www.example.com/forum will Google cease to see it as a seperate subdomain and see it as a folder of my main domain, therefore crediting my main domain with the content?

[edited by: tedster at 1:26 am (utc) on Oct. 17, 2007]
[edit reason] switch to example.com - it can never be owned [/edit]

[tedster]

Yes, Google will no longer see the forum as a subdomain because it ISN'T a subdomain any more. As long as all the old subdomain urls are correctly set-up to 301 redirect to the new urls, the subdomain will no longer exist in the Google index.

[Quadrille]

Yes.

The subdomain will cease to exist as a separate entity, and will eventually fall out of the listings.

The content will be additional content on domain.com, and should be indexed with the rest of the domain.

If the 301 is set up right, searchers will be transferred seemlessly to the new URL, and (with a bit of luck) you'll get some transferred seo benefit.

However, it wuld be worth reviewing the links to the old subdomain, and checking if any could get updated, plus worth adding some new ones (eg Quality Blog Directories).

I hope this doesn't seem complicated - because it's not! :)