Blog on sub domain or sub folder

[karter]

hi Guys

For a variety of reasons, I've had the blog of a commercial site on a sub domain for a while, however, observing the rankings of the blog articles, the sub domain does not appear to get much link power from main domain.

Would a sub folder produce better results?

[tedster]

There's not really any variance simply based on the URL structure these days. What matters most is how the link equity flows.

[tigger]

Ted - could you explain what you mean by "link equity flows." are you talking about the linking between the blog and static site? and how is the best way to link the two

I have a blog within a folder and the links flow either way on relevant pages and postings

[tedster]

Interlink the blog and the main website in a way that helps your users. It's obvious that you control both, so those links won't have a strong ranking effect of their own - you'll need some independent external backlinks for that to happen. But when you do get some good link equity, then your own interlinking helps the juice flow. So don't isolate the blog from the main site, but don't go over the top with cross-linking either.

[karter]

Link profile of the site is generally low, but What i am seeing is that pages in the main domain do rank for some terms, but the pages in the sub domain blog rank for nothing

right now i am finally focussing on promo rather than tech development, so perhaps things may change,

primarily i was wondering whether the general experience is that link equity favours pages in same sub domain, ie

www.mydomain.com

and less equity goes to

sub.mydomain.com

[futureX]

To put it simply there is no difference.

"Link power" only comes from inbound links, for example, if mydomain.com does not link to mydomain.com/blog/ it will receive no link power from mydomain.com, blog.mydomain.com would be the same.

As far as I'm aware there is no difference between the value of those links either. Because at a very simple level Google knows they're on the same site.

[minnapple]

Google regards subdomains as separate entities from the main domain name.
A subfolder would be better than a subdomain in this situation since the main website and blog are directly related.

[tedster]

minnapple, haven't you seen a change in that regard? I mean along the lines that Matt Cutts wrote about here: Subdomains and subdirectories [mattcutts.com] - where subdomains and subdirectories began to get treatment that was more similar with regard to host crowding in the SERP.

Just before Matt's announcement, I had posted the message below - and I think it still holds up relatively well:

There's no black and white answer, since a subdomain is a kind of hybrid critter. It's treated much more like an independent domain in many respects - for example, if urls from both the root domain and a subdomain show up on the same page of search results, they do not cluster together.

And yet, in some ways, it's still treated like the "child" of the domain is belongs to. For example, a subdomain can show up as a sitelink under the #1 ranking for the root domain if there's a home page link to it.

And then there's also some middle ground. A penalty or loss of trust for the subdomain does not necessarily affect the root domain. But this "penalty firewall" doesn't flow in the other direction. A penalty on the root domain will almost always affect any subdomains as well.

If you create a new subdomain for a trusted and well-ranked domain, it will still start out life a lot like other sites. It's PR must be calculated from the ground up - although links from the parent domain are certainly expected and will transfer PR to the urls that they link to. Time in the "honeymoon phase" and the "sandbox phenomenon" can often be shorter.

But a subdomain still needs to stand on it's own, in many ways - not the least of which is establishing a solid backlink profile. There's no "free ride" for it.

Treatment of a Subdomain Compared to a Domain [webmasterworld.com]

Then over the following months, I did see a shift along the lines Matt had announced.

[minnapple]

From Matts post.

My personal preference on subdomains vs. subdirectories is that I usually prefer the convenience of subdirectories for most of my content.

A subdomain can be useful to separate out content that is completely different. Google uses subdomains for distinct products such news.google.com or maps.google.com, for example.

If you’re a newer webmaster or SEO, I’d recommend using subdirectories until you start to feel pretty confident with the architecture of your site. At that point, you’ll be better equipped to make the right decision for your own site.

End of Matts Cutts post

----
Minnapple's opinion

That said, today if you are looking for multiple [ more than two] listings under the same keyword phrase, sub domains can often work better. The sub domain will need to be supported with its own bank of backlinks.

If you are working on unique phrases that are not used on the main site or looking for an indented listing; using a blog withing a folder is productive.

[tedster]

Thanks - sounds like we're pretty much on the same page, once you get into the details. It is, as they say, a "nuanced" situation.