Subdomains and subdirectories allow you to organize specific types of content on your website.
But you can use subdomain or subdirectory Affecting your organic search rankings?
Read on to find out if there is any connection between subdomains, subdirectories, and improved Google rankings.
Disclaimer: Subdomains and subdirectories are ranking factors
What are subdomains and subdirectories?
Subdomains are parts of your website.
Examples of subdomains include the bolded portion of the following URL:
- https://the company’s.example.com/
- https://shop.example.com/
- https://blog.example.com/
Subdirectories, on the other hand, are folders within your domain. You can have subdirectories within the main domain as well as subdirectories.
Examples of subdirectories include the bolded portion of the following URL:
- https://example.com/shop/
- https://example.com/blog/
- https://blog.example.com/category/
Evidence of subdomains and subdirectories as ranking factors
exist 2007Matt Cutts, former head of Google’s web spam team, wrote a blog post about subdomains and subdirectories.
In it, he said,
“Subdomains can be used to separate completely different content.”
exist 2011response Google’s Panda UpdateHubPages moves its user-generated content to subdomains.
According to The Wall Street Journal and Search Engine Watch, HubPages:
“… already back before the panda [traffic] Levels for the first three weeks since he activated subdomains for himself and several other authors. Other authors saw significant, if not complete, recovery of network traffic. “
Evidence against subdomains and subdirectories as ranking factors
Google has confirmed several times how they handle subdomains and subdirectories.
In the Google Search Center support documentation you will find the following:
“Is it better to use subfolders or subdomains?
You should choose what is easiest to organize and manage. From an indexing and ranking standpoint, Google has no preference. “
In 2013, Cutts answered the same question about how Google views subdomains and subdirectories:
“They are roughly equivalent. I would basically choose the one that is easier for you in terms of configuration, your CMS [content management systems]…all that kind of stuff. “
Cutts gave an example of a business that wanted to use a different CMS like WordPress VIP or Tumblr to power their blog.
He went on to say that, historically, Google would show two results for each host. This allows webmasters to abuse subdomains enough to take over search results.
Google updated their algorithm to show only one or two results per domain, making it harder for subdomains to get more spots in search results.
exist 2018Google search advocate John Mueller clearly stated in his answer to what is best for SEO – subdomains or subdirectories:
“Google Web Search can use subdomains or subdirectories.”
He goes on to discuss the difference in how subdomains and subdirectories are handled:
“There are servers that make it easier to set up different parts of a website as subdirectories. This helps us crawl because we know everything is on the same server and can be crawled in a similar fashion.”
Regarding subdirectories, Mueller said:
“You need to verify subdomains individually in Search Console, make any changes to the settings, and track the overall performance of each subdomain. We did have to learn how to crawl them individually, but in most cases it’s just the first few days form.”
Subdomains and Subdirectories as Ranking Factors: Our Verdict
Since you have to verify subdomains individually search consolebut not subdirectories, so it’s safe to assume that Google treats subdomains as separate websites.
This does not mean that using subdomains or subdirectories is a Google ranking factor.
Featured image: Robin Biong/Search Engine Magazine
