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Which is Better: Subdomains or Subdirectories? Here’s What Google Says

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googlewebmastertoolsheaderThere has been plenty of discussion lately over whether subdomains or subdirectories are the better route to go – with many people from both sides supplying Google Analytics screenshots details to prove their argument, with probably the subdirectories side winning the argument.

Obviously someone else who has seen all these posts and tweets lately decided to go right to John Mueller from Google to see what Google’s take on the whole subdomains versus subdirectories is.

How do you guys respond to the claim that subfolders are superior to subdomains when it comes to SEO? Which one would you recommend for a blog, for example?

Mueller tackled this question on today’s Google Webmaster Office Hours.

From our point of view they are essentially equivalent. So you could do lots of things with subdomains and you can do lots of things on subdirectories, it kind of depends on your infrastructure which way is easier for you to handle. So from our point of view this is essentially up to you. If you want to put a blog on your main website in a subdirectory that’s fine, if you want to use a subdomain that’s fine. If you want to use a different domain name, that’s possible too.

So all of these ways are essentially possible and I wouldn’t say that any one or the other is superior in any magical way.

So while many argue over which is the better choice – and most SEOs have their own opinion of which option they would choose – Google says one isn’t magically better than the other.  However, like with all SEO, how you handle the option you choose will make all the difference in how well (or not) it performs.

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Jennifer Slegg

Founder & Editor at The SEM Post
Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing, working in the industry for almost 20 years. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland. She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, State of Search, Brighton SEO and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.

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Comments

  1. That would mean a whole new approach to how they handle subdomains if he is saying they are the same as subdirectories and for international sites does that mean it is not better to be a subdomain for each language? I think his answer says little other than they don’t give you magic boosts, he does not address the potential of negatives. Sigh…

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