I have worked on many projects in which I used subdomains as well as subdirectories to host the contents of the website. Here is my take on which approach is better for search engine optimization. Subdirectory vs. Subdomain: Which one should you choose? However, from my experience, it may be generally a good idea to use a subdirectory rather than a subdomain for SEO purposes. Reasons Why Subdirectories are Better: This is because when you publish something in a subdirectory it can be ranked faster since it has already been placed under the parent domain authority. In most cases, search engines regard subdomains as separate domains thus lowering your SEO across different domains. A single folder collects all of the values attached to the site (such as backlinks or domain authority) into a single location therefore increasing the visibility of the entire domain. Specific Experiences: An example of this is when I was in charge of a client’s website, which had his blog hosted on a sub-domain. This blog had good content but failed to attract many views on search engine result pages. This move boosted our organic traffic by almost 30% in only three months. Thus, our main site was able to pass on some domain authority to the blog leading to higher rankings and more overall engagement with the site itself. Consequently, I was reminded that in terms of SEO, subdirectories often make more sense than anything else.
Based on my experience, subdirectories generally offer better SEO benefits than subdomains. This is because subdomains are treated as separate entities by search engines, which can dilute authority and require more effort to establish rankings. In contrast, subdirectories consolidate SEO efforts under a single domain, enhancing domain authority and internal linking. A key example is when I led the SEO migration of Barclays and they moved their help content from the subdomain "help.barclays.co.uk" to the subdirectory "www.barclays.co.uk/help/". This change resulted in a 47% increase in organic traffic. The subdirectory structure allowed the help content to leverage the main domain's authority, improving search rankings and visibility.
In my opinion, subdirectories are generally better for SEO than subdomains. This is because subdirectories consolidate link equity into a single domain, making it easier to distribute PageRank among your pages. When all content is hosted under one domain using subdirectories, the SEO value, including backlinks and internal linking, contributes to the overall domain authority. This unified structure helps search engines better understand the relationship between different parts of your website, leading to more effective indexing and ranking. In my experience, using subdirectories has consistently yielded better SEO results. There's been a few times that, during a site migration project where content initially hosted on subdomains was moved to subdirectories, we observed a significant improvement in search rankings and overall traffic. I wouldn't recommend this just for the sake of SEO improvement (particularly if its a big site) but it can be good if there are other compelling reasons to make this transition, too.
I have always recommened a subdirectories. Search engines treat subdomains as a separate website and because of that, any value that gets built to it does not get passed on to the parent domain and thus the effort to optimize the brand gets doubled. Recently I helped migrate two subdomains of a leading data security management company. They are an established website with clients from multiple countries including government organizations. Their major content was placed on a subdomain several years ago. When they engaged my services the main requirement was to increase traffic to the main domain. After reviewing the analytics, I found nearly 75% of the SERP listings are to the subdomains. Based on this, I suggested that they change the subdomains to a subdirectory and implemented 301 redirects for all the pages. Within 45 days, we saw a huge increase in the traffic to the main domain and it also resulted in them improving their Ahrefs DR from 30+ to 45+.
For most use cases, subdirectories are better for SEO because any previous and future link equity from backlinks and authority gained by the main domain are directly shared with the subdirectory. A subdomain will be treated as a separate entity, so link equity and authority have to be built individually. Subdirectories are also easier to maintain, since changes to the main website are usually carried over to all subdirectories. Having said that, sometimes subdomains will be a better choice. If you use a different software or install that must be managed separately, it might make sense to use a subdirectory. For example, I consulted an eCommerce client in the US market expanding into Canada. While I would have usually suggested that they make a "/ca/" subdirectory, they had to use a separate install of Shopify. Creating a new install on a subdirectory would be shaky and more difficult to manage, so we installed it on a "ca" subdomain instead. In that case, even though a subdirectory would have been better for SEO, the difficulty and complications of managing multiple installs on one domain made it worth using a subdomain. Additionally, subdomains can be easier to track, especially for localized or language-specific website versions.
I believe subdirectories are more beneficial for SEO because they enable better domain authority consolidation. At Elementor, we use subdirectories to ensure our site structure is optimized for both user experience and search engine indexing, which has significantly boosted our overall site performance. We've particularly noticed how quickly our new content gets indexed and starts ranking well due to this structural choice. It's easier to manage our SEO efforts across the site without splitting our resources too thin. Overall, this approach has contributed to a more cohesive and powerful online presence.
In my SEO practice, I've found that using subdirectories over subdomains has been significantly more effective. Let me break down why: First, when it comes to SEO, subdirectories benefit from the authority of the main domain. By keeping all content under a single domain, you consolidate your SEO efforts, which makes it easier to rank higher in search results. Search engines tend to view subdomains as separate entities, which can dilute the authority and make it harder to achieve strong rankings. For instance, I managed the SEO for a tech blog that initially had its content spread across multiple subdomains. The visibility and traffic were not improving despite consistent efforts. After migrating the content to subdirectories, we noticed a marked improvement. The site started ranking for competitive keywords, and the overall organic traffic increased by 35% within six months. Another reason why I prefer subdirectories is the ease of tracking and analytics. With everything under one roof, it's simpler to gather comprehensive data and gain insights into user behavior. This holistic view allows for more strategic adjustments and improvements. One particular experience stands out: a client’s e-commerce site was struggling with SEO due to its use of subdomains for different product categories. By consolidating these categories into subdirectories, not only did their search rankings improve, but their bounce rate decreased by 20%, and average session duration increased by 25%. This change demonstrated the direct impact of a unified SEO strategy. Overall, the benefits of subdirectories in terms of SEO authority, ease of management, and improved user experience make them the superior choice in my book.
I think you gotta go with subdirectories whenever possible, but I've seen some valid reasons to use subdomains: One is distinct business lines (e.g. parks.disney.com, movies.disney.com) and the other is needing to set up a blog or microsite in a hurry. Either way, subdomains have some major tradeoffs: First, subdomains usually lead to different tech stacks for each site. Imagine Google is trying to understand your site on one subdomain, and all of a sudden they're on a completely different backend in another subdomain, and they have to reconcile that which could lead to less confidence in your content. Second, distinct subdomains often don't interlink well, leading to a siloing of Pagerank. Sometimes you see completely different main navs/footers on each subdomain. Often, one subdomain will tend to attract more backlinks, and that value won't be distributed well to other subdomain(s). I think developer teams are often excited to set up on subdomains because it makes it easier to start fresh with a new stack. They think maybe they can solve all those technical problems that have been bugging them. Plus, it'll be fun to work on something new. But in my work I'm typically trying to convince teams to keep things technically stable so we can focus on what works: Search audience research, new and optimized content, trust/authority signals.
In my opinion, it's always better to use a subdirectory, as this consolidates your site's authority under one domain and simplifies the link-building process. Technically, search engines can detect if a subdomain belongs to the main website, but they still treat it as a separate entity in terms of site authority and link building. Additional reasons supporting this approach include the fact that it's easier to manage one website installation instead of two (a subdomain and the main website), which can require additional resources for manual uploads and maintenance. Another reason is internal linking and user experience—keeping all content under one main domain streamlines the user experience, as switching between a main domain and a subdomain can be confusing, especially if the subdomain has a different design. The same principle applies to international SEO. If possible, keep all your languages in subdirectories. Otherwise, choose country-specific domains, which may offer a slight boost for audiences in those specific markets. My experiences with this approach have shown that consolidating rankings and traffic to the core domain, along with backlinks from language-specific subdirectories, adds SEO value to the main domain rather than diluting it across a domain and a subdomain.
Subdomains are great when you have a clear differentiation in content, such as if you want to keep an online shop or differentiate website versions to target various countries. However, in the eyes of many search engines they are often treated as separate websites, so you don't get the full SEO value across the domain. There are many reasons why you'd want to use a subdomain (e.g. you can use separate hosting resource, keep certain content like forums separate), but specifically on SEO I always recommend subdirectories. For example, if someone links to your main domain, or a subdomain they don't pass much SEO value between each other. It becomes a lot easier to keep tight control of your branding, content, user flow and visitor tracking.
It is not so much which is better for SEO, but the intent of using a subdomain or subdirectory. For example, many businesses have their blogs set up as subdomains, e.g., blog.domain.com. In this case, a subdirectory may be better suited, e.g. domain.com/blog and this could be seen as a more logical site structure from an indexing perspective. Using subdirectories also comes with the added benefit of improving the overall link equity of your domain name. Subdomains are typically advantageous for segmenting between your website and other web assets that do not require the benefits of SEO. For example, your SAAS platform can be housed on a subdomain (e.g., app.domain.com) with the assumption that the platform sits behind a login wall, thus not requiring SEO value.
I believe subdirectories are better for SEO, especially if you're going multilingual. Managing subdomains (like fr.example.com) requires separate link-building for each, which is time-intensive. Subdirectories (example.com/fr) combine all your SEO efforts, so links benefit the whole domain. While large corporations may have the resources to manage subdomains, most businesses will find subdirectories to be more efficient and easier to scale.
While Google is adamant that it doesn't matter and that their systems/algorithms are more than capable of interpreting both subdomains and subdirectories, there is evidence out there that suggests otherwise. A number of case studies have been published that suggest moving content from a subdomain to a subdirectory almost always increases the traffic and authority of your website. Although domain authority isn't a recognised metric by Google, it's a good representation of how well your site is set up and how well it represents the overall topic. The theory is that subdirectories are better at gathering link equity. This, in its shortest form, is the authority that links pass from one page to another. This works best when relevant and authoritative pages link to other relevant pages. Having content in a subdirectory also means that you're able to create content silos. You can visualise this as an interlinking vertical folder structure. For example, if you have a trainers category page on an ecommerce site, you can structure supporting content in a subdirectory beneath the category page which will help to build relevancy of the entire content silo.
The choice between subdomains and subdirectories should be based on your specific needs, content structure, and overall SEO strategy. Subdomains offer greater flexibility for specialized content and independent management, while subdirectories benefit from consolidated domain authority and simplified SEO efforts. I prefer subdomains if the content greatly differs from the main website. I prefer subdirectories if they are related to the website, but will not end up cannibalizing your keywords. Overall, subdirectories are more appealing to me as your SEO work can strengthen the website, your brand presence is unified, and they require fewer resources to maintain.
I would always choose subdomains over subdirectories. Subdomains are treated by search engines as unique web properties versus a part of the root domain and this allows for the possibility of ranking multiple pages for a target keyword without triggering Google's aversion to putting more than two page from a given domain on page one. Links from a subdomain to inner pages of the main domain are backlinks which can be anchored with keywords and relevant context. Subdomains can be fantastic as supplemental content that might lie slightly outside the scope of your main domain, but close enough to help rankings of both properties. And we know, for certain, that subdomains do no harm since tens of millions of domains use the subdomain "www" with no obvious ill effects on rankings.
Using subdirectories is generally better for SEO than subdomains. Subdirectories consolidate link equity and domain authority, strengthening the main site, while subdomains often dilute these benefits. Managing a site with subdirectories is simpler, improves crawl efficiency, and supports content silos for better organization and shared focus. This setup also provides a more seamless user experience. Real-world examples show increased organic traffic and better rankings after migrating from subdomains to subdirectories.
SEO at Honest Marketing
Answered 2 years ago
Which is better for SEO in your opinion, subdomain or subdirectory? Subdirectory, (2) What are the reasons why you think one is better than the other? Because the rankings better feed of the domain rankings then in a subdomain. A subdomain is more of a "start a new domain" that's different to the existing domain and Google loves older domains especially if they have backlinks and authority. This has been the usual norm in SEO. (3) Are there any specific experiences you have that prove or make you believe that one is better than the other (the more specific you can be the better)? I do trust the experts, there is recent information on this topic with the big Google algorithm leak in 2024, where it looks like Google does treat subdomains as separate sites and rankings won't pass from domain to subdomain. Google's spokesman JOhn Mueller did say that Google treats them the same, but Google SEO spokesman have a history of sharing confusing or false information about how the algorithm works to SEO's. Here is the source from Matthew Woodward who analysed the leak and the part: https://www.searchlogistics.com/learn/seo/algorithm/leaked-google-docs-bust-seo-myths/ Myth #15: Domains And Subdomains Are Treated The Same Filip Silobod SEO Specialist with 8 years of experience
Subdirectories are the most efficient way of doing SEO. The reason is that they belong to the same domain, so whichever authority that domain has, is transferred to the subdirectory. Instead, subdomains carry their own authority, they are treated as a different website on Search Console and have different reporting. This can become complicated to manage and to grow.
While there has been some debate on whether subdirectories vs. subdomains are better for SEO, the ultimate decision on which to use depends on what will deliver the best user experience for the particular pages that you are trying to build, as well as which is best for managing and tracking internally. This article from SEMrush does a great job at explaining certain use cases when a subdomains are better choice in general, and in some situations, better for SEO https://www.semrush.com/blog/subdomain-vs-subdirectory/ In case where you want to rank a version of your site internally, or not rank a site at all because it's a development site, then using subdomains is likely a better option for SEO purposes. There has been cases where switching a blog from a subdomain to a subdirectory has had positive changes, and times where it had the opposite effect https://www.portent.com/blog/seo/subdirectories-vs-subdomains.htm My personal take is that if if items such as a blog, glossary or landing pages can live on a subdirectory, then it's probably the best route. It allows for easier tracking and management plus you don't have to worry about about your domains ranking power being distributed unevenly. But in cases where a subdomain makes more sense for the long term, like for ranking an international version of your site, it's best to go with the subdomain and it will likely provide better SEO results in those cases.
Generally, subdirectories are preferred for SEO. They are often seen as part of the main website, helping to distribute link equity across the entire domain. This means that the authority built for the main site can benefit content within subdirectories. Why subdirectories? They contribute to a more streamlined website architecture, making it easier for search engines to crawl and index content. Plus, they can potentially boost rankings for the main domain due to shared link authority. Real-world example: A client migrated a blog from a subdomain to a subdirectory. After several months, we saw a noticeable increase in organic traffic to the blog posts, suggesting that the subdirectory structure helped to improve their visibility in search results. However, it's important to note that the best choice depends on specific website goals and structure. Subdomains can be beneficial for distinct sections of a website that require separate branding or SEO strategies. Ultimately, the ideal approach requires careful consideration of factors like website architecture, content type, and desired user experience.