Folders vs. Subdomains

October 26, 2005

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Catherine Parker writes today’s guest article. Catherine is a search engine marketer at Quirk, a full-service eMarketing agency based in Cape Town, South Africa. After studying IT, she became a copywriter, which helps her fully appreciate the daily battle between a site that’s great to read and one that’s just great for search engines.

Folders vs. Subdomains
By Catherine Parker

Whether it’s synchronicity or just my imagination, I’ve come across the same SEO issue several times in the past few weeks. The issue in question? Folders vs. subdomains, and which is a better site structure to ensure high search engine rankings. By folders, I mean having one high-level domain with each site section following, e.g.
www.capetown.co.za/accommodation, as opposed to a subdomain structure such as accommodation.capetown.co.za.

The Case for Folders

Sections in a folder structure are seen by search engines as part of one site, so the more subsections you have, the more content your site appears to have. And we all know how much search engines just love a site that is rich in content. Folders allow you to build your site’s
bulk with each new section addition. Also, the PageRank in each section will be distributed throughout your whole site — provided you have a sound internal linking structure.

Apart from search engine issues, a folder structure is easier to maintain — it’s easier to create a new site section than it is to create a brand-new subdomain each time you want to add a new section to your site. With a subdomain structure, you need to commit to a lot of time and forward planning, since you’re building up each subdomain as though it were a different site.

The Case for Subdomains

Search engines see accommodation.capetown.co.za and www.capetown.co.za as completely different sites. Therefore, any links between subdomains will hold greater perceived weighting because they will be seen as external rather than internal links within the site. This presupposes
that each of your other subdomains has a high PageRank — in order for the “external” links to be of benefit. However, a site with a folder structure that has numerous inbound links of a high quality will have the same effect.

A colleague of mine has an interesting theory that themed directories are more inclined to link to subdomains. For example, an accommodation directory would rather link to accommodation.capetown.co.za than capetown.com/accommodation, as subdomains are likely to be more concentrated on the topic and have more content. Whether it’s true or not, this demonstrates the branding advantage of having subdomains. As he says, “It’s the difference that does make a difference to some directory editors.”

The other advantage is that some directories allow for category submissions — meaning that with subdomains, you can submit various subdomains under each relevant category without abusing any of the policies. It’s important to keep each subdomain unique. If you do
this, there’s no risk of duplicate content and more chances of being accepted into different categories.

So Which One Is Better?

Not all sites are created equal, and as with offline business, each site has its own goals and priorities. Great rankings are much more about site content than site structure — although the latter is still important in terms of usability. If you stick to a long-term plan of building great content and sourcing some great inbound links, all things being equal, it won’t make much difference whether you have a subdomain or a folder structure.

If you go with a folder structure, be sure to build up substantial content and have useful and important inbound links back to your site. If you have loads of content and good branding reasons for treating each section as a separate entity, then subdomains may be the best way
to go. However, there is a lot more work involved if and when you decide to add a new section — it’s not as simple as adding another folder.

Examine your site goals before you decide what structure is best for you. Then roll up your sleeves and give it your best shot. Good luck!

Catherine Parker
Quirk

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