Sub-folders or sub-domains?

Question

I'm setting up a site for a client which has a few different sections of the site, dedicated to certain major functions, running off different apps. For example, a blog (running off WordPress), a forum (phpBB), a store, etc.

Because of all the different applications, my initial thought was to separate out the major pieces into separate sub-domains (www. = blog, forum., store., etc). In addition, setup separate SVN repo's for each, to handle future upgrades.

My question: is this a good or bad idea? Am I better off placing each of these in its own sub-folder of the "www" sub-domain?

I'm looking at ease-of-development, SVN repo setup, SEO implications, etc.

Much thanks. Jon

Answer 1

Regarding SEO, both ways have their advantages and drawbacks:

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/subdomains-or-subfolders-which-are-better-for-seo/6849/

Answer 2

I'd use subfolders, for sure. I know there is a list of disadvantages, but the only one I can come up with right now is security certificates.

Most security certificates (used for https://) do NOT include subdomains, or are specific to the subdomain. If you plan on using SSL, or if you want to keep the site open to SSL, it's VERY expensive to purchase as many certificates as subdomains.

As far as SEO, as long as your URLs are well structured, you won't see a difference in my opinion. Case in point: stackoverflow.com.

Answer 3

Go with subdomains. Among other things, they're easier to remember.

Answer 4

Subdomains give you more power.

The most important aspect to this is that the functionality of your site can be split between different virtual providers. By this I mean that if you run "example.com" and you want a blog for your site, then use "blog.example.com". Why? Well, that way your blog can reside on Blogger, using their bandwidth and resources. If instead you have "example.com/blog" then you basically have to install Wordpress or otherwise host it yourself.

Subdomains also allow you to segment cookies. Cookies can apply to a subdomain meaning the others won't see it. Of you can set the cookie for the parent domain and all the subdomains will see it. Whether or not this is useful to you depends on your application.

A downside is that each subdomain may require its own SSL certificate. You may also run into cross-site scripting issues between subdomains.

Answer 5

I recently faced the same question and had to consider the following:

• does the client have a wildcard DNS record, and if not, what is the effort and turnaround time to get the proper DNS changes made for a subdomain?

• how will users access the pages in the subdomain/folder? Do these applications stand by themselves, or are they accessed through the main domain anyways, so that users probably don't even notice the diference?

Based on my specific answers to these questions, I went the subfolder route.