Pat Marcello | 
01 16th, 2008| 
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Does it make a difference?
According to Matt Cutts of Google, it does. Google now thinks that subdirectories are the way to go, as in
- YourDomain.com/subdirectory
vs. the Subdomain which would look like:
- subdomain.YourDomain.com
Last year, we heard that it was better to use the subdomain because Google was using subdomains on its sites like analytics.google.com and maps.google.com. It seemed to be the way to go.
This year, the Analytics subdomain redirects to the subdirectory, but the subdomain for Google Maps remains the same. Cutts said that Maps was “different.” Yes. I see that.
But isn’t tracking “different” from search? I’d say yes.
What’s an SEO to do?
Bend like a willow.
And decide what your purpose is going to be for the URL.
Markus Merz blogged a great bit on what to do when. And rather than post all of it, check out the Performancing Blog.
I think these points he made were most important:
- Always use a subdomain for website testing
- If a website flies well in a subdomain you should consider a unique domain for it.
- Only use subdirectories to structure pretty related content.
Otherwise, it’s probably a wash, unless you want to bend to the will of the Google ghods.
It’s totally your call, but I think that the three rules above are a pretty good rule of thumb.
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