So you’re considering adding a blog to your website. That’s great! But hold on a second. Where you put that blog can have an impact on search engines and how they view all that great, new content you’re providing them. When you or your developers are building the blog, more often than not, this question comes up:
“Should we put the blog on www.companyname.com/blog or blog.companyname.com?”
Putting the blog at “companyname.com/blog” would be classified as using the “subdirectory” and the “blog.companyname.com” format would be “using a sub-domain.” When you replace the “www” in your site with something else, you’re adding a sub-domain.
So where should this blog go? I’m here to give you what I believe is the answer and why.
Put it on a subdirectory
Sorry if that was anti-climactic but, for 99% of the cases, that’s the answer to the “where” question. I highly recommend, where possible, to use the “companyname.com/blog” location. Sometimes, there’s just no way around using the sub-domain. For example, you might be using some free blog platform and they only allow use of the sub-domain. However, if you have any control over this whatsoever, put the blog in a subdirectory.
Why the Subdirectory? Links and Link Profile
One of the reasons SEO consultants recommend creating a blog in the first place is the ability for that content to generate links back to the website. Blog content is fresh, shareable and can generate discussion. Links are essentially “votes” that carry a lot of weight for search engines so site owners definitely want to obtain as many quality back-links as possible.
In the eyes of the search engines, your “link profile” is essentially the collection of links that are pointing to a website. How many sites and what kinds of sites that are linking to the site build a link profile which says a lot about that site’s overall trustworthiness and authority to the search engines. Now, here is where the “why” really becomes apparent…
Search engines tend to view sub-domains as separate sites from the main, “www” domain. This means blog.companyname.com and www.company.com are seen as different sites. Therefore, any links that point back to the blog on the sub-domain wouldn’t count toward your main “www” domain. Remember, “www” is your main site. You should want that domain to receive that build-up of inbound links and the improved link profile.
I hope this helps clear up one of the more common questions I see out there. Feel free to leave your comments and questions below. I’ll be happy to answer them all!
ps - now you can follow me on Quora: http://www.quora.com/Kenny-Shafer and on Twitter: http://twitter.com/knit_hat!
(republished from http://www.apartments.com/blog/tips-and-advice/sub-domain-or-subdirectory-where-to-put-that-blog/)