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Google
Sub Domains vs. Root Domains



[Question] My site is currently structured as such: city.example.com/



To improve my Google rankings, should I restructure it as such:



www.example.com/city/



It believe it will eventually help for BL's...but are there any other advantages?



[Answer] It actually depends on what you're doing with your site. For example, if you host several different "themes" on your domain example.com, I'd create a sub domain, b/c as we know, SEs see them as a separate site. That way, city1.example.com can contain 1000's of sub folders/pages pertinent to city1:



EXAMPLE #1



city1.example.com/events

city1.example.com/dining

city1.example.com/recreation



But, for example, if you have:



EXAMPLE #2

www.example.com/city1



www.example.com/dog-grooming

www.example.com/classic-cars



You are now not capitalizing on the ability to create keyword-rich URLs, as you can do with creating your sub domain (IE: dog-grooming.example.com



You'd then consider each sub domain vs. domain.com/sub-folder as separate sites, and work on separate SEO strategies (IBLs, etc.) for them.



PS: Imagine your sitemap for EXAMPLE #2? It'll look like a link directory! As apposed to EXAMPLE #1 - which would show SEs the "theme" for your site.



With my own site on search engine optimization tips, I've created the sub domain for just this exact reason.

About the author:

Martin has been involved in the web design standards movement, as well as a semi-pro at search engine optimization tips.