Should you use subdomain or subdirectory for your blog?
"Hosting your blog on a subdomain is an SEO disaster!"
A startup's chairman emailed me yesterday asking if it's such a bad idea to host your blog on a subdomain.
Apparently after having a heated debate with their CTO on how this would negatively impact their SEO.
So the question: Is hosting your blog on a subdomain an SEO disaster?
Let's look at the evidence.
- Exhibit A: Hubspot, a domain that has a 93 Domain Rating and has over 44 million backlinks and ranks in the top 3 results for 300K keywords, hosts its blog on a subdomain. That's a pretty solid vote of confidence from a pretty solid website in favour of subdomains.
- Exhibit B: Google's own John Muller says it doesn't matter. That's pretty definitive.
So objectively, it doesn't matter if you use a subdomain or a subdirectory.
So is there a reason you SHOULD NOT use a subdomain?
The answer just comes down to your own company's objectives and whether you're okay to do two separate house keeping a.k.a. you just one set of backlinks, you want to manage one google search console, etc.
P.S.
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How to Publish a Blog Post on HackerNoon (Free for Founders)
To be honest, I've never seen a blog that's in a subdomain. It's always website.com/blog/. I think at this point, it should just be standard practice so everyone is used to it.
For sure
Wonder if hubspot was always that way or if they were ever /blog in the early days. Single set of backlinks, single google search presence, single ssl cert, etc. just feels simpler, especially if solo. Is there a scenario where subdomain is actually better?
Very specific use cases like wanting to rank a language localized subdomain for a certain country.
Main goal is to have a separate CMS and I’ve found some devs thought a subdomain would be less of a pain but it’s still possible with a subdirectory.
Otherwise just go for subdirectory by default IMO
That’s interesting. Yeah I just integrated ghost into my project as a headless CMS, so subdirectory was pretty simple.
keep it simple chaps
website.com/blog is totally fine
we do that at Avarup with no issues
Ross Hudgens addresses this very issue on a podcast with @robwalling:
https://www.startupsfortherestofus.com/episodes/episode-580-seven-seo-tips-every-saas-can-use-with-ross-hudgens
The tl;dr is that no matter what Google says, you're still docked for having a subdomain - at least in his experience running a 100+ person SEO agency. His advice is to do it on a root domain if at all possible.
He also cites Hubspot as being an exception to this rule and that Google seems to have explicit capabilities to treat big sites differently than small ones. So unless you're as big as Hubspot, don't expect Google to treat you like Hubspot!
For sure, err on the side of subdirectories unless you have a good reason to use a subdomain.
I do wish they’d share their methodology to say they got an uplift. This just makes him sound like a Neil Patel type who doesn’t actually share repeatable test designs and you’re supposed to just take their word.
I can’t find the links rn but there were some guys who tested that nofollow links actually help with ranking and showed the results and methodology.
I like the idea. But my question is...
I have a blog that runs on root domain, not have any subdomain or subdirectory. But what if I want to launch an brand under my blog.
Assume, I am running a marketing blog on root domain, so can I launch an email marketing tool in subdirectory, will it hurt SEO or brand?
I don't see how it can hurt with the limited info you provided. The tool itself is probably best hosted in a subdomain as in app.domain.com but the marketing pages for it i.e. landing page, pricing page, can all be in the root domain.
Okay, let me explain one more time...
I am currently running a blog on root domain. I don't have any tool as of now. But what if I wanted to launch a tool in future so can I put it in subdirectory ?
If yes, so where can be pricing and other information.
One more question,
I am currently posting content, but I have a plan to also publish news in my industry, but I want to make it saparate from my main content that i publish. So can I make subdirectory of " domain.com/news/
Deciding whether to use a subdomain or subdirectory for your blog depends on factors such as your SEO goals, content organization, and site structure. Subdirectories are usually preferred for SEO benefits and content consolidation.
Sub domain >>>
it's easier to use /blog because of tracking.
Sub domain tracking is more difficult because the browser treats it as a different website.
Agree
What are the positives of the subdomain route? It looks cleaner? Allows you to decouple deployment from your main tool?
I think most do it out of convenience as the blog will require its own CMS like WordPress that the marketing team will need access to.
But for example if you have localised content. If you have a separate blog for your french site, you want the content on that site to rank for people in France so you get backlinks for high DR sites in France, etc. Otherwise you might still rank in France but showing the English content
I think this can all be tackled with a headless CMS, which requires a little more technical set up than a Wordpress on a subdomain. So, all things equal, seems like SEO could be better with the / than the subdomain.
Decoupling blog, website and main app is a good practice, it would be easier to outsource your website or blog to 3rd-party, manage them or deploy new content on different schedule and without interrupting/downtime of your main service.
But it is possible regardless you choose subdomain or subdirectory.
Sub directory all the way
Great breakdown. The perspective is very balanced
Thanks man, appreciate it!
Which approach is better for personal tool developers