Subfolders or subdomains?

Question

I am setting up a site for a client that has several different sections of the site devoted to certain basic functions that run different applications. For example, a blog (running WordPress), a forum (phpBB), storage, etc.

Because of all the different applications, my initial thought was to split the main parts into separate subdomains (www. = Blog, forum., Store. Etc.). In addition, set up a separate SVN repo for each to handle future updates.

My question is: is this a good or bad idea? Should I place each of them in my own subfolder of the www subdomain?

I look at ease of development, setting up an SVN repo, SEO implications, etc.

Thank you very much. John

Answer 1

I recently came across the same issue and had to consider the following:

• The client has a wildcard DNS record, and if not, what is the effort and processing time to get the correct DNS changes made for the subdomain?

• how will users access pages in a subdomain / folder? Are these applications on their own, or are they available in the main domain anyway, so users probably don’t even notice the difference?

Based on my specific answers to these questions, I sent a subfolder route.

Answer 2

Of course, I would use subfolders. I know there is a list of flaws, but the only thing I can think of is security certificates.

Most security certificates (used for https: //) do not include subdomains or are not specific to a subdomain. If you plan to use SSL or want the site to be open for SSL, it is very expensive to buy as many certificates as there are subdomains.

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

Answer 3

With respect to SEO, both ways have their advantages and disadvantages:

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

Answer 4

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

Answer 5

Subdomains give you more energy.

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

Subdomains also allow you to segment cookies. Cookies can be applied to a subdomain, which means that others do not see it. You can set a cookie for the parent domain, and all subdomains will see it. Regardless of whether this is really useful to you, it depends on your application.

The disadvantage is that each subdomain may require its own SSL certificate. You may also encounter cross-site scripting issues between subdomains.