Sub Domains vs. Root Domains

Author: Martin Espericueta

[ 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 .