To blog. or to /blog, That is the question.

So both options are great if you want your blog tied to your company brand. Neither of them work well if you want to build a blog that might stand on its own two feet.

If the blog is mostly designed to add content to the main site, with all the SEO benefits, go with the subfolder setup.
If you don't care about the SEO benefits, go with the subdomain.

Depends on what you're trying to achieve. If you're trying to add traffic to a main site go with name.com/blog, if you're looking at building a destination in itself go with blogtitle.name.com. Google considers subdomains as separate sites for memory.

yea, there are plusses and minuses of each.  Having the blog. may be better because of linking from your main site (as you stated, the engines treat a subdomain as a different domain. However, adding the blog as a sub category, every page you write will become a new page of content on your site.

I have always wondered the technicality behind this specific scenario:

You have a site: www.furniturefactory.com

You have lots of different kinds of furniture.

Chairs, Desks, Tables etc.

Your sight is also heavy with content on each page:

www.furniturefactory.com/tables/blue_table.php
www.furniturefactory.com/chairs/red_chair.php
www.furniturefactory.com/desks/blue_desk.php

So here in lies the goal. Increasing your ranking for your main landing page:
www.furniturefactory.com/desks/blue_desk.php

I have never tested this nor heard one way or the other but if your looking to use optimial interal linking which will increase www.peachfarm.com/desks/blue_desk.php

1. desks.furniturefactory.com/blue_desk_info.php

OR:

2. www.furniturefactory.com/articles/blue_desk_info.php

Keep in mind both pages have even more content, above and beyond the content found on the main landing page. The goal is to pass relevancy and weight through another section of relevant content on the site. Which facilitation you think will work better.

Sorry if that was a bit drawn out, a little more technical than you might have wanted to get on this ;)

Brian,

I am not sure if I fully understand your question, but if you are asking which one is better, personally I wouldnt go with either desks.furniturefactory.com/blue_desk_info.php or www.furniturefactory.com/articles/blue_desk_info.php

I would go with www.furniturefactory.com/blue-desk-info.php

Why?

1. subdomains are treated as separate domains. So every related category, would end up on a separate domain.

2. keeping in within the main site would make your site bigger, more related content. Google likey

3. I prefer dashes instead of underscores

4. Try to remove subcategories unless you have to have them for web organizational purposes.  The deeper the content, the less relevant in googles eyes.  If you have to use a category, make sure it is a main keyword associated with the products within... /desks/blue_desk.php  That includes singular or plural. If more people search "desks" over "desk," use desks.

Al,

Thanks for the reply. I posted this in the SEO Tech. blog as well. Ill pick it up over there.

http://www.gooruze.com/groups/593/blog/103547/