Domain or Subdomain? Semrush study confirmed

Quote from SEMrush

According to Google, subdomains and subfolders are both fine to use. Google’s official recommendation is that you use whichever makes more sense for your specific setup. Our data seems to confirm this, too. We found minimal correlation between whether URLs sit on domains or subdomains and higher rankings. Our data also showed that the majority of top-ranking pages (97%) are hosted on root domains.

How many top-ranking pages are on subdomains? Within the top 10 results, it’s only 11% of the URLs.

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So make sure to have top level domain guys ^^

the study seems flawed. the reason is top 10 results are mostly from old, authority, and established sites who are developed on root/sub-folder domain. Not many of those ever use subdomains (and that are used for client area, email, etc. tools if ever.) I'v not seen any authority site using subdomains so its true you'll not see them much in SERPs.

Is this saying that a page in a folder is treated similarly to a subdomain as opposed to on theroot?

Subfolders are better than subdomains imo.

It's rare to find ranking pages set up on subdomains, or ranking better than subfolders of the same root domain.

Subdomain isn't good for ranking, I prefer to create structure like example . com/bhw

Root domains still rule the SERPs subdomains can work, but if you want maximum authority flow and ranking power, keep your main content under the primary domain. Google may say it’s equal, but data doesn’t lie.

tooeasymoney said:

Root domains still rule the SERPs subdomains can work, but if you want maximum authority flow and ranking power, keep your main content under the primary domain. Google may say it’s equal, but data doesn’t lie.

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I used to think subdomains were just as good but the more i read the more i see why sticking to the root is a safer for longterm appreciate the insight.

Makes sense. When I run competitor checks on SEMrush, almost everything ranking well is on the top-level domain anyway, so that’s what I focus on first.

If you're worried about losing all your traffic if your domain is banned (and in some niches, this is a big risk), it's better to use subdomains.
But each subdomain needs to be promoted separately with links, and that requires a BIG budget!
If you don't have a link budget, and your niche is such that your domain is unlikely to be banned (and you don't punish bad links), then use folders rather than subdomains. This is especially true if your main domain has a good age and link profile.

I completely agree with the consensus here that root domains tend to hold more authority and ranking power compared to subdomains. It's interesting to note that while Google claims subdomains are treated equally, the data suggests otherwise. I've also noticed that when running competitor checks, top-level domains often dominate the rankings. However, I do want to echo the point about using subdomains as a risk management strategy - if you're operating in a high-risk niche, having separate subdomains can help mitigate the damage of a domain ban. Can anyone share their experience with successfully promoting subdomains with a limited link budget, or is it truly a scenario where a big budget is required?

Yeah makes sense, root domains usually perform better, subdomains can work but most top pages are on main domains, stick to TLD if possible.

Hold on guys take a deep breath....
Do you not see all these "lies" like wordpress is best for seo ranking, merging your subdomain will double your traffic....all these lies in the web check it- coming form marketing agencies, seo and wordpress agencies? You not recognize it? Why you think they spread such tales through the web, to tell you the real seo truth- really ? You not find a real neutral seo studiy on this topic all comes form markteting and seo agencies. No matter if it's Ahrefs, Semrush and whatnot....and many more from branding agencies.....

Yes a free third party subdomain is not good for seo, your own domian subdomain is much better well linked with your root site.
When you mege a tird party subdomain with you rroot domain yes, first time you will se a big traffic spike . Th etruth ios, that the traffic form the subdomain has and form the root domain now are merged = doubled, that not means you will get now doubled organic free seo traffic with that setup.

Example: Seth Godin shows this to your since 20 years and many others....
Fo rmost people it's comfortable , easy and lazy to have the blog under your root domain all in one - when you get a google HCU hit all goes down. When you habe your own subdomain with separate content or blog will not go down when the root site gets an HCU hit.

This all thes emarketing and seo agencies not telling you. And they not telling you, that their "first class wordpress" generates tons of messy crawl waste urls (you can stop this technical seo mess yourself for free).

Gotcha- you got your wake up call now.......uffff yeah it's a lonely place here I know you will hate me, because most people not want like hearing the truth.

ufffff....my typo errors I buy next month a new Hama keyboard.....

I think the biggest factor is not domain vs subdomain but how well the content, structure and authority are built.
Subdomains can work when there is a clear reason to separate content but for most websites, keeping related content under the main domain with proper internal linking is usually simpler to manage.

I start by concentrating on the top-level domain since, when I perform competition checks on SEMrush, nearly everything ranking well is there anyhow.

Sites sitting on a domain tend to benefit from its SEO value than sites sitting on subdomain. That's my opinion by the way

I still prefer subfolders unless there's a technical reason to use subdomains. In my experience it's easier to build authority in one place than split it across multiple subdomains. The content quality matters far more than the URL structure though.

Batol Dev said:

Quote from SEMrush



So make sure to have top level domain guys ^^

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I think the choice mostly depends on the website structure and goals. Subfolders are usually simpler for content management, while subdomains can make sense for separate sections.

Max Suite07 said:

I start by concentrating on the top-level domain since, when I perform competition checks on SEMrush, nearly everything ranking well is there anyhow.

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Semrush scrpaes with their AI other sites Data which causing crawl wast eurls on your wordpress ahrefs and ,many other bots too.
They not showing you well seo ranking websites who have separate domain for thei rblog or a separate .blog domain.

MegaSmith said:

I still prefer subfolders unless there's a technical reason to use subdomains. In my experience it's easier to build authority in one place than split it across multiple subdomains. The content quality matters far more than the URL structure though.

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Use a separate tld domain for your blog is not the same as using a subdomain.