Blog for website, subdomain vs subfolder link for SEO purposes

JinkHost said:

Hi there,

We're wondering if it's more beneficial to have a blog hosted under the subdomain (blog.xxx.xxx) or subfolder (xxx.xxx/blog) for SEO purposes.

Gemini and chatgpt are recommending subfolder over subdomain, but some Google searches are saying subdomain.

What's the recommended path to host a blog for SEO building?

Edit: Also right now we choose ''Writefreely'' over ''Wordpress'' and other options, are there any recommendations on what to use?

Jink Host

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In my experience subfolders have worked better for building overall site authority. A subdomain make's more sense only if the blog is treated as a Separate project.

The CMS matter's less than the content and technical setup, If Write Freely does what you need, that is fine, but I'd still host the blog in a subfolder for your main sites SEO.

sub domain is best if you have a corporate website or a website that has different CMS or custom coded website.

sub folder is best if you want to take advantage of your root domain DA and backlinks.

It depends on your use case. To manage sub domain is good.

Use a subfolder; it usually shares authority and benefits your main site SEO.

In most cases I'd go with a subfolder. It benefits from your site's existing authority and is usually the better long term choice.

JinkHost said:

Hi there,

We're wondering if it's more beneficial to have a blog hosted under the subdomain (blog.xxx.xxx) or subfolder (xxx.xxx/blog) for SEO purposes.

Gemini and chatgpt are recommending subfolder over subdomain, but some Google searches are saying subdomain.

What's the recommended path to host a blog for SEO building?

Edit: Also right now we choose ''Writefreely'' over ''Wordpress'' and other options, are there any recommendations on what to use?

Jink Host

Click to expand...

My recommendation is subfolder, so that google bot can easily identify our blog page and the sub folder will also be crawled and indexed. So its better to keep as sub folder

gregstereo said:

My recommendation is subfolder, so that google bot can easily identify our blog page and the sub folder will also be crawled and indexed. So its better to keep as sub folder

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Website mishmash of pages, services, about me+ a blog with blog posts different categories.....that builds authority in your eyes, hm?

HubSpot reportedly lost roughly 80% of its organic traffic by publishing outside its core topical territory, the textbook cautionary tale for "publish anything that ranks" content.

Means: website mishmash content of different pages+ blog with different categories all on one= not builds topical authorithy.

Marco69 said:

Website mishmash of pages, services, about me+ a blog with blog posts different categories.....that builds authority in your eyes, hm?

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I agree that authority comes from the quality of the content, not the URL structure. My point was that a subfolder helps consolidate SEO signals on the main domain. Google can treat subdomains and subfolders similarly, but from a site management and authority consolidation perspective, I still prefer subfolders.

gregstereo said:

I agree that authority comes from the quality of the content, not the URL structure. My point was that a subfolder helps consolidate SEO signals on the main domain. Google can treat subdomains and subfolders similarly, but from a site management and authority consolidation perspective, I still prefer subfolders.

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It's often not what you think when google makes new seo statements my friend...

I'd choose a subfolder. It's generally easier to consolidate authority and keep all of your content under the same domain.

subfolder over subdomain for most cases wordpress gives more seo control plugins and scaling options
as for writefreely it is simple but limited for growth and features

SEOPul said:

Go with subfolder (/blog), zero debate. Google treats subdomains like separate sites, meaning your main domain loses out on all the backlink equity, trust, and topical authority your blog builds. Only use a subdomain if technical limitations force your hand.

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When you have an url domain setup like Seth Godin has, the blog on a separate tld domain link it well to your main business website who have pillar pages. That this setup not builds authority , that it will split your authorithy or is bad for seo, do you have found any hard facts in the web about this statement?

Yep, no!

Because it comes from SEO Agencies worldwide after MOZ made such a statement that multiple domains are bad for SEO- google itself not says this. Ok nowadays we see subdomains as example, not ranking good here is a subfolder the better choice, when you not want have multiple separate domains. Same with that old stubborn lie of DA a metric invented by MOZ, not by google, google not using this metric.

Seth Godin called them all "liars" and you see he is dominating google page 1-4 with his short blog posts.
My five cents is this: you want build authority, all on one website....

there you have a start page
work with me
what I do page
ressource page
about me
pillars important yes
then a blog with 3-4 categories.... etc,etc....

for me it looks like a mishmash not like a topical authorithy site.

Then have that blog separate on a blog domain you writing daily about your pillar topics link that blog well with your main business site - then the blog will have topical authorithy in my eyes.

Proof me wrong here.