Is Using A Subdomain (Or A Subdirectory) A Google Ranking Factor?

You can organize specific types of content on your website using subdomains and subdirectories.

Can the use of subdomains or subdirectories, on the other hand, have an impact on your organic search rankings?

Continue reading to find out if there’s a link between subdomains, subdirectories, and higher Google rankings.

Subdomains and subdirectories Are Ranking Factors, According to the Claim

What are the differences between subdomains and subdirectories?

Subdomains are different parts of your website.

The bolded portions of the following URLs are examples of subdomains:

https://corporate.example.com/
https://store.example.com/
https://blog.example.com/

In contrast, subdirectories are folders within your domains. Both the main domain and your subdirectories can have subdirectories.

The bolded portions of the following URLs are examples of subdirectories:

https://example.com/store/
https://example.com/blog/
https://blog.example.com/category/

Subdomains and Subdirectories as Ranking Factors: Evidence

Matt Cutts, the former head of Google’s Webspam Team, published a blog post about subdomains and subdirectories in 2007.

He stated in it,

“A subdomain can be useful to separate out content that is completely different.”

HubPages moved its user-generated content to subdomains in 2011 in response to Google’s Panda update.

According to the Wall Street Journal and Search Engine Watch, HubPages:

“…have returned to pre-Panda [traffic] levels in the first three weeks since he activated subdomains for himself and several other authors. The other authors saw significant, if not full, recoveries of web traffic.”

The Evidence Against Subdomains and Subdirectories as Ranking Factors On a few occasions, Google has confirmed how they handle subdomains and subdirectories.

The following is taken from the Google Search Central Support documentation:

“Is it better to use subfolders or subdomains?
You should choose whatever is easiest for you to organize and manage. From an indexing and ranking perspective, Google doesn’t have a preference.”

Cutts responded to the same question about how Google views subdomains and subdirectories in 2013:

“They are roughly the equivalent. I would basically go with whichever is easier for you in terms of configuration, your CMSs [content management systems]… all of that sort of stuff.”

Cutts used the example of a company that wants to power its blog with a different CMS (such as WordPress VIP or Tumblr).

He went on to say that Google used to show two results per host in the past. This allowed webmasters to take advantage of subdomains to gain control of search results.

Google’s algorithm has been updated to only show one or two results per domain, making it more difficult for subdomains to gain more prominence in search results.

In 2018, Google Search Advocate John Mueller was adamant about which was better for SEO: subdomains or subdirectories:

“Google Web Search is fine with using either subdomains or subdirectories.”

He went on to discuss the difference in processing between subdomains and subdirectories:

“Some servers make it easier to set up different parts of a website as subdirectories. This helps us with crawling since we understand everything is on the same server and can crawl it in a similar way.”

With regards to subdirectories, Mueller said:

“You’ll need to verify subdomains separately in Search Console, make any changes to settings, and track overall performance per subdomain. We do have to learn how to crawl them separately, but for the most part that’s just a formality for the first few days.”

Our Opinion on Subdomains and Subdirectories as Ranking Factors

It’s safe to assume Google treats subdomains as separate websites because you have to verify subdomains separately in Search Console but not subdirectories.

This isn’t to say that using subdomains or subdirectories affects your Google ranking.