Subdomain position?

[Crowbar]

I was just wondering: how should a subdomain be set - before the domain (as in subdomain.domain.com) or after the domain, followed by a slash (domain.com/subdomain)? I noticed large companies like Yahoo! prefer the former alternative, while most forums prefer the latter.

[Ross]

Originally Posted by Crowbar

I was just wondering: how should a subdomain be set - before the domain (as in subdomain.domain.com) or after the domain, followed by a slash (domain.com/subdomain)? I noticed large companies like Yahoo! prefer the former alternative, while most forums prefer the latter.

If you are referring to subdomain.domain.com, its the proper url for a subdomain. Subdomain is always before the main domain. Dot(.) is the seperator between sub-domain and the main domain here. If you are referring to domain.com/subdomain, then sub-domain here is a directory under your main domain. Its not the sub-domain here.

[Networker]

Yes, you can choose either subdomain.domain.com or domain.com/sub-directory. I was not aware of Yahoo's preference, but Google always uses the later option. I wonder if it's for SEO or other reasons.

[WH-Garry9]

I would recommend you to use domain.com/sub-directory on your website as this is more preferred. Generally, subdomain.domain.com is more preferred in case of websites which already have a number of domain.com/sub-directory URL's and want to keep a blog or some other important categories or content on the website in a separate manner.

[Geoffrey]

I also notice that Google mostly use sub directories instead of sub domains, so using sub directories must be more advisable than using sub domains. It makes sense because subdirectories are better (SEO wise) as search engines see them as folders within a root directory, so it will share page ranking and link juice with the main website.