Should I structure my site using subdomains or subdirectories?

I'm interested in finding out how Google currently views subdomains -- whether there's any difference between a site structured as a group of subdomains and one structured as a group of subdirectories.
Bob, Somerville, MA

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• Category

  Science & Technology

[Michael Parker]

Good question, good answer! Thanks :)

[Jacob Kristensen]

Subdomans can also be easier – just imagine having greedy "complicated" regular expression in a mod_rewrite declaration. Re-writing that to work with subdirectories could be harder than adding a subdomain.

[RockyMountainOilsLLC]

Wow, this is one of the few videos where Matt actually gives an explanation behind the question instead of just humming and hawing for 4 minutes before declaring that he somehow answered the question.

Thanks for the legitimate answer on this one. Let's keep it up!

[Erika Austin]

I feel like this is answered but - doesn't subdirectories take away from the root domain authority? Isn't that almost the sole benefit of using subdirectories. Or is that what Matt meant by it's scrunched now?

[Fixxitube]

In Google Analytics there is "Subdomain of" Setting which is an on/pff, what does on or off mean and which one makes the engine treat these domains as one for SEO calculations ? I have 4 subdomains which I want to be treated as one , but each subdomain has got a different PR ?!?

[Andreas Ostheimer]

Good one.

[Ricky Williamz]

Is it bad for my company domain to have sub domains/directories that cover multiple niches?

And if it is a bad thing, then why are ALL the Big Names allowed to do it? and their sub domains/directories ALL rank just fine in the SERP's. Both blogspot.com & facebook.com have an endless amount of sub domains/directories in multiple niches created by their members that rank #1 ... So can I do the same?

[Shahbaz Mirza]

Hello sir.. i really appreciate this video its so use full for me..

[TheSweetPerry]

subdirectories make me happier :)

[Mathan raj]

Thank you for this video.

[Ty Whalin]

Awesome, Google found a way to eliminate more spammers. Get em Google. Never have been a big fan of sub-domain usage but it is a powerful way to generate more results.