When it comes to SEO, there are a lot of best practices that you need to follow in order to rank your site higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). One of the most important decisions you’ll need to make is whether to host your company blog on a subdomain or a subdirectory. In this article, we will discuss the pros and cons of each option and help you decide which is the best for your business.
Hosting Your Blog on a Subdomain
When you host your blog on a subdomain, the blog’s URL will be something like this: blog.yourwebsite.com. This option is generally advised against because it can hurt your SEO efforts. The reason for this is that when you have two separate websites – one with the main domain, and one with a subdomain – Google will see them as two separate sites.
What does this mean for SEO? Well, if you don’t optimize your blog posts properly on the subdomain, then they won’t rank well in search results. Moreover, since there are two different websites to keep up-to-date with SEO best practices, it can be more difficult to achieve good rankings.
Pros of Hosting Your Blog on a Subdomain
- Easy to set up – most web hosting providers offer easy-to-use tools for creating and managing subdomains.
- Separate hosting for the blog CMS – this is often the reason why SaaS engineers want to put the blog engine on a subdomain.
Cons of Hosting Your Blog on a Subdomain
- SEO disadvantages – as we mentioned earlier, hosting your blog on a subdomain can hurt your SEO efforts
- Limited flexibility – you may not be able to customize the look and feel of your blog as much as you would like
Hosting Your Blog on a Subdirectory
The other option is to host your blog on a subdirectory, which would look like this: yourwebsite.com/blog. This is the preferred option for SEO because it keeps all of your content – including your blog posts – under one roof. This makes it much easier for Google to crawl and index your website, which can lead to better SEO results.
In addition, when you host your blog on a subdirectory, you don’t have to worry about creating separate content for the blog and the main website. This can be helpful if you’re short on time or resources since it means you don’t have to create two different SEO strategies.
Pros of Hosting Your Blog on a Subdirectory
- SEO benefits – it’s easier to create SEO-friendly content when your blog is hosted on a subdirectory because all of the pages are under one domain name. This makes it more likely that Google will crawl and index them properly, which can lead to better SEO results.
- Brand consistency – when all of your content is hosted on the same domain name, it helps to build brand consistency. This can be beneficial for SEO and for your business as a whole
- Easy to set up – setting up a blog on a subdirectory is just as easy as setting up one on a subdomain
Cons of Hosting Your Blog on a Subdirectory
- Some SaaS engineers prefer to not have WordPress or other CMS systems set up on the main domain for privacy reasons and it might be hard to come to a successful compromise.
Do subdomains help SEO? When Should You Use a Subdomain?
There are some rare cases where hosting your blog on a subdomain might make more sense than using a subdirectory on a top-level domain. For example, if you’re running an e-commerce store and want to add a blog to your website. In this case, it might make more sense to host the blog on a subdomain because you can use your main website’s domain authority to help boost the blog’s SEO while keeping the content strategies separated.
Another time when you might want to use a subdomain is if you have a separate website that’s focused on a specific topic (like fashion or travel) or totally different product line that serves a different type of customer. In this case, you might want to host the blog on a subdomain so that it’s easier for people to find and it then makes sense for Google to rank these as separate sites.
Conclusion
Hosting your company blog on a subdirectory is generally the best option from an SEO performance perspective. However, there are some rare cases when hosting it on a subdomain might make more sense. If you’re not sure which option is best for you, consult with an SEO expert.
PS: want to get some marketing tips? Check out this blog post about SaaS marketing strategies that you can try out this year.
