The domain name and also the platform that you opt for are just two of the critical aspects, which go into making a blog work. Of course, they are important so that you get everything right in the beginning itself. I just wish to offer some more insight in order to explain a bit about the whole issue of subdomains and subdirectories.

This debate of ‘sub domain (sub-domain or subdomains) versus sub directory (sub-directory or subdirectory) has a curious twist to it as which one is actually better when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Most of us, I guess, will be aware of the terms, but for starters, let me explain the two concepts in brief.

Finer aspects of a sub domain and a sub directory

• A sub domain, technically speaking, is a domain incorporating your current domain name. If you have, for example, a basic domain ‘yourdomain.com’, you can go for sub domains such as ‘abc.yourdomain.com’ and ‘blog.yourdomain.com’ etc. On the other hand, a sub directory appears in the form of ‘yourdomain.com/blog’.
• The issue is if you want to run a blog, should you be using a sub directory or a sub domain. Which of the two would produce the optimum SEO results? And what is the basis of such an assumption? There are contrasting opinions about this debate when creating a blog. A section of users feel sub domain is a better choice, whereas some others feel sub directory is a preferred idea. Here is one fact that consistently surfaces in most of the discussions.
• Well one main observation is that for certain reason Google and other search engines tend to not associate sub domains to domains that well. To put it in other words, the two are treated as two separate entities, whereas sub directories are usually associated or identified with the main domain.
• On the other hand, Sub domain from users’ perspective offers a cleaner structure in comparison to sub directories. The former can easily be changed to any subdirectory, or point to a different site by employing forward. On its part, sub directory is simpler to manage, and nothing specific needs to be done for adding a new sub directory. They might perform more efficiently than sub domains since the latter might be hosted in different IP. (It’s invariably to be resolved runtime). Uses as a habit keep in mind ‘yourdomain.com/blog’ than ‘blog.yourdomain.com’.
• Sub directories, broadly speaking, appear a better choice when running a blog since they are perceived as related entities by search engines. So if your main domain enjoys a higher Google rank, the sub directory you create is bound to get a boost in terms of ranking. But this all will ultimately depend on the content quality and whether it’s pertinent to your domain.