Subdomain vs Subdirectory for Blog: Which Is Better for SEO?
You've decided to add a blog to your business website. The next question is where it lives.
Option A: blog.yoursite.com (subdomain)
Option B: yoursite.com/blog (subdirectory)
It seems like a minor technical choice. It's not. This decision directly affects how search engines treat your blog content, how your domain authority flows, and how much SEO value your blog generates for your business.
Here's what actually matters, backed by data and real-world results.
What's the Difference?
A subdomain is a separate section that sits before your root domain:
blog.yoursite.comhelp.yoursite.comshop.yoursite.com
A subdirectory (also called a subfolder) is a folder path after your root domain:
yoursite.com/blogyoursite.com/resourcesyoursite.com/guides
The URL structure looks similar. Under the hood, search engines treat them very differently.
What Google Says vs What Actually Happens
Google's official position is clear. John Mueller, a Google Search Advocate, has stated that Google treats subdomains and subdirectories equally. Google's crawler can handle both, and neither gets a ranking boost by default.
That's the theory.
In practice, SEO professionals consistently observe different results. The reason comes down to how domain authority, backlinks, and crawl behavior work in the real world, regardless of what Google's algorithm intends.
Why Subdirectories Win for Blog SEO
Domain authority stays consolidated
When your blog lives at yoursite.com/blog, every backlink to a blog post strengthens your root domain. That authority flows across your entire site, lifting product pages, landing pages, and other blog posts.
With a subdomain (blog.yoursite.com), search engines treat it as a separate entity. If your root domain has a domain authority of 70, your blog subdomain might start at zero. Backlinks to your blog posts build authority for the subdomain, not your main site.
This is the single biggest reason subdirectories outperform subdomains for most businesses.
Backlink equity flows naturally
Internal links from your blog to your product pages pass link equity when they're on the same domain path. A blog post at yoursite.com/blog/best-practices linking to yoursite.com/pricing is a direct internal link.
A subdomain link from blog.yoursite.com/best-practices to yoursite.com/pricing behaves more like a cross-domain link. The SEO value transfer is weaker.
Simpler analytics and tracking
With a subdirectory, all your traffic data lives in one property. You see blog traffic, product page traffic, and conversion paths in a single Google Analytics view.
Subdomains require separate tracking configurations. Cross-domain tracking is possible but adds complexity and introduces data gaps.
Cleaner internal linking
Your blog posts link to product pages. Your product pages link to relevant blog content. When everything is under one domain path, these internal links form a tight, crawlable structure that search engines love.
With subdomains, internal linking between your blog and main site becomes cross-site linking, which search engines weigh differently.
One site to optimize, not two
A subdomain means you're running two websites from an SEO perspective. Two sets of technical SEO to maintain. Two sitemaps. Two robots.txt files. Two sets of Core Web Vitals to monitor. Two crawl budgets to manage.
A subdirectory means one website, one SEO strategy, one set of optimizations.
The Evidence: Real Traffic Impact
The case for subdirectories isn't just theoretical. Companies have tested both approaches and published the results.
Moving blog from subdomain to subdirectory: Multiple case studies report significant organic traffic increases after migrating. One widely cited example saw a 40% boost in organic traffic after moving their blog from a subdomain to a subdirectory.
Moving blog from subdirectory to subdomain: The reverse migration consistently shows negative results. One company reported a 47% decrease in organic traffic after moving their blog from a subdirectory to a subdomain.
The pattern is consistent: subdirectories consolidate authority, subdomains dilute it.
When Subdomains Actually Make Sense
Subdomains aren't always wrong. They serve a purpose in specific situations:
Separate applications. If your blog runs on completely different technology than your main site (different server, different framework), a subdomain can be simpler to manage technically.
Distinct brands or audiences. If a division of your company targets a completely different market, a subdomain creates clear separation.
Developer documentation. API docs or developer portals often run on subdomains because they serve a different audience with different needs.
Regional content on different infrastructure. Large enterprises with region-specific content on separate servers sometimes use subdomains.
For most businesses adding a blog to drive organic traffic, none of these exceptions apply. The blog exists to support the main website's growth. It should live on the main domain.
The Real Problem: Subdirectory Hosting Is Technically Harder
Here's why so many blogs end up on subdomains despite the SEO disadvantage: subdirectory hosting is harder to set up.
Pointing blog.yoursite.com to a blog platform is straightforward. You add a CNAME record in your DNS settings, and you're done.
Hosting a blog at yoursite.com/blog is a different challenge. Your main website is served from one place (Vercel, Netlify, your own servers), and your blog platform is served from another. To make yoursite.com/blog work, you need to configure a reverse proxy that routes /blog requests to your blog platform while everything else goes to your main site.
This typically involves:
Reverse proxy configuration. Nginx, Cloudflare Workers, Vercel rewrites, or similar routing rules.
SSL certificate management. The proxy needs to handle HTTPS correctly for both your main site and blog.
Path rewriting. URLs need to be rewritten so the blog platform receives clean paths.
Cache management. CDN and caching rules need to work across both origins.
CORS and header handling. Cross-origin requests between your main site and blog need proper headers.
For teams without DevOps resources, this is a significant barrier. The result? They default to a subdomain because it's quick to set up, even though they know a subdirectory would be better for SEO.
Platforms like Superblog exist specifically to solve this problem. Superblog handles subdirectory hosting out of the box: you configure a few routing rules on your hosting platform (with guides for Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare, Nginx, Apache, and others), and your blog runs at yoursite.com/blog. In rare scenarios, a reverse proxy setup is also needed, but Superblog provides step-by-step guides that make even that straightforward. No SSL juggling, no path rewriting, no ongoing DevOps overhead.
How to Set Up Subdirectory Hosting
If you're setting up a new blog, start with a subdirectory from day one. Here's the approach depending on your situation:
Starting fresh
Choose a blog platform that supports subdirectory hosting natively. This eliminates the reverse proxy complexity entirely. Superblog, for example, provides specific setup guides for every major hosting platform and framework: Next.js, Nuxt, Astro, Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare, Nginx, Apache, Shopify, Webflow, Framer, WordPress, and more.
The setup typically involves:
Add your domain to the blog platform
Add routing rules to your main site's configuration (a few lines of config)
The blog platform handles everything else: SSL, CDN, caching, SEO
Migrating from a subdomain
If your blog is already running on a subdomain and you want to move it to a subdirectory:
Set up the subdirectory hosting first. Get
yoursite.com/blogworking with all your content before touching DNS.Implement 301 redirects. Every old URL (
blog.yoursite.com/post-title) needs a permanent redirect to its new location (yoursite.com/blog/post-title). This preserves the backlink equity you've already earned.Update Google Search Console. Add the new URL property and submit the updated sitemap.
Update internal links. Audit your site for any links pointing to the old subdomain URLs.
Monitor traffic for 4-6 weeks. There's usually a temporary dip during the transition as search engines process the redirects, followed by a recovery and growth phase.
The 301 redirects are critical. Without them, you lose all the backlink equity your blog has built. With them, the authority transfers to your subdirectory URLs over time.
What About Multilingual Blogs?
If your blog targets multiple languages, the subdirectory approach extends naturally:
yoursite.com/blog/(English, default)yoursite.com/es/blog/(Spanish)yoursite.com/de/blog/(German)
This keeps all language versions under one domain, consolidating authority across every language. The alternative (separate subdomains like es.blog.yoursite.com) fragments your SEO signals even further.
Multilingual subdirectory hosting requires proper hreflang tags, per-language sitemaps, and og:locale meta tags. Superblog generates all of these automatically for 37 supported languages, including per-language RSS feeds and search indexes.
FAQ
Does Google really treat subdomains differently from subdirectories?
Google says it treats them the same. In practice, most SEO professionals observe that subdirectories outperform subdomains for blog content. The difference comes down to how domain authority and backlink equity flow in practice, not how the algorithm theoretically handles them.
How long does it take to see results after migrating from a subdomain to a subdirectory?
Expect a temporary traffic dip for 2-4 weeks as search engines process the 301 redirects. Most sites see full recovery within 4-6 weeks, followed by gradual growth as the consolidated domain authority takes effect.
Can I use a subdirectory if my main site is on WordPress/Shopify/Webflow?
Yes. Subdirectory blog hosting works with any tech stack. The blog platform runs independently and is connected through routing rules on your main site. Superblog provides setup guides for WordPress, Shopify, Webflow, and dozens of other platforms.
What if my blog is on the same platform as my main site?
If your main site and blog are both on WordPress, for example, the blog is already in a subdirectory by default (yoursite.com/blog). The subdomain vs subdirectory question mainly applies when your blog runs on a separate platform from your main website.
Is a subdomain ever better than a subdirectory for SEO?
For blog content meant to support your main site's organic growth, a subdirectory is better in nearly all cases. Subdomains make sense when the content serves a fundamentally different audience or runs on separate infrastructure for technical reasons.
