Ask HN: Does putting a blog on a subdomain vs. subdirectory matter in 2024?

[onemiketwelve]

I've been setting up a blog for a project and have always heard the common wisdom to never put the blog in a subdomain (blog.site.com) and instead to always put it as a subdirectory (site.com/blog)

you see a lot of it here from the 2010s. ex: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1176438

But I just ran into a comment on reddit saying that modern Google does not make a distinction anymore. If that's true it would be a hell of a lot easier for me. I could setup the subdomain proxying via cloudflare super easily. If I had to do a subdirectory I would either have to setup cloudflare workers or do some much more complicated reverse proxying

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-treats-subdomains-subdirectories-john-mueller-says/254687/

[nickfromseattle]

If you want to leverage SEO to drive traffic, yes, put it on the root domain in a folder.

Yes, Hubspot uses a subdomain, but you're not Hubspot.

[kevlened]

I'd like to see more evidence. From the linked article, John Mueller, from Google, says they treat them the same, although he acknowledges it's a heated debate externally.

Timestamp: https://www.youtube.com/live/kQIyk-2-wRg?feature=shared&t=67...

Here's him again, though in 2017, being more explicit about blogs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJGDyAN9g-g

Here's additional documentation about why site diversity rules collapse subdomains into the root: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ranking...

For a third party's take, here's semrush in Nov 2023: https://www.semrush.com/blog/subdomain-vs-subdirectory/

"The choice between subdomains and subdirectories largely depends on reasons outside of SEO. Both can be SEO-friendly."

[warrenm]

Neither is especially hard

I have done (and do still, sometimes) both

Sometimes I even have it in a subdirectory with a subdomain alias to get there

I do not think it ever really 'mattered' - all that mattered was how you wanted to think about it