As a website grows, new sections appear: a blog, an online store, a help centre, a customer portal. Each can live in a subfolder of your main domain or on its own subdomain.
Subfolder: yourbusiness.com/blog
The section is part of the same website. Search engines see one site, so authority built by the blog helps the rest of the domain and the other way round. It is usually the better choice for content that supports your main site, such as articles and guides.
The trade-off: the section must run on the same platform or behind the same server, which is not always possible.
Subdomain: shop.yourbusiness.com
The section is technically separate. It can run on a different platform, server or provider, which is ideal for a store on a hosted platform, a customer portal or an application.
Search engines may treat it more like a separate site, so links and reputation are shared less directly.
Practical guidance
- Blog, guides, case studies: subfolder when possible.
- Store on a separate platform, client area, web app: subdomain.
- Regional versions: subfolders such as /en or /ar are easier to manage than separate domains for each language.
Do not forget security
Every subdomain is a door. Remove DNS records for subdomains you no longer use; an old record pointing at a cancelled service can let someone else take it over and serve content under your name. Each subdomain also needs a valid SSL certificate, or a wildcard certificate can cover all of them.
Getting it set up
Subdomains are created with a DNS record, which you can manage alongside your domain at IDX. If you are planning a larger site structure, our team can help you plan the project.
IDX on digital infrastructure
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