*forums.domain.com* or domain.com/forums ?? POLL

[krakerjak]

Are there any advantages/disavantages using one over the other that I just don't realize?

I personally prefer and plan to install my forum at forums.domain.com.
Although I currently have it at domain.com/forums I just haven't figured out how to move the database etc....

but I would say that I have seen both equally

[forumsfirst.com]

domain.com/forums every time - I'm not a big fan of subdomains 

[MoM]

I voted for the subdomain. Most sites use the sub-directory, but the subdomain makes it feel professional. Honestly, I think it doesn't really matter. That's just my 2 cents.

[citrusemma]

subdomain feels more professional but nowadays i prefer domain.com/forum because it looks better.
However, both are fine, and I think that it is best to have both available!

[scorpiox]

Gotta say I prefer forum.domain.com, it's the best

[hellmet]

I actually don't care. But, the subdirectory is a nicer looking option, since I feel that people/users notice the actual domain, and not the subdirectory.
Ex : www.forumsfirst.com/forum .. You notice forumfirst.com upon first glance
        www.forums.forumsfirst.com .. You notice 'forums' first then the domain name.

[skolor]

I use both on my forums. The subdomain is nice, since I regular a couple of different forums, and its easy to just type "forum." in my address bar and be able to select them all. I also use the domain.com/forum because thats just as convenient, and is easier to use when designing the site.

You really shouldn't have to move a database at all when moving to a subdomain, it shouldn't be much of a problem. If you do, just use whatever backup feature the forum software has and restore it to the new location.

[megsy99]

I am in the process of setting up forum.domain.com forums as the forum package i wish to use doesn't integrate very well with my content management system. I have always been a fan of domain.com/forum but i have no choice to set it up the other way. In hindsight though it's much of a muchness and not alot of people would even notice which one you use, unless they have a website or are tech savvy.

[i.nput.net]

I have an associate that was a contractor for Google.com. I asked him the exact same question. As you can see by my username, my domain name is a "hack" meaning the original domain name is nput.net and the subdomain is "i" which makes: i.nput.net.

I had great concern about this very question. My exact question was how unattractive calender.i.nput.net looks, for example. He explained to my that a subdomain is in fact a completely different domain. It's the same but it isn't. Think of a subdomain as an apartment. You live in close proximity of others but you have your own space.

Because of this fact, each subdomain is given it's own pagerank. Subdomains are totally for vanity and may be cheating you out of free Mr Google traffic.  Hope this helps.

[Masterful]

Thank you i.nput for your input (pun intended) on this thread.
I have several plans for one domain and have been asking myself this same question, so thanks also to krakerjak for asking in the first place.
I was thinking originally that forums.domain would be better for google, but that I was so used to domain.com/forum so it made more sense to me.

[kris1911]

Well, i am using domain.com/forum right now.  forum.domain.com is called sub-domain and its rank will be granted to the main domain name so there is nothing bad using it. One of the biggest forum digitalpoint is using forum.digiatlpoint.com. It depends on your choice. The benefit of  using sub domain is it will help for your main domain name also in getting rank. In this way both the sub domain and domain will be ranked on top.

[stevelack]

I can definitely confirm that you are robbing yourself of google juice by using a sub-domain.  Using forums.com/forums allows the SE's to see your forum as a part of your site and all the traffic you get on your forums, as well as to the rest of your site, including linkbacks will help your page rank and SE ranking.  If you put your forum on a sub domain the SE's will see your site as a separate entity from the rest of your site and rank it accordingly.  There are times when you might want this but if you're looking to rank for many different pages on your site go with the forums.com/forums .


Steve Lack
http://satspeedprep.com/forums

[cristiana]

Are there any advantages/disavantages using one over the other that I just don't realize?

I personally prefer and plan to install my forum at forums.domain.com.
Although I currently have it at domain.com/forums I just haven't figured out how to move the database etc....

but I would say that I have seen both equally

Yes they are   differences
Think SEO
you are doing a business, more or less, so SEO is about search on the internet, so think what people will look for 
i think for example the best idea will be apple.forum.com, because people will search info about apple and not for forums,
forums are made to find info about  anything you are looking for