Does a blog on a subdomain pass on SEO credit to the main domain?

[cmortensen]

When setting up a Hubspot blog you are asked to create a subdomain such as blog.website.com in order to have the blog hosted there.

Two questions:

1. Does a blog on a subdomain pass on SEO credit to the main domain? 
My understanding is that a subdomain is treated like a unique site but I'm not finding current articles to confirm this is still true.

2. If it does not pass on credit to the main domain and the subdomain is only building "SEO love" for itself but your posts are getting found and driving conversions... from a marketing perspective does this non-transfer of SEO credit really matter? Meaning if blog.website.com is linked to the navigation on website.com, your site has quality content, has relevant calls to action, and you are lead nurturing like a good marketer... does the passing of SEO credit matter if your posts are what's getting found and filling the top of the funnel?

Thank you in advance,
Christine

[GPainter]

Hi Nicole,

Just to mention first off my comment's more regarding sub domains more than Hubspot specifically. I'll try to answer your question directly:

Does one lose any credibility or get diluted by putting said blog on a subdomain rather than in a subdirectory folder?

You may loose credibility (or gain if you put it on a sub folder) by the fact a subdomain could look 'new' compared to an existing website but to be honest its nominal in the big picture. As for credibility that's more for the users point of view than Google's (unless you're planning on being very naughty with the site) but with good content and branding this shouldn't be a problem.

There are oodles of topics on subdomains vs. subfolders out there for you to research but try not to over think it too much as it really all boils down to what you want out of it. You can over come most of the problems you feel you may have. Link diluting etc. is only really a problem if you're planning on posting the same content on both domains as they would literally competing with one another but if its unique and useful info they it should rank on its own merit (with some basic SEO/SEM)

If you are unsure or feel inexperienced I'd recommend putting it on your site then you will get a boost from your blog (see Moz example above) without as much work, so unless you want to distance your main site from the blog this should cover you well.

if in doubt do more research, ask more people get all the info until you feel you're all covered.

Best of luck with your blog and I hope it all goes swimmingly.

[nicoley]

Christine and I are working on this project together and my ongoing concern is not so much if they get credit passed on to them (logically I would think if domain owners could do this, it would be considered a no-no by google) yet more so if it detracts in any way from the main URL.  i.e. diluting the value of the content on the main URL because it competes for the same keywords, etc. therefor 'siphoning' link credit.

This is my first time working with a tool like Hubspot and I feel strongly that it does more SEO harm than it does good. However, my lack of knowledge in the area of Hubspot could be why I feel that way.

So as a follow-up to Christine's question, does one lose any credibility or get diluted by putting said blog on a subdomain rather than in a subdirectory folder?

Thanks so much in advance!

[GPainter]

Hi Cristine,

Hope you've got found your answer but I just wanted to also give my input.

Whilst they do pass some "link juice" its more akin to creating a separate site meaning double the work, this can be fine if that's what you want but for me its a lot easier to create e.g. www.yoursite.com/blog then any links created also benefit your site as well any users can also browse your site straight from your blog pretty easy etc. You can see what Matt Cutts said about a similar subject way back in 2007 here - https://www.mattcutts.com/blog/subdomains-and-subdirectories/

Regarding your second point if it's getting found and is working that fantastic but what is the likelihood of this? If you're running an email marketing campaign and relying on direct traffic this may not be an issue but I don't know of many sites that rank purely on their content alone from the start you can give yourself a bit of a boost from your main domain via a subfolder.

In Summary- If your site is getting found, getting exposure and all that jazz fantastic give your self a pat on the back, however if not there is nearly double the work on trying to get a subdomain to rank compared to having it on your main site, this is fine for some of the experts but if not I'd recommend you give this a try first and if you want you can move it onto its own subdomain at a later date. In terms of metric unfortunately they do matter if you're after exposure and organic exposure.

Finally you can also see (via Q&A) some example here - http://moz.com/community/q/moz-s-official-stance-on-subdomain-vs-subfolder-does-it-need-updating

Hope that helps and best of luck with your blog.

[cmortensen]

Thanks Ruben. Their blog is already set up on a subdomain. For my own site though I have our blog on WP and use the exact plugins you mentioned.

[EcommerceSite]

From Moz-

Since search engines keep different metrics for domains than they do subdomains, it is recommended that webmasters place link-worthy content like blogs in subfolders rather than subdomains. (i.e. www.example.com/blog/ rather than blog.example.com) The notable exceptions to this are language-specific websites. (i.e., en.example.com for the English version of the website).

For your second question-

As long as you are getting conversions that is all that really matters. It doesn't matter if it is coming from your domain or subdomain.