Hi,

I've not seen any comment from Googlers regarding this debate. I realize I'm keeping this in the Moz-sphere, which isn't quite what you're looking for, but this quote is from Moz's domain setup guide:

"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)."

I think that quote is pretty compelling towards the subdirectory side of this quandry. I also recommend checking out the comments on the Whiteboard Friday link you posted, there is plenty of evidence there as well.

Unfortunately, this debate will probably go on forever until we get definitive word from Google.

Hi James,

As with most things in SEO, the answer is 'it depends'. If the only service you offer is 'campervan hire', I believe the homepage for that would work. Then, as you've already mentioned you do, have pages built out for more specifics terms like locations.

I think there are use-cases for using the homepage for some high-level, top of the funnel keywords that broadly describe a business. But for the most part, I do agree with the Yoast article, as it can be difficult to put content on the homepage of a site while maintaining the aesthetics of a homepage.

Hi Juan,

You should also know that you can have multiple sitemap directives on one robots file. This is common among international sites and large commerce sites.

Hi,

Since all of your sites share branding and the same template, and a good portion of your boiler plate pages even link back to Jacksonhole.net, I would definitely recommend rolling those up into one site. You've also got the navigation setup to point to the according sites, so your template wouldn't need too much updating in order to carry all the same content.

However, I'm going to recommend not using subdomains since search engines hold different metrics for them than they do domains (https://moz.com/learn/seo/domain) - which would not help you accomplish your goal.