Sub Domains Vs. Directories

[anwiii 17]

ok. i wanted to post about this for a while.subdomains should be independent of of your tld and it's associated directories. HOWEVER, when i create a subdomain, yes, i can access it by typing subdomain.tld.com but i can ALSO access it by typing in tld.com/subdomain.why is this? it's showing the same exact page for what should be two different locations. i should be able to create a subdomain "sample.tld.com" and also tld.com/sample that will show two different pages. you aren't able to create a directory that is the same name is a subdomain that is being used.can someone explain this to me? because i noticed this about a year ago and never really had a need to comment on it until now....which brings me to my next question. if this is how we are handling subdomains, how are we handling addon domains? are they being put in the same public/html folder where if you have an addon domain named "sample.com", you wont be able to create a directory or subdomain "sample"?i am a little confused here since i always though sub domains were supposed to be completely separate from your domain and any second level directories within your domain.

[OpaQue 15]

You can forward all requests to your domain.com/subdomain to subdomain.domain.com using .htaccess file. However, I seriously do not see any problems accessing your sub-domain either way. 99% of your users would be following the hyperlinks on your website. If you want your sub-domain to be a completely new CPanel Account, this is also possible but we need to create a new account for you. And for that, you will have to place a new order.Addon domains are also handled pretty much the same way and yes, you will have a folder called addon_domain.com in your public_html folder.What we are talking about is the website data which is separated from each other using folders. But this data is nothing more than files on our server. Having them organized under your www folder is ok. Even though your website data-files are hosted together under a single folder, your databases are not. You have separate database for your different applications.If you worried about CONTROL over editing and managing your files in the back-end, then please use FTP accounts. You can create ftp accounts for each folder or sub-folder in your account.

[anwiii 17]

ok- so let's say i have i created a sub domain for my blog, blog.domain.com. i should redirect using .htaccess? how will that affect seo using a redirect? will it?

i did create a sample blog as a sub domain and whenever i click on a link to my blog, it always connects me to a directory to my domain. so if i created a sample page to my blog, the link would be domain.com/blog/sample instead of blog.domain.com/sample. also, wordpress is handing my subdomain where chinging links to point to a sub domain is not that easy....

so yea, i would like to manage my files to work with my domain. is editing the htaccess the best way to go? is this the standard to handling sub domains? i am also curious how it will affect seo.

also, by using a redirect, then are you effectively saying that i cannot have a directory in my public_html folder that has the same name as a sub domain i created? from what i am getting, that seems to be the case here.... example, i cannot have the subdomain sample.domain.com AND domain.com/sample as two different pages.....one by creating a subdomain and the other just creating a directory?

i want to be clear on these things because it will ultimately affect which way i go here soon with my website and i really duplicate content on what only seems to be two different website pages and i want to make sure that any redirect is seo friendly and would in fact recognize my subdomain as seperate than my domain.

You can forward all requests to your domain.com/subdomain to subdomain.domain.com using .htaccess file. However, I seriously do not see any problems accessing your sub-domain either way. 99% of your users would be following the hyperlinks on your website. If you want your sub-domain to be a completely new CPanel Account, this is also possible but we need to create a new account for you. And for that, you will have to place a new order.
Addon domains are also handled pretty much the same way and yes, you will have a folder called addon_domain.com in your public_html folder.

What we are talking about is the website data which is separated from each other using folders. But this data is nothing more than files on our server. Having them organized under your www folder is ok. Even though your website data-files are hosted together under a single folder, your databases are not. You have separate database for your different applications.

If you worried about CONTROL over editing and managing your files in the back-end, then please use FTP accounts. You can create ftp accounts for each folder or sub-folder in your account.

Edited February 17, 2010 by anwiii (see edit history)

[webishqiptar 0]

In a certain way they are the same thing, but there is a trend nowadays to show the subdomain with a slash, like mydomain.com/news or similar to this. It's easier to remember rather than writing it news.mydomain.com.

 

But if you want to create a subdomain you will get get to either by news.mydomain.com or mydomain.com/news. I mean either of them brings to the same place. It's only a matter of style of appearance.

[anwiii 17]

you absolutely don't know what you are talking about and didn't answer my question at all. i need someone who actually knows the answers to my questions to respond. and btw-it's not just a matter of style or appearance. it's about seo and rankings too. if i am going to list my page as a directory, then i really don't need to create a subdomain now do i. do you even know the importance of a sub domain....the advantages and disadvantages? when i post a technical question, they are very important to me. i don't need newbie answers that have nothing to do with my specific question.

 

In a certain way they are the same thing, but there is a trend nowadays to show the subdomain with a slash, like http://myDomain.com/newsor similar to this. It's easier to remember rather than writing it news.mydomain.com. But if you want to create a subdomain you will get get to either by news.mydomain.com or mydomain.com/news. I mean either of them brings to the same place. It's only a matter of style of appearance.

[OpaQue 15]

webishqiptar is correct, it is only a matter of appearance. To redirect requests to your sub-folder to sub-domain, use the following code in your .htaccess file inside your sub-folder.

RewriteEngine OnRewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !subdomain.mydomain.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ [R=301,L]

ok- so let's say i have i created a sub domain for my blog, blog.domain.com. i should redirect using .htaccess? how will that affect seo using a redirect? will it?

Redirect only causes requests coming to your sub-FOLDER to be forwarded to sub-Domain. If your links on homepage point to sub-domain, google will index your sub-domain website (blog) as a sub-domain. Google spiders/crawls/indexes what looks straight. It respects your decision of having a sub-domain or sub-folder.

i did create a sample blog as a sub domain and whenever i click on a link to my blog, it always connects me to a directory to my domain. so if i created a sample page to my blog, the link would be domain.c om/blog/sample instead of blog.domain.com/sample. also, wordpress is handing my subdomain where chinging links to point to a sub domain is not that easy....

If your links says domain.com/blog, it will work that way. (if there is a redirect setup, it will go to your sub-domain automatically)if your link says blog.domain.com, it will work that way.
If you install wordpress on blog.domain.com, then all links generated by wordpress should be in format of blog.domain.com.

so yea, i would like to manage my files to work with my domain. is editing the htaccess the best way to go? is this the standard to handling sub domains? i am also curious how it will affect seo.

To manage files, login to ftp or your CMS admin panel..htaccess changes forces accessing your files through sub-domain. You are the first person in my 7 year career to complain about this.
subdomains are considered as Seperate Domains by Search Engines. This is all there is to it.

also, by using a redirect, then are you effectively saying that i cannot have a directory in my public_html folder that has the same name as a sub domain i created? from what i am getting, that seems to be the case here.... example, i cannot have the subdomain sample.domain.com AND domain.com/sample as two different pages.....one by creating a subdomain and the other just creating a directory?

This is how CPanel has been coded. I have already answered this question.
To make your website SEO friendly, install SEO modules like URL rewriting, tags etc. Our server supports these features.

[anwiii 17]

ok. thanks for the answers. i wasn't complaining though. my purpose for the question was because i wanted to seperate two sites and wanted to see if i could target the same keywords in the domain name and directory...then link them together. since my debate i am going through with myself is whether it is worth it in the long run from a pr and advertising perspective or just concentrate on one domain and have more pages relevant to eachother.

7 years huh? i think it was a legit question only because if you had a subdomain sample.domain.com and you wanted to treat it as such for the search engines, one could run the risk of being penalized possibly for duplicate content if domain.com/sample was found by the search engines. so this was actually all new to me since i never really researched subdomains before and how they technically get set up.

anyway, thanks again for the answers. i guess this topic can be closed for now

To manage files, login to ftp or your CMS admin panel..htaccess changes forces accessing your files through sub-domain. You are the first person in my 7 year career to complain about this.
subdomains are considered as Seperate Domains by Search Engines. This is all there is to it.