Subdomain vs Subdirectory for Blogs, Stores and Landing Pages

Choosing between a subdomain and a subdirectory looks like a small URL decision, but it quietly shapes your SEO strategy, hosting architecture, CDN setup, analytics and even how fast your pages load. When you are planning a blog, an online store or a set of marketing landing pages, this choice decides whether everything lives tightly under one main site or is split into separate, semi‑independent properties. At dchost.com we see both patterns daily: content teams pushing for clean, simple URLs, and engineering teams asking for isolation, different tech stacks or independent deployment pipelines. The good news: there is no single “right” answer; there is a right answer for your project. In this article, we will walk through how subdomains and subdirectories differ for SEO, how they map to hosting and DNS, what changes when you add a CDN, and concrete scenarios for blogs, stores and landing pages so you can design an architecture that is fast, maintainable and search‑engine friendly.

Subdomain vs Subdirectory: Clear Definitions

Before you compare SEO impact or server layouts, it helps to be precise about terminology.

What is a subdomain?

A subdomain is a prefix added before your main domain name, such as blog.example.com or shop.example.com. Technically:

• It is a separate DNS record (typically an A or CNAME) pointing to an IP or another hostname.
• Your web server usually has a separate virtual host for each subdomain.
• Cookies and some browser settings are scoped differently (for example, cookies for www.example.com are not automatically sent to blog.example.com).
• You can route each subdomain to a different server, data center, or even a different technology stack.

What is a subdirectory?

A subdirectory (also called a subfolder) is part of the path after your main domain name, such as example.com/blog/ or example.com/store/. Technically:

• It uses the same hostname and DNS record as your main site.
• The web server matches the path (e.g. /blog/) and routes it to content or an application inside the same site.
• Cookies, caching and security settings are shared across the whole domain unless you explicitly separate them.
• Deployment and versioning often live in the same codebase or document root, unless you build a more advanced routing layer.

If you want a refresher on how domains, DNS and servers interact behind the scenes, our guide explaining what web hosting is and how domain, DNS, server and SSL work together is a good foundation.

SEO Impact: How Subdomains and Subdirectories Behave in Practice

Officially, search engines say they can handle both subdomains and subdirectories. In real projects, we still see differences that matter for blogs, stores and landing pages.

Authority and link equity

For SEO, you can think in terms of how easily your new content benefits from the authority your main domain has already built.

• Subdirectory: Signals (links, authority, content freshness) accumulate on a single hostname. A new blog post at example.com/blog/seo-tips inherits the strength of example.com more directly. For most blogs and content marketing, this is usually the simplest and strongest choice.
• Subdomain: Search engines treat blog.example.com as a related but somewhat separate site. Authority can still flow through internal links, but it tends to be weaker than keeping everything under one hostname. This isn’t necessarily bad; it just means you are effectively building a second property.

We explored this at a high level in our article comparing subdomains and subdirectories for SEO and hosting. In this article, we go deeper into hosting and CDN architecture as well.

When subdirectories usually win for SEO

In many cases, especially for smaller and medium websites, subdirectories are safer for SEO:

• Company blog aimed at driving organic traffic and leads.
• Documentation / help center where you want every article to strengthen your main site.
• Landing pages for campaigns where brand consistency and shared authority matter.
• Single‑store e‑commerce where the store is part of the main brand (e.g. example.com/store/).

Putting these sections under example.com/… usually helps you:

• Consolidate backlinks and internal links.
• Share sitewide trust and engagement signals.
• Simplify technical SEO (one robots.txt, one sitemap structure, one canonical strategy).

When subdomains are reasonable or even necessary

There are also strong cases for subdomains:

• Different business line or audience: For example, partners.example.com for a partner portal separate from your main consumer site.
• Different technology stack: Your main site might be WordPress while your web app runs on Node.js or Laravel. Isolating app.example.com can simplify deployments and security.
• Franchise or marketplace models: brand1.example.com, brand2.example.com, where each behaves almost like its own mini‑site.
• Very high‑traffic section that you want to host and scale independently (for example, a large store separate from a corporate site).
• International SEO with mixed structures: Sometimes you use country‑code domains (ccTLDs), sometimes subfolders and sometimes subdomains, depending on markets and legal requirements.

If you are working on multilingual or multi‑country setups, we recommend also reading our article on international SEO domain architecture (ccTLD vs subfolder vs subdomain). It explains how hreflang and regional targeting interact with your URL structure.

Hosting and DNS Architecture: What Changes Under the Hood

The main non‑SEO difference between subdomains and subdirectories is how flexible your hosting and DNS architecture can be.

Subdirectory architecture: one host, shared stack

With a structure like example.com/blog/ and example.com/store/, everything resolves to the same hostname, for example:

• DNS: example.com → A 203.0.113.10
• Web server: one vhost responding to example.com for all paths.

Advantages:

• Simplicity: One SSL certificate, one virtual host, one main deployment pipeline.
• Shared resources: The same PHP‑FPM pool, database server, cache layer and file system.
• Easier small‑site hosting: On shared hosting or a modest VPS from dchost.com, keeping everything in one site is straightforward.

Trade‑offs:

• Coupled performance: A heavy store (for example, WooCommerce or Magento) under /store/ can affect the response time of your blog and landing pages.
• Deployment risk: A bad plugin update on your blog might break the whole site, including the store.
• Limited stack diversity: You typically stick to one language/framework and one control panel environment.

If you are planning everything on a single server, our guide on designing hosting architecture for dev, staging and production is helpful for setting up safe environments even with a unified domain.

Subdomain architecture: flexible routing, more moving parts

With subdomains like blog.example.com and shop.example.com, you get more routing freedom:

• DNS records can point each subdomain to different IPs or providers.
• Each subdomain can have its own SSL certificate, web server configuration and even its own VPS or dedicated server.
• You can place different subdomains in different data centers or regions.

Advantages:

• Isolation: Issues on blog.example.com are less likely to affect shop.example.com.
• Independent scaling: Move the store to a more powerful VPS or dedicated server at dchost.com while the blog stays on a smaller plan.
• Security segmentation: Different firewalls, PHP versions, WAF rules and access controls per subdomain.

Trade‑offs:

• More DNS and SSL management: Multiple hostnames mean more certificates and records to track.
• More complex analytics: You may need cross‑domain tracking configuration to see user journeys across subdomains.
• SEO fragmentation: As mentioned earlier, you are effectively running multiple sites.

If you want to understand how DNS records underpin all of this, see our beginner‑friendly explanation of A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT and other DNS records.

Region and latency considerations

Subdomains make it easier to place different properties in different data centers. For example:

• www.example.com hosted in a European data center close to your corporate audience.
• store.example.com hosted in a region closer to your main buyers, or with specific compliance requirements.

This can improve latency and sometimes SEO for local markets. For a deeper dive on this topic, you can read our article about how data center location and server region affect SEO and latency.

CDN, Caching and Performance: Path vs Hostname Strategy

Once you add a CDN, the subdomain vs subdirectory choice also changes how you configure caching rules, edge logic and bandwidth usage.

CDN on a single hostname with subdirectories

If everything is under example.com and you put a CDN in front:

• The CDN sees a single hostname and varies behavior by path (e.g. /blog/, /store/, /landing/).
• You configure cache rules such as: “Cache HTML for /blog/ aggressively, but bypass HTML caching for /store/checkout/.”
• Static assets across the whole site share the same domain (e.g. /assets/...), which works well with HTTP/2 multiplexing.

This is powerful but requires precise cache policies. Our detailed guide on HTTP Cache-Control, ETag and CDN rules for faster sites explains how to set headers and rules cleanly.

CDN on multiple subdomains

With subdomains, you can put different CDN behaviors in front of each hostname:

• blog.example.com can use heavy full‑page caching, long TTLs and even edge logic for A/B testing.
• shop.example.com can use more conservative caching (for example, cache product pages but bypass cart and checkout).
• static.example.com can be a pure asset domain with very long cache lifetimes and minimal cookies.

Benefits:

• Clean separation of cache rules per property.
• Cookie optimization: You can keep cookies off some subdomains entirely for slightly better performance.
• Independent CDN providers or configurations if you really need different features or contracts.

However, multiple hostnames mean more SSL certificates, DNS entries and monitoring. If you are still deciding whether a CDN is necessary, our article “What is a CDN and when do you really need one?” walks through traffic levels, locations and use cases where it pays off.

Core Web Vitals and server responsibilities

Your choice affects how you tune servers for Core Web Vitals such as TTFB and LCP:

• Single domain with subdirectories: One origin handles everything. You tune PHP, database, caching and HTTP/2/HTTP/3 settings in one place. This is simpler but can be harder to scale when one section (often the store) gets much heavier.
• Separate subdomains: You can run the store on a high‑performance stack (for example, NVMe SSD, separate Redis, tuned MySQL) while keeping the blog on a lighter environment.

For a bigger picture on server‑side optimizations, see our guide on server-side Core Web Vitals tuning for better TTFB, LCP and INP.

Scenario-Based Decisions: Blog, Store and Landing Pages

Now let’s put this into concrete decision trees for the three most common cases we see: blogs, stores and marketing landing pages.

1. Where should your blog live?

Recommended default: subdirectory

For most businesses, placing the blog at example.com/blog/ is the best default:

• Every post reinforces your main domain’s authority.
• Internal links from product or service pages to your blog (and back) stay inside one site.
• You manage one sitemap structure and one canonical strategy.
• On typical shared hosting or a moderate VPS at dchost.com, performance is easy to manage if the blog is reasonably optimized.

When to consider blog.example.com

Consider a blog subdomain if:

• You have a separate editorial brand (e.g. a magazine‑style site linked to a corporate brand).
• The blog runs on a different CMS or framework than the main site and you want independent deployments.
• You plan extremely high content volume with its own monetization (ads, sponsorships) and may move it to its own infrastructure later.

If you use WordPress for the blog and want to host multiple properties together, you might also evaluate WordPress Multisite vs separate installations. Multisite plus subdomains is a common pattern for large networks of blogs.

2. Where should your store live?

Small to medium store: often a subdirectory

For many businesses, a store under example.com/store/ works extremely well:

• All product and category pages strengthen the main domain.
• Marketing pages and blog posts can link directly to /store/ URLs without cross‑domain complexities.
• Users experience a single, consistent site: same header, footer, login system and session.

This is especially convenient if you are running WordPress + WooCommerce or similar stacks where the store and main site share code and database.

High-traffic or technically complex store: subdomain is safer

Consider shop.example.com or store.example.com if:

• Your store needs heavier infrastructure (dedicated database server, advanced caching, queue workers) that you do not want mixed with a lightweight corporate site.
• You expect high traffic spikes from campaigns, Black Friday, etc., and want to scale the store separately.
• You are running a different platform (e.g. Magento, PrestaShop, custom Laravel app) while the rest of the site uses a simpler CMS.
• You have PCI‑DSS and security concerns and want tight segmentation between transactional systems and marketing content.

In these cases, SEO “loss” from a subdomain is usually outweighed by stability, security and performance. You can still pass authority with strong internal links (from the main site to the shop and back) and a carefully planned navigation.

3. Where should your landing pages live?

Most campaigns: subdirectory

For PPC, social and email campaigns, landing pages typically belong under example.com/landing/… or example.com/campaign/…:

• They share trust and recognition with your core domain.
• It is easier to ensure consistent tracking (analytics, conversions, remarketing tags).
• SEO benefits exist if those pages are indexable and evergreen.

Special cases for a landing subdomain

Use something like offers.example.com or go.example.com if:

• You run many experimental pages and want a separate deployment and design system.
• You work with external agencies who manage only that subdomain and should not touch the main site codebase.
• Landing pages are temporary and not intended for organic SEO, so consolidating authority is less important.

4. Mixed architectures and long-term flexibility

Do not feel forced to choose one pattern forever for everything. Many mature setups end up with a hybrid:

• example.com/ – main marketing site and core landing pages.
• example.com/blog/ – SEO‑driven blog.
• shop.example.com – high‑traffic store with its own scaling plan.
• app.example.com – SaaS application or dashboard.

The key is to align each choice with concrete goals: SEO vs isolation, deployment speed vs architectural simplicity.

Implementation Checklist on dchost.com Hosting

Once you have decided between subdomains and subdirectories, you need a clean implementation on your hosting and CDN stack. Here is a practical checklist we use when designing setups on dchost.com.

1. DNS and SSL planning

• Subdirectories: Ensure www.example.com and example.com both point to the same server and have a valid SSL certificate (often a single multi‑domain or wildcard certificate).
• Subdomains: Create DNS records (A/AAAA or CNAME) for each subdomain and decide which server or CDN they point to. Plan individual or wildcard SSL certificates covering them.
• Document which parts use HTTP/2 or HTTP/3 via your CDN and origin; our guide on how HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 affect SEO and Core Web Vitals can help with these decisions.

2. Web server and application routing

• For subdirectories, configure your web server (Apache, Nginx, LiteSpeed) to route paths like /blog/ and /store/ correctly. This might mean separate document roots, rewrites or application routers.
• For subdomains, create separate virtual hosts, each with its own document root, PHP configuration, logs and security rules.
• Set up proper redirects (for example, force HTTPS and canonical hostname) to avoid duplicate content and broken links.

3. CDN and cache rules per section

• Define which parts of the site can use aggressive HTML caching (blog, static landing pages) and which must be dynamic (cart, checkout, dashboards).
• On a single domain, segment cache behavior by path. On multiple subdomains, segment by hostname.
• Align browser caching (Cache-Control, ETag) with CDN caching to avoid surprises.

4. SEO hygiene and sitemaps

• Ensure only one canonical URL pattern exists for each page, regardless of subdomain or subdirectory choice.
• Maintain consistent robots.txt and sitemap.xml files. For subdomains, each main property can have its own sitemap index.
• When restructuring URLs (for example, moving from blog.example.com to example.com/blog/), use 301 redirects carefully. Our tutorial on SEO‑safe URL changes with 301 redirects in .htaccess and Nginx is a step‑by‑step reference.

5. Monitoring and scaling plan

• Monitor CPU, RAM, disk I/O and database load separately for the blog, store and landing pages, especially if they share one server.
• Be ready to move a heavy section (often the store) to its own VPS or dedicated server if resource usage grows.
• Consider a multi‑region or failover strategy for mission‑critical subdomains; our article on multi-region DNS and CDN failover for small business websites can provide inspiration even for compact setups.

Summary: How to Choose with Confidence

Subdomain vs subdirectory is not just a URL styling question. It is a decision about how tightly your properties are coupled in terms of SEO, hosting, CDN and deployment. For most blogs, evergreen landing pages and small to medium stores, keeping everything under one domain with subdirectories is the simplest way to consolidate authority and reduce technical complexity. When your store becomes a heavy, business‑critical application, or when a web app or partner portal needs its own stack, a subdomain often gives you the isolation and scaling room you need—at the cost of managing it like a semi‑independent site.

At dchost.com we design environments that support both approaches: from shared hosting where a single domain with subdirectories is the natural fit, to VPS, dedicated servers and colocation setups where subdomains can live on their own tuned infrastructure, fronted by CDN and smart DNS. If you are planning a new blog, store or landing page cluster and are unsure which path to take, map your SEO goals and operational needs first, then choose the URL structure that aligns with them. From there, you can implement the DNS, SSL, CDN and server configuration with confidence, knowing your architecture will scale as your traffic and business grow.