Move forum from root to either subdomain or subdirectory.

[onlydesigned]

I want to prepare for the future of my website and move the forums into a subdirectory or subdomain, since I might want to install a CMS later on. I know that you don't recommend using subdomains.. but I can't help to notice that almost every single large forum uses subdomains, including ign, digitalpoint, seobook, apple etc.
I mean there must be a good reason why a lot of websites with forums go for it right?

I know a bit of the difference between them now from this article:

Subdomains vs Subdirectories - What is best for SEO | SEOmistry

The good thing with having a forum on subdirectory is that the whole domain share the link juice?!
Let's play with the thought, if the website grows and your forum get's some spam etc, that will affect the cms too right?

Isn't it quite good then to have a subdomain? To make sure the forum doesn't affect your high quality blog?


Can someone please guide me how to move the forum too either subdomain or subfolder without loosing too much traffic?


Thanks

[Brian Cummiskey]

I highly recommend using a sub-directory.

Only use a subdomain when that area is a different 'application'.

look at google.


google.com - search
mail.google.com - gmail
finance.google.com - stocks

all different things on different subdomains.

And each subdomain has their own subfolders of supporting sections, ie mail.google.com/help/



Moving down a level is never an easy task, especially if you plan to use the core domain for stuff, as you can't run a catch-all (the stuff in root would try to be moved up a level too and thus break).
It's going to be a manual effort.
moving forum from root to /forum redirect

[onlydesigned]

Ok, for example if my site would bring news around my specific field and then I would have a forum, wouldn't the forum be considered as a different thing on my website then?

example ign: IGN Boards - Discussions on Games, Movies, TV, Social Life and More their main site brings news around the subject and then they have the forum for discussions.

A friend of mine working as a SEO consultant told me something about that a subdomain is good if you want to make sure that off topic messages in the forum don't affect the rest of the site.

Also I read somewhere that if I have different fields I need to separate them to not hurt my google rank. I have everything from Architecture to interior design and industrial design etc.

Not trying to argue with you, just want to ask everything before I change, so I 100% sure I want do anything stupid.

[Brian Cummiskey]

Your friend is right-- subdomains are treated as a completely separate site. If your CMS and the forums are talking about the same stuff, they should be on the same domain. design is design. There's 1000 different types of it, but if the non-specific topic is the same, it's perfectly fine to have common webspace. If its not, why is it not on it's own .com in the first place?

[onlydesigned]

Your friend is right-- subdomains are treated as a completely separate site. If your CMS and the forums are talking about the same stuff, they should be on the same domain. design is design. There's 1000 different types of it, but if the non-specific topic is the same, it's perfectly fine to have common webspace. If its not, why is it not on it's own .com in the first place?

I guess you are right. If I have an off topic category in the forum, will that affect the rest of the site? The big thing I am worrying about is that I will loose a lot of traffic if moving, but what else options do I have?

should I make a subdomain for the blog instead like: blog.website.com? or get a .net version of my domain and use blog on that?

[Brian Cummiskey]

Moving anything is never a good idea.

I'd suggest installing a blog that talks about the same stuff to site.com/blog/ or similar subfolder.

[onlydesigned]

Ok, I'll wait I think. So it won't hurt a forum to be under a subdirectory? I mean It's one directory more away from the root.

[Brian Cummiskey]

One directory doesn't matter much.

[RevitClinic]

Hi,

I read the entire tread, but I didn't find anything that describes if it is possible to move the entire forum to a new sub-folder or subdomain, without getting the error message. I mean, all URLs will be changed to subdomain.example.com/ or example.com/forums. Would you please provide information, how it is possible?

I am planning to move my entire forum from root to a sub-folder or subdomain, but I like to be sure, if it hurts my entire forum linking system.

I really appreciate your help.

[Brian Cummiskey]

Support is offered for verified vBSEO customers only.

If you hold a valid license, please open a ticket with your tranasctionID from your payment receipt along with your forum URL so we can assign it to your account.
http://www.vbseo.com/support/

If you are working on behalf of someone else as a contractor, they need to add you to their Priority Support list:
http://www.vbseo.com/usercp/customer_profile/

[RevitClinic]

Support is offered for verified vBSEO customers only.

If you hold a valid license, please open a ticket with your tranasctionID from your payment receipt along with your forum URL so we can assign it to your account.
http://www.vbseo.com/support/

If you are working on behalf of someone else as a contractor, they need to add you to their Priority Support list:
http://www.vbseo.com/usercp/customer_profile/

Hi Brian,

are you talking about my vBulletin License, or something else? I am not sure if I should provide my vBulletin licensing on this forum. Are you a sister partner of vBulletin?

Thanks.

[Brian Cummiskey]

We have nothing to do with vbulletin. We support vbseo customers only.