Subdomain vs root which is better for SEO

[DisMedia]

We run a network of sites that we are considering consolidating into one main site with multiple categories.  Which would be better having each of the "topics / site" reside in subdomains or as a sub-folder off of the root?  Pros and cons of each would be great.

Thanks,

TR

[DisMedia]

This might shed a little more light on the subject.

The sites are per video game.  So they could be completely different from one another.

I like the way a subdomain looks and for this purpose, I've seen other sites doing it this way for a long time.

From where I sit subdomains seem to be the "right" way to go about this but if sub-dirs are going to be BETTER for SEO then I want to do that.

I don't mind SEOing multiple sites and I would somewhat prefer to keep things separated out like that.

I guess what I really want to know is, Is this a personal preference thing if workload isn't my concern?  Or is one going to be objectively better than the other.

Thanks for the replies so far.  Much appreciated.

[MattAntonino]

Agree with Irving - it's better to have subfolders most of the time.  The essential question is who will be controlling the SEO? If it's one person or company, use subfolders.  If multiple people will each control their own content, use subdomains. Think about this like Wordpress.com does.

Subdomains are somewhat treated as a separate website.  So if you split them, you end up doing the SEO work more than once.  Subfolders are considered part of the domain so http://mysite.wordpress.com is separate from Wordpress.com while http://www.wordpress.com/info/index.html is considered part of Wordpress.com  Make sense?

So if you use subdomains, each subdomain needs its own SEO. If you use subfolders all the work can be done to one site, which is usually much more efficient.  The best use of subdomains is if you had say a franchise (boston.yoursite.com, chicago.yoursite.com, melbourne.yoursite.com) where each of the franchisees would be responsible for their own marketing or a site like Wordpress that allows you to build your own content (thus under many people's control.)  That would be site.wordpress.com, site2.wordpress.com etc.

Wordpress doesn't "care" to SEO all those sites nor necessarily do they want to pass their own SEO juice onto those sites as subfolders so they've made them subdomains.

[irvingw]

directories are better than subdomains. subdomains are seen as different sites, directory allows you to have one main site and pass the PR throughout the entire site to create a stronger enterprise.