Subfolder vs. Subdomain

[scottm]

I just started setting up my new HubSpot account and have a question. I'd like to run Hubspot blog in a folder on my domain instead of a subdomain. Is it possible to point Hubspot to a folder and not a subdomain? If not, this could be a deal breaker for me as I will be losing SEO relevance for my main domain quickly and overtime.

[CGibbens]

can you give me suggestion about my website: https://premiumconstructionpro.com/ subdomain?

[CGibbens]

A subfolder is similar to a subdomain in that it allows you to create categories of content, but they are configured differently on servers. Unlike subdomains, there are no server partitions involved with subfolders. A subfolder is hosted on the same server and any of its links go back to the domain pf website.

[David_Alb]

7 years later, but I need to answer, because the currently Accepted Solution is misleading. Maybe just because is outdated.

If you are hosting your website in Hubspot ("example.com"), then I believe you can easily configure Hubspot to have your blog in a folder of the website domain ("example.com/blog").

But, if you are hosting your website outside Hubspot ("example.com"), a possible solution is to use a reverse proxy. Reverse proxies work like regular proxies (whose full name is forward proxies). A reverse proxy can intercept all requests to "example.com" and redirect them to any server (your original one, or Hubspot).

So, you would need to configure the reverse proxy to redirect all requests pointing to "example.com/blog*" to your Hubspot blog, and the rest of the requests to your original server. It is not an easy process, but is explained in detail in this Hubspot guide (is a pdf file that explain how to set up a reverse proxy using AWS), and also more generally in this Hubspot page about reverse proxies 

A generic alternative, which depends on many factors, is to check if you can migrate your website to Hubspot (I believe they have support for SPAs, Wordpress Hosting Partners, and many other options), and to check how difficult it is to configure Hubspot to point "example.com" to the hosting you need, and "example.com/blog" to the blog.

I assume you already solved this problem 7 years ago, but answered anyways for people facing a similar problem (like myself currently)

[DianaGomez]

Hi @David_Alb, hope you are doing well!

¡Thanks for sharing!

Best,

Diana

[creativedesign]

Hey ! I'm wondering same, if my main website for my web design dubai is hosted here, can I have a blog on a subdirectory instead of a subdomain?

[CLWorking]

@robert1 is it possible get more detail on how you were able to configure the subdirectory?

[robert1]

@CLWorking

It's a very simple setting on settings > blog > general tab

 

[RPolavaram]

Robert,

My guess is you are hosing www.digitalsamba.com on HubSpot that's why you are seeing that option. If your site is hosted outside HubSpot, we can't use HubSpot as a sub-folder. Is it right? Thanks.

[CLWorking]

Yes. But https://www.digitalsamaba.com is hosted via hubspot, correct?

Is there a way with an externally hosted root url to have the blog be a subdirectory?

[robert1]

@CLWorking yes we host on hubspot, I don't know about external, sorry.

[CLWorking]

All good 

[relabidin · Accepted solution]

Hi @scottm,

If your main website is external (not hosted on HubSpot) then it is not possible to host your HubSpot blog on a subdirectory of your site. Instead, you'll need to connect a subdomain (e.g. blog.yourwebsite.com) to HubSpot and host your blog there. 

There have been many discussions on the SEO implications this, including this one here on inbound.org where both Dharmesh Shah and Rand Fishkin chimed in on the matter. I definitely encourage you to have a look at this thread.

In short, it is true that there is an SEO benefit of having your blog hosted in a subdirectory of your main domain as opposed to on a subdomain. However, it is even more important that you consistently create relevant content for your readers, as an active blog hosted on a subdomain will always outperform a stagnant blog that is hosted on a subdirectory.

Rami 

[CLWorking]

@relabidin Is this still true?

---

If your main website is external (not hosted on HubSpot) then it is not possible to host your HubSpot blog on a subdirectory of your site. Instead, you'll need to connect a subdomain (e.g. blog.yourwebsite.com) to HubSpot and host your blog there. 

[jimreaper05]

@relabidin 
Honestly, I believe HubSpot should give their users the right to connect their external web hosted blog directory for blogging instead of sub-domain.

On a side note: Few of my clients had blogs on HubSpot. Well let's be honest, they are stagnant most of the time. However, we decided to blog on the website subdirectory level and it improved their web traffic overall with better control over UX/UI designs and so on.

[robert1]

Hi @relabidin ,

"If your main website is external (not hosted on HubSpot) then it is not possible to host your HubSpot blog on a subdirectory of your site."

Are you implying that if we do host the main website on HubSpot CMS then we CAN host the blog in a subdirectory? How can we we do that?

We too have been advised by SEO experts to run the blog in a subdir rather than a subdomain.

Best.

Robert

[Johanne]

Hey ! I'm wondering the same thing: if our main website is hosted on Hubspot, can we have a blog on a subdirectory instead of a subdomain? It's crucial for SEO. 

Thanks! 

[robert1]

Hi @Johanne - our blog is now running on www.digitalsamba.com/blog, so yes it's possible. Check out Settings > Website > Blog > Blog root URL

hth.

[JDUnymira]

@robert1 

Can you provide some more details on how you did this.

I'm trying to move from blog.ourdomain.com to a subfolder for SEO reasons and the internal answer I get from our people is "hubspot doesn't allow it due to the DNS configuration options" 

But you seem to prove that isn't true.

[MariaMilea]

Hi Robert @robert1 , did you have to redirect in order for that to work?

Thank you very much!

[robert1]

Hi @MariaMilea , sorry for the late reply. We only had redirects in order make sure users who were typing in the old url would land on the new blog. There's no redirect required (that I know of) to configure hubspot to run the blog in a subfolder.