Subdomains vs Subfolders - Which is better for SEO?

I have been working on a project for a church network that has multi-sites, with each location having its own website domain. Since they all share the same branding, it would actually be wise and better for SEO to then pull it all together on one domain.

As a marketer, I know the first thing I will need to do is to establish authority on one domain. That means having them all sit on one website vs multiple domains.

The way I describe it is simple. If you wanted to send athletes to win a gold medal at the Olympics, you stand a higher chance if you sent one world class athlete rather than ten average performers.

The same is true for websites. If you wanted to rank higher on Google, it's better to do so through one domain, rather than 10.

Tip 1: Consolidate all your domains and build equity with Google on one domain.

What about locations and blogs?

The next hurdle is figuring out which of these is better, location.abc.church or abc.church/location.

What I have found out interestingly is that if you use a subdomain ie location.abc.church, Google treats it as a different domain altogether.

I have Tim Stolddart (Founder of copyblogger.com) to thank for this insight.

Naturally, the next question I wondered is - should I do the same for blogs? Here's Tim's reply.

Tip 2: Subfolders for the win always.

This is such a simple yet profound lesson I learnt about how to beat the Google Algorithm. If you have subdomains, internal links will be treated as linking to different websites.

This is now my strategy to help the church network build out equity through one main domain, and making sure that I use subfolders for each location and the blog.

Now, I can then move to the next step which is to create the content strategy and inbound marketing principles to redesign the website.

If you find this helpful, let me know.