Benefits of subdomain forum?

[Hueyloo]

Hi,

I'm going to add a forum to my site but was wondering what benefits there are to placing it on a subdomain or as a folder? I was thinking that placing it on a subdomain would mean there are hundreds of forum posts pointing back to my main domain acting as external links? Would it also mean that my main site is protected from any search engine penalty if the subdomain forum has spam posts?

Any opinions on which to use are appreciated.

Thanks

 

[amateursurgeon]

Hi,

I'm going to add a forum to my site but was wondering what benefits there are to placing it on a subdomain or as a folder? I was thinking that placing it on a subdomain would mean there are hundreds of forum posts pointing back to my main domain acting as external links? Would it also mean that my main site is protected from any search engine penalty if the subdomain forum has spam posts?

Any opinions on which to use are appreciated.

Thanks

I'm not quite sure what you mean with the first question, but with the second question - AFAIK, that used to be the case, but it isn't any more.

 

[ikonic]

if you don't link from mainsite.com to forum.mainsite.com then you should be fine. The Sub domain should push link juice up 1 way. If you link from mainsite.com to forum.mainsite.com then its seen as a single domain.

Also it might be hundreds of backlinks but its still from a single domain with low pr.

With spam it works both ways. Spam means low pr (unless you got good bots) and if the main site is linked throughout the site then it might also get classified as spam.

 

[Grindstone]

^^^
How would you recommend linking to the forum then, if you can't put it on your main site.

IE, everyone hits my home page, localcity.com and I want them to know there's a forum with all this activity...is there a redirect that'll keep the link juice flowing one way?

Thanks.