Blog on subfolder in discourse

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AI-generated summary

The discussion revolves around hosting a blog at example.com/blog while having Discourse at the same domain. downey suggests that achieving this setup using a reverse proxy or a dedicated application is possible but not recommended. Instead, downey advises using Discourse as a blog by restricting posting and commenting permissions or putting the blog platform (e.g., WordPress) at the root domain and moving Discourse to a subdomain.

michael_solomon expresses concerns that using a subdomain for Discourse might be bad for SEO. However, downey and codinghorror disagree, citing Matt Cutts’ opinions on subdomains vs. subdirectories. downey also shares a 2012 video from Matt Cutts, stating that nothing has changed regarding Google’s treatment of subdomains and subdirectories.

Despite the debate, neil offers an alternative solution, recommending deploying Discourse to a subfolder and then deploying other applications to other subfolders. Ultimately, michael_solomon decides to put the blog on a subdomain.

1

Hi,
I have discourse at example.com and want to host a blog at example.com/blog.
How can I do that?
Thanks,
Michael
p.s: what you suggest from SEO point of view? subdomain or subfolder?

2

I think the only way you could do this is by putting a reverse proxy such as nginx or apache httpd in front of discourse, then passing everything at /blog to another application, and everything else to Discourse.

I would not recommend it if you can avoid it. You can already use a discourse category as a blog, restricting who can post and who can add comments.

3

so what you are suggest me to do?

4

My recommendation:

  1. If you only want a blog to post articles and solicit comments, just use Discourse.
  2. If you want to use a blog platform such as WordPress as a CMS for a “web site”, then put it at your domain root https://example.com/ and move Discourse to https://forum.example.com/
5

But I read that bad for SEO( two seperate sites for google..)

6

I don’t believe in SEO. :smile:

7

Lol but google believe… :smile:

8

Are you sure?

9

Yep.. this article very deprecated.. things changed little bit:
http://mainpath.com/putting-end-to-subdomains-vs-subdirectories-debate/

Remember that Google considers sub domains separate from their parent domains: sub.yoursite.com is considered a different site altogether compared to yoursite.com when it comes to search engine authority.

10

Here is a response from Matt Cutts in email to me:

pretty much everyone who has strong opinions on subdomains vs. subfolders doesn’t know what they’re talking about. They sure do have strong opinions anyway though!

Sorry, I believe Matt Cutts of Google over your random link :wink:

11

OK, here’s a newer (2012) video:

Nothing has changed. :smile:

12

If you insist on doing this, I recommend you deploy Discourse to a subfolder first (www.example.com/forum), and then you can deploy other apps (like your blog) to other subfolders.

13

Thanks guys, I’ll just put the blog on subdomain.