Subdomains have been around for a long time, but it’s only quite recently that internet marketers learned how invaluable they can be. In fact, there had been a time when using subdomains were thought to be ultimately bad for SEO.

However, with search engines constantly changes with every cat, dog and bird update, many small business owners and internet marketers are clamoring at anything that can even remotely increase views and ranking.

This has given birth to loads of white-hat, grey-hat and black-hat SEO marketing tactics.

One of those marketing tactics used by many to boost their rankings is using subdomains.

Once considered gray-hat, making use of subdomains for the sole purpose of manipulating search rankings for specific keyword or keyword phrases is now considered black-hat SEO.

But don’t lose hope just yet as subdomains can be ethically and effectively used via white-hat SEO tactics and strategies.

Don’t believe me? Just check out such sites as Tumblr, Blogspot, WordPress and Shopify to name a few.

These are popular mainstream websites that offer services that allow for users to create their very own websites using subdomains instead of subdirectories.

So to take a step back before we venture to far down the path of subdomain SEO. Let’s take a moment to define domains, subdomains and subdirectories.