Do links to subdomains count as internal links?

[Fonz]

Let's say you have a domain on which you link to a bunch of subdomains on that domain, do those links get looked at as internal or external links?

[oldbrad]

i don't know much, but from what i've read sub domains were looked at by google as a seperate domain, so it would be external.

Not sure when alot of what i read was written, so nowadays google might see them as internal.

Not much help, but last i saw they counted as external.

[Greenguy]

I'd guess that they are looked at as internal links based on doing a site:domain.com search in Google:
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2006-32,GGLD:en&q=site%3acnn%2ecom

All of cnn.com's subdomains come up in the results.

(but then again, what do I know)

[Licker4U]

What are the benefits, if any, of having sub-domains?

[Fonz]

I'd think you can use keywords in those subdomains and the SE's would treat them different (better) than when you use directories.
But that's just a wild guess ofcourse :)

[Halfdeck]

I'd think you can use keywords in those subdomains and the SE's would treat them different (better) than when you use directories.
But that's just a wild guess ofcourse

Keywords in domain names is a factor but to me keyword-loaded subdomains is a negative quality signal, especially if each subdomain is only a few pages deep. Sites like google.com, amazon.com, wikipedia.com may use subdomains but the number of subdomains is relatively small, subdomain names aren't keyword-loaded (finance.google, checkout.google, labs.google, etc.), and each subdomain usually houses hundreds if not thousands of urls.

One possible advantage is your urls will be shorter:

lesbianporn. xxx.com VS
www. xxx.com/lesbianporn/

[DangerDave]

Keywords in domain names is a factor but to me keyword-loaded subdomains is a negative quality signal

Hold on to your hats..........

I AGREE with Halfdeck!! :D


Keyword subdomains = technique used by many SE spammers.

If there is not a legitimate use for them... I would advise not to use them.

DD

[Fonz]

Alrighty then, subdomains go down the toilet and I'll just use *.html pages instead. Thanks for the info guys.

[BriansSites]

the best way to use sub-domains is like such this way the engines tend to look at them as a domain unto themselves
www.whatever.yourdomain instead of www.yourdomain/whatever
most hosting allows this anymore some still may not but most i think do