using sub folders

just wondering what, if any, difference using subfolders and index.ext makes for every page in terms of rankings?

for e.g.....

would it be better to do:

http://www.mysite/name-of-page-as-a-fol ... /index.ext

as opposed to

http://www.mysite/name-of-page.ext

or is there little or no difference?

thanks

Joe

This will help in yahoo...not so much in google. Trend seem to be to use hyphens vs underscores.

i read somewhere that some search engines (including google) treat every subfolder as a new website.

geocities.com/somebodiespage vs.
geocities.com/andanother

.... just examples how each subdirectory is treated as a different website... and I have seen geocities sites high ranked even for some slightly competitive keywords.

yes, the reason i wondered whether it was worth it or not is because each page would be named 'index.ext' - which i heard made the search engines (or some of them) think that the page was more important.

i don't know though.....which is why i thought i'd ask the more experienced guys.....

If you are using subfolders, dont use more than one.
but it could be benificial.

instead of using subfolders, playing with htaccess is even better for SEO.

even without subfolders, you can make the spiders actually think that you have them... it saves the trouble of creating messy directories whilst at the same time having the benefits that they offer.

no difference.

imo there is.

like i said before it might be that search engines classify each directory as a different site (like geocities and other free providers who provide a subfolder as a website).

if each subfolder is treated as a different website that means that if your subfolder's files are linking to eachother, then they will be treated as remote backlinks to eachother.

there is also an added benefit of the possibility of more keywords the urls ... which is create for SEO.

practicality issues, i would rather type http://example.com/support than http://example.com/support.php - and the average end-user will understand it a lot easier too.

heheh. just my 2 cents.

it doesnt make sense to treat each subfolder as a differetn website.

and if you have noticed about the keywords in url...
the keywords (name-of-page) are already in both the urls he has shown us....

"if each subfolder is treated as a different website that means that if your subfolder's files are linking to eachother, then they will be treated as remote backlinks to eachother. " If two pages that sit in the same folder link to each other they will be counted as backlinks.

would they increase link popularity though?

in my opinion, your subfolder files dont have to be linking to each other. putting them in the same subfolder doesnt mean that they are linked together.

ie. i can have all my pdf or html files in the Same subfolder and Not linking them together...

I would say put i folders, but not more than one level deep.

You sure you didn't read subdomain, because by their definition subdomains are different sites, where as directories are not. I can't see any logic in treating sub directories as different websites because, when used appropriately and in the way they are typically used, they are not.

yeah i am 100% sure.

logic can be applied when we consider sites that offer clients a subfolder for client (like i said, geocities)