Subdomains and SEO - Should we redirect to subfolder?

[AndyMacLean]

A new client has mainsite.com and a large numer of city specific sub domains i.e. albany.mainsite.com. I think that these subdomains would actually work better as subfolders i.e mainsite.com/albany rather than albany.mainsite.com. The majority of links on the subdomains link to the main site anyway i.e. mainsite.com/contactus rather than albany.mainsite.com/contactus. Having mostly main domain links on a subdomain doesnt seem like clever link architecture to me and maybe even spammy. Im not overly familiar with redirecting subdomains to subfolders. If we go the route of 301'ing subdomains to subfolders any advice/warnings?

[AndyMacLean]

Thank you. THANK YOU!

[EGOL]

In 2010 we redirected two subdomains into folders.  The results have been kickass.  KICKASS!

[AlanMosley]

If you look at a some of the site links you see on google, that is the deep links listed under the main links, you will see that they list subdomains as sub links. WMT recently stated counting links from subdomains as internal links, make of that what you will, but Matt Cutts has stated time and time again that subdomains or subfolders will not make a difference.

[AndyMacLean]

Thanks.

[JamesNorquay]

Google has recently changes the way sub folders work so Google now treats sub domains as the same website,

That been said the sub folder is normally a far better option due to internal linking factors behind the domain and it works as a more powerful option over time from my experience.

You can do internal re directs, we have done 100s over the years and not had many dramas, just make sure you map out the correct re directs to correct folders.

I would really research the level of localized traffic per sub folder, research into the new Google changes into sub folders, and look at Google ad preview for GEO based serps based on your domains based per state to see what the potential problems could be.  You really need to do a risk analysis for the client, we have done a few of these recently for global travel clients who have had similar issues.