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Director at Coherence Design Limited
19 July 2010 20:27pm
In the context of SEO optimization would it be best practice to pursue a single site approcah or have a main site, plus a number of feeder micro sites?
This isn't necessarily an attempt to link build but to produce focused engagements with different target markets.
Technical Project Manager (MBA, MBCS, CITP, CEng) at Naxtech.com
20 July 2010 08:23am
I think the real answer is that "it depends". Maintenance-wise as well as SEO-wise it may be simpler though to centralise everything. Feel free to contact me directly and will be glad to help.
regards,
Denis
www.naxtech.com
CEO and Executive Chairman at PAY ON RESULTS SEO, PPC & CRO from Strategy Internet Marketing
21 July 2010 08:06am
One main site can have more substance. But if there are two many (especially diverse) services under one site, then the company can look like a jack of all trades and master of none. At The Strategy Group, we took the view that our three distinct areas of internet marketing, business consulting and corporate finance would be best served by three separate sites with some interlinking.
CEO at Econsultancy
23 July 2010 13:10pm
It does indeed depend a bit, but broadly I think you should build 'domain authority' by have a single site / domain to maximise SEO opportunities. However, that's just traffic-driving... the other important part of the equation is conversion to sale/buy/book etc. And that might be better achieved with a focused, separate site. So it depends what your business / proposition / target market is really.
Head of Social Media at Econsultancy
26 July 2010 10:12am
I'd agree, it really does depend on your target market. It may be more beneficial to consider engaging different existing communities (through social outreach for example) and centralise your site. If you are planning on running seperate 'single-serve' promotions etc as part of a campaign then micro-sites can be useful. Certianly given the already complex nature of SEO a single site is easier to manage.
We have a business case available which might also be useful?
http://econsultancy.com/reports/sem-search-engine-optimisation-seo-business-case
Marketer at Sporting Index
12 August 2010 11:05am
I'd also take into account any current assets the business may have from a web property point of view.
If they own mymainkeyword.com (or it is available to purchase), then it may be worth developing this on it's own. This is down to the fact that it's often easier to rank an 'exact match' domain rather than genericdomain.com/mymainkeyword, which would result in more traffic for less input.
Somewhat conversely, there is an argument for 301 redirecting an exact match domain to a generic domain to get the aforementioned benefit of that keyword ranking. We've actually utilised this method (thus going against my advice above!) in redirecting our liveroulette.com domain to supercasino.com. We are position one in Google for Live Roulette, but I'd state that liveroulette.com was a fully functioning website before it was redirected, rather than just an 'empty' domain. British Gas are another company who have utilised keyword domain redirects, using their purchase of gas.co.uk to propel them to position one for Gas.