What is the best: one big site or several small ones?
-
Sometimes I've felt that my choice was incorrect. I know taht with a big amount of content on the same subject a bigger one is better: it’s easier to maintain, and a big number of pages is good for Google ranking, but when you have many small sites, each one focusing on a totally different subject, you can crosslink them and this will improve your rankings. Furthermore, many small sites allow you to focus in specific niches and help you rank better for different keywords.
So, what is the best choice?
-
As well as Google Analytics and Google Adsense IDs.
-
Thanks for your comments, Adam.
I've always thought the same as you. If the site has term consistency, then one big site is preferred because it's easier to optimize. The problem comes when we deal with multi- approach sites. Then we need to differentiate.
I agree with you about IPs. It's about all the information involved, not only IP number.
Thanks again!
-
Yes, you want to be careful.
Keep in mind that having your websites on different IPs isn't enough to trick Google. They can also look at domain registrar info, contact info, linking patterns, etc to figure out that the same person owns the sites.
-
Better for those 3 website to be on different hostings. Otherwise cross linking may not be effective and will not make an impact on your rankings. However I think it depend from the number of websites located on 1 hosting. Maybe if it is 3 still fine compare to 100's )
Russel
-
No, I would not be trying to get Google to think your sites are unrelated. I would accept that Google will realize my sites are related and may factor that into evaluating any links between them.
-
Do you think it would be important for the 3 sites to use unique templates/ip addresses?
-
I'd say one site per market.
So if your content is about 5 different types of sport cars, make 1 big site.
If your content is about sports cars and printers and fishing, make 3 sites.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Best SEO Practices for Displaying FAQs throughout site?
I've got an FAQ plugin (Ultimate FAQ) for a Wordpress site with tons of content (like 30 questions each with a page full, multi-paragraphs, of answers with good info -- stuff Google LOVES.) Right now, I have a main FAQ page that has 3 categories and about 10 questions under each category and each question is collapsed by default. You click an arrow to expand it to reveal the answer.I then have a single category's questions also displayed at the bottom of an appropriate related page. So the questions appear in two places on the site, always collapsed by default.Each question has a permalink that links to an individual page with only that question and answer.I know Google discounts (doesn't ignore) content that is hidden by default and requires a click (via js function) to reveal it.So what I'm wondering is if the way I have it setup is optimal for SEO? How is Google going to handle the questions being in essentially three places: it's own standalone page, in a list on a category page, and in a list on a page showing all questions for all categories. Should I make the questions not collapsed by default (which will make the master FAQ page SUPER long!)Does Google not mind the duplicate content within the site?What's the best strategy?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SeoJaz0 -
How are these sites ranking!?!
One of our clients is in the insurance industry and over the last 12 months we have seen an increasing number of low quality, newly registered, spammy sites achieving top 5 rankings for major keywords, which in turn is having an adverse effect on the rankings for our client. Does anyone have any idea how the following sites have managed to do this: http://www.multiquotetaxi.co.uk/ - 2nd for taxi insurance http://www.motortradefast.co.uk/ - 1st for motor trade insurance http://www.traders-insurance.com/ - 3rd for motor trade insurance http://www.multiquotefleet.co.uk/ - 1st for fleet insurance We have tried reporting the above sites, tried holding out to see if they get penalised and tried figuring out what they have done ourselves but cannot see how they have managed it. Any ideas at all?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | instinctive0 -
Troubled QA Platform - Site Map vs Site Structure
I'm running a Q&A forum that was built prioritizing UX over SEO. This decision has cause a bit of a headache as we're 6 months into the project with 2278 Q&A pages with extremely minimal traffic coming from search engines. The structure has the following hiccups: A. The category navigation from the main Q&A page is entirely javascript and only navigable by users. B. We identify Google bots and send them to another version of the Q&A platform w/o javascript. Category links don't exist in this google bot version of the main Q&A page. On this Google version of the main Q&A page, the Pinterest-like tiles displaying individual Q&As are capped at 10. This means that the only way google bot can identify link juice being passed down to individual QAs (after we've directed them to this page) is through 10 random Q&As. C. All 2278 of the QAs are currently indexed in search. They are just indexed very very poorly in SERPs. My personal assumption, is that Google can't pass link juice to any of the Q&As (poor SERP) but registers them from the site map so it gets included in Google's index. My dilemma has me struggling between two different decisions: 1. Update the navigation in the header to remove the javascript and fundamentally change the look and feel of the Q&A platform. This will allow Google bot to navigate through Expert category links to pass link juice to all Q&As. or 2. Update the redirected main Q&A page to include hard coded category links with 100s of hard coded Q&As under each category page. Make it similar, ugly, flat and efficient for the crawling bots. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I need to find a solution as soon as possible.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TQContent0 -
Why do some sites have several types of sitemap?
Hello Mozzers, I often seem to work on websites with several types of sitemaps - e.g. an html sitemap - an xml sitemap - almost always with identical structure and content. Does anybody know the thinking behind this? Currently looking at site with php and xml sitemap sitting alongside one another. I'm guessing one is for site users to read (and also to aid indexing) and the other for search engines, to further aid indexing. Does Google have any preferences? Is there anything you should be wary of re: Google, if there are multiple sitemaps?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | McTaggart0 -
Multiple Domain Names Point To One Site
I spoke with a potential client yesterday and for legitimate reasons they have multiple domain names, all very closely related in name to each other pointing to one site. His main site. So for example this is how things look, mainsiteva.com, mainsitedc.com, mainsitepa.com, mainsiteca.com, mainsitega.com, mainsitela.com ALL forward to mainsite.com This is being done because they used to have different sites for different geographies. Will google look at this as some form of manipulation?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | WebbyNabler1 -
What is wrong with my site?
I could use suggestions/input. My site is consistently being beaten by doorway pages with zero to no content. In fact, on the keyword "lawrenceville plumber" I am being beaten by a KID with a blank wordpress installation. I really need help determining what my issues are and what I can do to help. According to all of the graders, ranks, etc my site is great. I have written tons of unique content, have added a blog unique articles and self-helps. Please help! My site is www.akinsplumbing.net. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | chuckakins0 -
Best way to find broken links on a large site?
I've tried using Xenu, but this is a bit time consuming because it only tells you if the link sin't found & doesn't tell you which pages link to the 404'd page. Webmaster tools seems a bit dated & unreliable. Several of the links it lists as broken aren't. Does anyone have any other suggestions for compiling a list of broken links on a large site>
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nicole.healthline1 -
SEO for Log in Sites
Hello, I just lunched a website where you have to sign up and to log in in order to use it. So I have the home, also a blog but then the rest of the pages are let's say it "hidden".How would you do the seo for it? I have been cheking facebook, foursquare and some others and they use different approaches. Facebook uses the same description in every single page for example. My site is similar to foursquare users have profile, stats, history, ranking. Well, what is your advice?? Thanks a lot
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | antorome0