Microsites vs landing pages
-
Hi all!
I'm trying to decide the best way forward with regards to a large site I'm currently in the process of redesigning/rebuilding.
Basically, the site already has a lot of well ranking seo landing pages targetted to different niches. With this in mind which is the best way forward in your experience?
1. Expand upon the existing niche landing pages adding more content etc and more niches?
or
2. Keep the landing pages but set up microsites for each of the niches. (On different domain names or sub domains?)
I do not want to polute the existing site as it performs very well and ranks very well for the keywords we target. Are there any benifits to micro sites seo wise?
Personally I think it best to expand on the landing pages and keep everything onsite but any adivce you can give me would be greatfully received!
Thanks in advance!
-
Hi, in the end I didn't go with microsites. As part of the site build we optimised the urls (using a CMS) and everything else on page we could and 301'd the old URL's to the new versions. Everything ranks as well as it did or better since lanch (4 weeks ago).
-
Hi James,
I'm following up on some older posts that are marked unanswered. Did you use microsites or landing pages? Can you share with us how things turned out? Do you have any more questions?
Thanks!
-
Sounds like overkill for what we are trying to achieve. I guess Microsites are geared more to separate product campaigns etc when you want a clear separation from your main site.
-
By the sounds of it the existing site is doing well and may have built up some domain authority which wouldn't be present with new micro sites. This may help the new landing pages rank higher than the microsites/
If the campaigns for the microsites go well and you achieve a number of inbound links although you can 301 redirect them to the existing site after the microsites have served their purpose their is no guarantee that 100% of 'link juice' will be passed on.
I think that your instinct to keep everything onsite is the correct one in this instance but that rather than adding more content to the existing landing pages you use the experience you have gianed and the lessons you have learned to develop new landing pages for these niches.
Hope this helps!
-
I think microsites work well for one-off competitions etc that aren't going to be around forever. I'd rather spend the time adding to a current site that's going to grow in size.
DD
-
The microsites are a nice idea and could work well in the long run, but you'd be fragmenting your efforts, so your main domain would probably suffer due to diminished updates and attention.
I'd stick with the single domain and as long as the niches are related continue to build on that.
I work on a set of sites that were split from a whole and they are a lot more work than if they were just one site together.
Tom
-
I am always cautions about adding microsites for SEO benefits as these can come back and bite you hard when you least expect it.
Personally, I tend to steer clear of doing this and would opt to keep adding content to your existing site. It doesn't all have to be on the same page, but link out to a few niche articles you could write.
Keep it straight forward and you will have no problems
Regards,
Andy
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
-
Unsolved Should I combine pages?
Hi, Im not sure of the correct route to take here... We are a training provider and I manage the website. The main course offered is the transport manager CPC. Currently, I have a "catch all" landing page which links to each different course option: Landing page > Classroom Online Self study Distance learning The main keyword revolves around "transport manager cpc" I want searchers to land on the online page is they search "online transport manager CPC" for example but I think its confusing Google. I'm wondering if I should de-index the store pages (although some perform very well) and increase the content on the main landing page to rank for every related keyword on that page. Initially, I wanted to devalue the landing page in favor of the store pages but I'm unsure if that's the right way to go. I've stripped out the bulk of the keywords and content and shifted it to each individual page. but as above, Im now unsure if that's the right route to take. Any help would be greatly appreciated 👍 Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | dunbavand
Rich0 -
Combine poorly ranking pages into a single page?
I'm doing on-page optimizations for an apartment management company, and they have about seven apartments listed on their site. Rather than include everything on the same page - /apartments/apartment-name/ - they have the following setup: /apartments/apartment-name/contact /apartments/apartment-name/features /apartments/apartment-name/availability /apartments/apartment-name/gallery /apartments/apartment-name/neighborhood With very few exceptions, none of these pages appear to rank for anything, and those that do either rank very poorly for seemingly random keywords or for keywords like the apartment complex name (alongside the main landing page for the complex). I'm of the mind to recommend combining the pages into a single one that contains all the info, eliminates the chances for duplicate content (all of the neighborhood pages contain the same content verbatim), and prevents keyword cannibalization. Thoughts? Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | Alces1 -
Home Page Keywords not Ranking and Assigned to Inside Pages
Hi, thank you for taking the time to read this. We have a few websites with the same problem. I will use http://www.prepared-meals.com as an example: The home page was ranking on page one for keyword "Prepared Meals". The site is about 6 months old. We use the Moz page optimizer on all pages of our websites to score an A rating. Recently we found the home page is no longer showing up in search results and the keyword "prepared meals" now points to an inside page that is not relevant: http://www.prepared-meals.com/Senior-Meals/Moms-Meals-Reviews.html this page shows up for Prepared Meals around page 15 in Google results. We have read keywords in the URL might be the issue, even though the page optimizer in MOZ says to do that. We are wondering if this is the issue or there is some other problem we are not aware of. Again, thank you for you for your time. -Craig
On-Page Optimization | | CraigSWD0 -
Repetition of Location on A Page
I was wondering if there was a certain number of times you had to repeat a location to help your page rank well. Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | OOMDODigital0 -
Meta Title for large Metro Area landing page
Hello! I am creating "metro landing pages" for an organization that has a 10-18 locations per metro city. The landing page houses brief information about the organization as a whole and then it has the locations listed with links to their respective pages. My question is how to optimize these titles. My sample city is Atlanta, GA. This metro page includes 18 locations from the Atlanta area. Marietta, Sandy Springs, Decatur, etc... My question is what is the best Meta Title to use for a Metro Page like this? Would it be best to say Day Care in Metro Atlanta | ABC Childcare Company | Child Care Atlanta Area or is their a better way to optimize a large Metro landing page? I really appreciate any suggestions! Thanks!!!
On-Page Optimization | | TracSoft0 -
Is there a SEO penalty for multi links on same page going to same destination page?
Hi, Just a quick note. I hope you are able to assist. To cut a long story short, on the page below http://www.bookbluemountains.com.au/ -> Features Specials & Packages (middle column) we have 3 links per special going to the same page.
On-Page Optimization | | daveupton
1. Header is linked
2. Click on image link - currently with a no follow
3. 'More info' under the description paragraph is linked too - currently with a no follow Two arguments are as follows:
1. The reason we do not follow all 3 links is to reduce too many links which may appear spammy to Google. 2. Counter argument:
The point above has some validity, However, using no follow is basically telling the search engines that the webmaster “does not trust or doesn’t take responsibility” for what is behind the link, something you don’t want to do within your own website. There is no penalty as such for having too many links, the search engines will generally not worry after a certain number.. nothing that would concern this business though. I would suggest changing the no follow links a.s.a.p. Could you please advise thoughts. Many thanks Dave Upton [long signature removed by staff]0 -
Home page ranking dropped below internal pages
The index page for a site I manage has dropped significantly - internal pages rank above it. It's a new site, 2 months old but was ranking at 1st. Any suggestions as to how I can debug this?
On-Page Optimization | | OptioPublishing0 -
Page speed tools
Working on reducing page load time, since that is one of the ranking factors that Google uses. I've been using Page Speed FireFox plugin (requires FireBug), which is free. Pretty happy with it but wondering if others have pointers to good tools for this task. Thanks...
On-Page Optimization | | scanlin0