Micro sites?
-
Hi,
I have been speaking to seo firms regarding strategies and they mentioned setting up micro sites under domains that are relevant.
i.e setting up armanidoamin.co.uk and we use it as a blog type site to update all info, product reviews, news relating to armani.
Whats peoples thoughts on this? Does it work? Is it worth the effort?
Im not so sure but obviously looking for ideas.
Cheers
-
The reason why would be for multiple 1st page positions in the serps for the same keyword phrases. Most sites are not lucky enough to get rewarded with host crowding positions (your same domain ranking multiple times on the first page) but if you have microsites that you are able to get ranked now you have several first page positions.
If you are addressing different targets, this can be accomplished probably easier with your main, established already trusted site.
Google is addressing exact match domains as a ranking factor for exact reason. Microsites are spammy and grey hat and outside of Google's webmaster guidelines if addressing the same targets.
-
Absolutely. This gets you a thumbs up. If you are not connected to the main site, then you can take some risks and have some fun, and conduct SEO experiments without harming the enterprise site.
"But then you can indeed use some rather grey SEO tactics towards these buffer micro sites if you would want to... without being at risk of bringing the entire house down."
-
^ Good summary of this extensive discussion!
-
If it is purely from an SEO point of view then I think that I would avoid doing the micro sites, I think that you would get penalized from search engines.
I agree with Tom if you are putting all that work in that they are suggesting then why not just put that amount of work into your main website/blog/social media? That way you are unlikely to suffer any negative affects and will receive long term benefit in terms of content production, traffic and social media shares?
Hope that it all works out well for you.
Have a great weekend.
-
Actually if you are creating new domains it is going to take quite some efforts to boost the micro sites' PR in order for the backlinks to send you some juice... Efforts that can then better be directed at your main site.
Micro sites for backlinking purposes only make sense if they have theme, age and PR. Which means you will probably need to buy existing domains that are not being renewed before the actual deletion of the website... and that's a "game" in itself.
Micro sites aimed at your customer segments are another story obviously as described by Mike & Oliver.
-
I think the idea they suggested was for pure SEO. Branded URL, unique brand focused content. With links going to the website.
So someone searches for Armani J31 Jeans, they find our armanij31jeans.co.uk site, unique content, pictures, style advice all focused to that brand and style of product. We update it weekly with new pics, new stock, new content.
I see the idea but I sort of think, is it better to just focus on building links direct to the website, rather than having this network of sites all linking back to the main website?
-
We have used micro sites in the past for targetting 'niche' long tail keywords that would get lost within our main website. They have purely been from the point of view of benefiting the customer in helping them to find information that they need.
They tend to be for areas of our business and keywords that are on the fringes of our business.
We have found that by having a micro site it enables us to talk to our customers about these individul products directly to them rather than on a page that is within a website talking about a wide variety of products. (along the same lines as Mike explained in his example) We have two micro sites and one works really well for us the other doesn't. It is worth considering but like Tom says there are a number of warnings to take into consideration.
I think overall it depends why you are considering building the micro sites? If it is for the benefit of the consumer so that they can have clear and concise information that is relevant to them then it is worth doing with caution.
Hope that is of some help.
-
Interesting question!
I was recently also looking into this tactic, but as mentioned by Tom it takes quite some effort in order for these micro sites to be worth something SEO wise.
You would ideally need to get themed domains with age, PR and existing backlinks without paying over the odds. This in itself will take you some time to get it right. Then you need to change the Name servers, change Registrar. And you need hosting, preferably all over the place so it doesn't look like a network. After which you can start building the micro site, for which you need to create content... phew, hard work!
But then you can indeed use some rather grey SEO tactics towards these buffer micro sites if you would want to... without being at risk of bringing the entire house down.
Obviously Mike uses his micro sites differently and successfully, but from what I can tell reading your question the SEO firms you mention are probably going for the technique as described by Tom.
After evaluating this option I decided to rather try and come up with a Content idea closer to Public Relations than Page Rank...
-
Right on.
So here is an example for you. You sell designer men's apparel, but you also sell fishing and hunting apparel. Both apparel, but completely different types of audiences. You could have designerapparel.com (your main designer men's apparel site) and a microsite of outdoor.designerapparel.com. This subdomain microsite approach would carry some of your domain authority to the subdomain, all while providing a good experience for users, because the audiences and end product are so different, even though they are men's apparel.
Kind of a funky example, but I hope it illustrates how it can be used for men's apparel.
In your case, (although I don't know your business plan or customer segments, etc.) I would not worry about doing microsites.
Mike
-
We are a menswear retailer, so we sell shoes, tees, trainers, jeans, shirts etc.. from about 15-20 different brands.
now i wouldnt want 20 micros sites but would concentrate on say 4-5 top brands? all unique content, all with their own external domain name.
I am not a fan, it doesn't seem right but then again I am new to it.
last thing i want to do is risk it for nothing.
-
I agree. Thats what I thought when I was told.
I would rather have our retail site and build links direct to that from backlinking and our own blog, social etc..?
I thought the idea behind the micro sites was to take advantage of the brand being in the domain name and giving the micro site fresh content every few days dedicated to the brand in question (eg armani then another site would dedicate to Lyle & Scott). But it seems a lot of work when you can have 1 blog talking about all brands? But then you loose the url name, the brand keyword etc..?
-
It all depends whether it makes sense for your business.
For instance if you sell shoes, you would probably not benefit from having an Armani microsite and a Nike microsite UNLESS you want users to assume you ONLY sell Armani or ONLY sell Nike.
The company I work for uses microsites, because our main site is just too generic. We sell software and our software can be configured for any industry, but to say that can deter some people. So we have our main site (just examples here) software.com and microsites food.software.com, jewelry.software, animal.software.com - this approach works for us, because we have slightly different solutions for each of these industries and we do not want to look too generic or single people out if we listed these on our main site.
Some of it has to do with SEO, but really think about it from a marketing standpoint and how you want to market to your visitors. We want to market to visitors with a microsite saying, "We have awesome food software" instead of saying with our main site, "We can tailor your software for the food industry".
It has worked great for us having microsites. It is a little more work, because you need to manage multiple sites and have unique content across multiple sites, but we are seeing really good returns.
Hope this helps.
Mike
-
If not done correctly can take your main site down, so it can be done but they need to know what they are doing.
-
Not only can that easily look like a link network - which will get you penalised by all the search engines - but I don't see the point in doing such a thing.
Why would you not want to build authority directly to your website - post that sort of information and product reviews to your main domain. If the content is useful to people, they will link to it and perhaps share it on social networks.
That means all the "strength" from those shares and links will be going straight to your domain, not some sham micro-site.
The SEO companies you've spoken to are just promoting the idea of setting up a website to get some authority so it looks like you have an authority "link" to your site. Why you wouldn't want to build authority directly to your site to begin with is lost on me.
Unless they're talking about setting up a micro site with relevant content that they can spam the hell out of with some unsavoury tactics that you wouldn't "want to risk on your main site". So you're micro-site acts as a buffer in this sense.
Do you really want to rank in that way?
I'm much more interested in doing things in an open and tangible way. Produce the best content that you can and promote it as much as you can. Get legitimate authority straight to your site. That's not to say that marketing your content won't be easy - it can be a long and difficult process to get traction. But the rewards are infinitely better if you do.
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
-
Enquiries stopped after site move
Hello, I really hope someone can help. We recently moved our website from a shared server with one host to a VPS with another. At the same time we decided it would be right to switch from the .co.uk to the .com and also purchase an SSL. Since the switch we have had zero enquiries (3 weeks ago) when we would normally average one a day. According to Google Analytics, I cannot see that traffic has been to adversely effected and rankings, though dropping very slightly have not dramatically fallen. We have tested the site rigirously and there are no issues with it we can see. I ensured at domain level that there was a 301 redirect on the .co.uk site as well. Does anyone have any suggestions as to why this would be the case? And/or whether switching it all back to where it was with the .co.uk would be a foolish idea? Many thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Opus4Marketing0 -
Why does some sites rank with no seo
Why is it that some site rank with zero efforts? I have been working on some seo for a while on my main site and i have been getting more info competition analysis with sem and moz. Looking at the states from this website which tends to popup often in the searches on page 1-2 before my site. This site is not keyword optimized, meaning they arent even trying to rank.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CooperStrzelecki
There is no content, articles etc.,
6 backlinks (nothing powerful just 2 directory links and 2 from developer)
Site really isnt even designed to get traffic as its a trade only ecommerce website
I doubt they are hiding anything as far as backlinks etc. as it will get them too many visitors they dont want
The city i am searching isnt even on the page (it is a city within a city so maybe google still relates it)
PA 24 DA 15 Now my site:
Optimized reasearched keywords
175 backlinks
All my main pages have content with images, alt tags, internal linking
full of content, blogs, videos, products (probably 4000, could a site being too big be an issue?)
Site gets regular updates
I probably have 200 citations
All the social media which gets done often
PA 32 DA 20 They do get a good bit of traffic but that is probably the only thing i would see but it would be direct traffic mostly i believe as it would be people going to order regularly since it is a print reseller. They may have some age on me 15 vs 8 years. Could it be some kind of penalty i am not sure about lingering? According to what i know to check everyything looks ok, no shady links accoding to sem. I am working more and more on all the pages but this competittion site really doesnt have crap going on probably 8 pages and 1 page does all the ordering. What the hell does google want from me exactly!0 -
Redirecting old mobile site
Hi All, Trying to figure out the best option here. I have a website that used to utilize a separate mobile site (m.xyz.com) but now utilizes responsive design. What is the best way to deal with that old mobile site? De-index? 301 redirect back to the main site in the rare case someone finds the m. site somewhere? THanks! Ricky
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RickyShockley0 -
Paid Links on Credible Sites
Hi people. I'm wondering, what would be the effects of having a paid link on a credible site. The site would feature a brand page about my site and link to it. The site has a good domain authority and they are credible with quality content. Ultimately though the link would be paid. Would Google treat this negatively? Or would they pick up on it at all? Thanks, Paul
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | kevinliao0 -
Site Not Ranking- No Reason Why
I have a client with a HUGE website who should be ranking for it's competitive keywords. No penalties, or bad links. Old domain. Not ranking for anything. Client has a huge AdWords spend and my theory is that it's not ranking organically because of the AdWords spend. I can't think of anything other reason. Anyone? Thanks. The keywords I'm trying to rank this client for aren't even competitive.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | 01023450 -
Technical Site Questions
When i do a google cache of our site, i see 2 menus, our developers say that's because the 2nd is for the mobile menu - is that correct, as when i look up other sites that have mobile rendering they only have one menu visible. Plus GWT's has the number of internal links per page at least x2 what they should have - are they connected? Secondly when i do a spider test through http://tools.seobook.com/general/spider-test/ it shows all "behind the scenes text" eg font names, portals, sliders, margins - "font size px" is shown as 17 times and a density of 2.15% - surely this isnt correct as google will be thinking that these are my keywords !? My site is www.over50choices.co.uk Thanks Ash
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AshShep10 -
Two Sites Similar content?
I just started working at this company last month. We started to add new content to pages like http://www.rockymountainatvmc.com/t/49/-/181/1137/Bridgestone-Motorcycle-Tires. This is their main site. Then i realized it also put the new content on their sister site http://www.jakewilson.com/t/52/-/343/1137/Bridgestone-Motorcycle-Tires. the first site is the main site and I think will get credit for the unique new content. The second one I do not think will get credit and will more than likely be counted as duplicate content. We are changing this so it will no longer be the same. However, I am curious to see ways people think we could fix this issues? Also is it effecting both sits for just the second one?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DoRM0 -
SEO Consultant for site audit
Can someone recommend an excellent SEO who can perform a full site audit of my fairly large Wordpress site? The site receives about 14,000 visits per month but traffic is waining one month after a recent change. Need analysis of some funky stuff in my Webmaster tools and overall site review.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JSOC0