Best SEO Strategy

[Daaveey]

Hi fellow Mozers:

I have a question about strategy. I have a client who is a major real estate developer in our region. They build and sell condominiums and also built and manage several major rental apartments. All rental properties have their own websites and there is also a corporate website, which has been around for many years and has decent domain authority (+/- 40). The original intent of the corporate website was to communicate central brand positioning points, attract investors and offer individual profiles of all major properties.

My client is interested in developing an organic search strategy which will reach consumers looking to rent apartments. Typical search strings would include the family whose core string would be 'apartments in Baltimore.' (Currently, the client runs PPC for each one of their properties. This is expensive and highly competitive.) In doing research, we've found that there are two local competitors who are able to break on to Page 1 and appear beside the National 'apartment search guides' who dominate the Page 1 SERPS (like apartments.com). The two local competitors have websites of either the same or lower authority than our client's; one has a better link profile, the other is comparable.

Here's our problem: our local competitors only build and manage apartments. So, then, the home pages and all the content of their sites ONLY talk about apartment rental related information. Our client's apartment business is actually larger in scope than either local competitor but is only one of their major real estate verticals.

So my question is this: if we want to build out a bunch of content which will rank competitively with our local competition, are we better off creating a new area of the corporate site, creating targeted content and resources appropriate for apartment seekers OR would we be better off creating an entirely new site, just devoted to the same? I'm wondering if a new section will ever rank well against competitors whose root domains actually feature content which is only rental related? Likewise, I'm wondering whether we'd be giving up too much, in terms of authority, by creating an entirely new site? I've also only found examples in the industry where an entirely new site was created, so it makes me question the strategy of building out a rental-specific section of a site which also contains information about their condo business. For instance, the Related Companies are a huge builder in the East; they have a corporate site and a site called https//relatedrentals.com .

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

[Roman-Delcarmen]

Good luck with the meeting and the project

[Daaveey]

Thanks, Roman for your thoughts! Everyone seems to agree that either approach can work, with the appropriate strategy and resources. The client has both resources and time; I had a meeting with them this morning and they are considering which one of the basic two approaches they plan on taking.

Thanks so much for your thoughtful response.

dave

[Daaveey]

Thank you for your response, Taylor. Your answer is helpful and seems to correspond to Roman's below. The client has the resources to do either of the two approaches and is mulling both options. Thanks so much!

[Roman-Delcarmen]

I think this is not a technicall problem, I think this a managmente problem.
Let me explain my self both options are completly valid and right.

Lets define your problem, you have to chose betwen 2 options
Option A > New section on the corporate website
Option B > New website

So the firts question that you need to ask your self is
Do I have the resource that I need to take option A? (new section in the actual website) and same question for the option B.

I think option B will take and consume more resource
In the real estate industry every second counts, Build all the links and execute all the task related to rank a website and get some traffic does not make sense (Just my opinion). Both options are valid and depends mainly of your resources, If you have the budget, the team, the time and the tools you can start a new website from scratch.

But if you dont have the time, money or team. Take the firts option and create new area of the corporate site.

[TaylorRHawkins]

Honestly, I think either idea would work. But, personally, I would build off of the already established website.

Reason being this; if you were to make a new site - and it was optimized correctly, had amazing user-friendly content, and was all around a great website - It wouldn't matter what the DA is, it would get ranked. I've seen it happen plenty of times where a new site comes onto the scene and ends up taking over well-established sites in the rankings, and it boils down to having a better, more user-friendly website.

But, like I said earlier, I would attach these new pages to your old domain. If you build these pages to be just as amazing and user-friendly and useful as you would a new website, those pages will still rank. And not only will that help getting ranked for those specific search terms, it will build the credibility of your root domain and could boost your DA.

Hope this helps!