Unique businesses - unique domain names?

[Kenoshi]

A client of mine owns a studio space where he teaches yoga and martial arts.  It's a new business and we're deciding how to create the website(s) and which domain(s) to buy. The idea right now is to have 3 websites for each side of the business, and I'm looking for validation of this idea. I haven't been able to find an answer in the Q&A forum that quite applies to our situation.

Website 1: for the studio itself. The audience is other yoga teachers, martial arts teachers, or personal trainers. He will rent out the studio space to them and they bring in their own clients. Content and keywords will relate to this.

Website 2: yoga classes. The audience is members of the public who want to take yoga classes. Content and keywords will relate to this.

Website 3: martial arts. The audience is members of the public who want to take martial arts classes. Content and keywords will relate to this.

We will make certain there's no duplicate content on the sites, but it makes sense for them to link to each other because they're similar in nature (personal health and fitness at the studio), and the latter 2 services are offered at the studio, of course.

Question 1: (a) is it a good idea to get a separate domain for each site? for example: www.city-studio.com, www.unique-name-yoga.com, www.unique-name-martial-arts.com  (b) Or would it be better to keep it all under city-studio.com and use subdomains like yoga.city-studio.com and martial-arts.city-studio.com?   In either case, the keywords "yoga" and "martial arts" would be in the domain name, which has benefit.  Does that still apply for subdomains?  (c) Or would these services even be considered similar enough that I just use www.city-studio.com/yoga.php and www.city-studio.com/martial-arts..php  There will of course be several pages on yoga and several on martial arts.

Question 2: if registering multiple domains, they will interlink as much as possible.  (a) what do we consider when buying the domains?  (b) use a different address for WHOIS of each domain?  (c) can technical contact be the same address (mine, the consultant)?   (d) use a different credit card for each?  (e) ok if the name on the credit card is the same?  (f) can we register them all the same day?   (h) same domain registrar?   (i) same host?   we don't want to appear black hat by having multiple sites, but I think it's very legitimate to have the business split into 3 sites like this just because they're separate sides of the business with different audiences, content, keywords.

Question 3: when the domains come up for renewal in 1 year (or more), would it be safe to switch them all over to one credit card then, for convenience to the owner?

Question 4: is there anything important I haven't mentioned here?

I appreciate any input and discussion.

[ResslerMotors]

Now I know!  Thanks Ryan!

Advertising would sound so much better as yoga dot my studio dot com, though lol.

[Kenoshi]

Very informative, you are a master of the Q&A forums!  I appreciate the thorough response - you've ensured that I'm really picking up what you're putting down.  You and Ressler have really helped me on my path to making this site awesome (and high-ranking).  Thank you!

[RyanKent]

The recommended solution would be directories on your main domain, not sub-domains. Sub-domains are basically viewed as additional domains and your DA does not accumulate for the various sub-domains.

Ressler is correct in that "www" is a sub-domain, but then all of your site information is presented on that one sub-domain so you are fine. This reasoning is why we ensure websites choose either the "www" version of their URL or the "non-www" version, never both.

Another advantage of having everything on one site is the internal site linking. Your studio is in a unique situation offering two forms of physical exercise and training. There are many opportunities where you can suggest "before or after a martial arts workout, you may want to try some yoga" with the word "yoga" being an achor text link to the proper page on your yoga site. Or there can be packages where the wife can do yoga while the husband is learning martial arts. Not to be sexist, the scenario can be reversed as well!

[ResslerMotors]

Personally, I would do subdirectories just because its easier to say.  "yoga (dot) DenverStudio (dot) com" instead of "denverstudio (dot) com forward slash yoga"

However, I've only read about the benefits of sub-directories within very large websites, and wouldn't know what the benefits of a smaller website would be with it.  Although, www. is technically a sub-directory, and most websites use it.

[Kenoshi]

Thanks Ryan, you've really helped to solidify my decision on this one.

There are two reasons for the multiple domains: keywords in the domain name, yes, but also each aspect of the business seems distinct and we thought having a separate site devoted to each offering (yoga, martial arts, studio rental) would be the most clear for customers.  I will just ensure that the design and navigation of the site gets that across properly, and having one site will encourage brand solidarity too.  Another plus.

What you said about partial match domain boosting was new to me though. Very good to know.

Q1: Oh, the hyphenated names were just for example purposes.  Yuck, I'd never do that. (but you never know, so thanks for mentioning it)

Q1: As I asked Ressler above, do you think subdirectories or subdomains are the best option? Would the different subdomains share the DA or is this essentially the same as having three websites?

Q2 and Q3: Solid thinking.  If it seems manipulative, it's probably best to avoid. All of those ideas I had do seem manipulative alright.

Q4: I like how you think!  

[Kenoshi]

Thanks Ressler, you've made some great points that have helped my decision.  I will go with 1 website.

Your mention of the link juice was something I hadn't considered enough. Having links between the 3 websites is one thing, but of course they have to pass link juice to be of any value!  Links alone don't have the value that I would need, so I would definitely have do 3x the work to increase the domain authority of all 3 sites, to ensure ample link juice is passed to ensure the interlinking adds enough value.  This definitely seems like a lot more work.

For the landing pages for each area of his business (studio rentals, yoga, martial arts), do you think it makes sense to use subdomains for each, or keep them all within www.city-studio.com?  Perhaps use subdirectories like /yoga?  I'm thinking about keywords in the URL, I suppose, but also the best way for the engines to determine the focus of the site, or focus of each section I should say.

[RyanKent]

I agree with Ressler. One site is the best approach.

The sole reason you are seeking 3 domains is to gain the exact match domain benefit. Well, you wont have it because your site name isn't going to be "yoga" or "yoga chicago" which are the likely terms people would use in search. Therefore you will be depending upon the partial match domain boost which is a lot lower then EMD, and it is simply not even close to worth it. You will be sacrificing your DA and the manageability of a single site.

Response to Q1 - first, drop the idea of using hyphenated names. They appear spammy and are undesirable. If you absolutely must use a hyphen, make is a maximum of a single hyphen and understand you will probably regret even that usage. You can separate your functions which categories such as www.mystudio.com/yoga.

Q2 - Again, use a single site and you wont have this worry. You are asking how to manipulate search engines into believing your sites are not related. It wont even come close to working. You want to outsmart a 30+ billion dollar company with an entire team of highly trained professionals who have developed systems designed to prevent you from doing exactly what you are trying to do.

Q3 - same reply as Q2

Q4 - Make one site, put all your time, focus and energy building it to be the best studio site on the planet. Take the money and time you will save from building, hosting and promoting 3 sites and really make your one site fantastic. "Good" is not good enough.

[ResslerMotors]

Three websites means:

1. 3 times the link building
2. 3 times the content writing
3. 3 times the monitoring

Three websites do sound tempting until you realize that you will not be able to benefit from each area driving its own links.  With a single website you will be able to receive the domain benefit for every link you generate, while having multiple domains you will not.

Another problem with linking to other websites all the time is the drop in link juice.  While it  may seem beneficial to pass links from your websites, you have to remember that you are giving away some of the value of your internal links each time.  With just a couple links its no problem, but with dozens you might face a dilemma.

I would stick to the one website with landing pages for each area of interest.  I would then do an intense link building campaign for each, and write a very informative blog (to both drive visitors and links).  By having high quality landing pages for each "department" you will be able to achieve all your SERP goals, and be able to build on each "departments" success.

The only reason I wouldn't do this is if I was going to have 1000's of pages of content for each department.