4 SEO Reasons Not to Launch a Microsite
A microsite is a smaller website that works separately from your main, larger website and sometimes supports it. An example would be a car sales company that sells two or three different brands and has a separate website for each brand that it sells. While some people see microsites as an opportunity to target more keywords on a different site or create some “link juice” by linking the microsites to the main site, microsites should really only be created in a few select circumstances. Microsites can work well for a limited time offer or to promote a viral campaign. However, in most cases it’s a good idea to just build off of your main website.
Here are 4 SEO Reasons Not to Launch a Microsite:
Your links are spread out
The goal of a link building campaign for search engine optimization purposes is to get a variety of links coming in to your site. If one type of link is going to one site and another type is going to another site it takes away from the overall significance of the links. They are more valuable if they work together and all go to one place.
Creates confusion
If a web user is looking for your company online they will be confused if they see that you have a few different websites. They might not realize which one it is that suites their needs and spend a few extra minutes than is necessary clicking between the sites to find what they want. You don’t want to frustrate your website visitors and potential customers. As the saying goes, “keep it simple”.
The search engines like content
If your site has lots of good, quality content it’s more likely to rank better in the search engines. So, instead of having a fair amount of good content on three sites, have a large amount of good content on one site that will connect with your visitors and help build your conversions and overall online brand.
Missing out on the trust factor
If your main website is aged and trusted by the search engine, new content and pages that are added will be trusted by association. A separate microsite won’t have that trust and will take much longer to rank and generate visitors in the search engines.
In most cases it’s a good idea to avoid microsites, unless there is a new product launch or other business related reason to launch one. They just create more work for you and it’s easier to promote your brand well on one site than on multiple sites.
8 Responses to “4 SEO Reasons Not to Launch a Microsite”
The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Journal is Written by SEO Expert:
Nick Stamoulis
Tel - 781-999-1222
nick@brickmarketing.com
Brick Marketing - SEO Company
Nick – great article. I like your email newsletter, too.
I agree wholeheartedly about microsites and SEO. I wanted to see, though, if you think microsites are a different animal from landing pages, or specifically written pages for offers (coupons, premium content, etc.) that are just one-page sites without any links back to the main site by design. I’m all about landing pages at my shop.
I’m guessing that you do think they’re two different things, SEO-wise, but just wanted to make sure.
Thanks!
Hi Nick! Great article. I have a question… I researched this exact problem a few weeks ago and I came across something called canonical which I think you can to your site in order to tell search engines to acknowledge that content as part of your main site, I guess another words asigning any SEO juice to your main site instead of that one…. How true is this?
Thank you and I love receiving your newsletters, very educational
Rod: Canonical is primarily for e-commerce sites where the same content may appear under different URLs, such as products/widgets/blue and products/blue/widgets.
You are essentially saying ‘these two URLs are the same page, and here is the correct URL to use’
I would not use this for a microsite, as effectively you are telling google not to index it – if this is the intention, just use noindex.
Also, only Google recognises Canonical at the moment – AFAIK no other search engine has yet.
Jonathan
Splice Marketing – e-commerce website design
Thanks Nick.
I had not heard this perspective before. Perhaps did microsites work better in the past? Has it changed or do you believe it was never a good idea to begin with?
I have done some micro sites for local clients where the competition was not too high and it allowed them to really dominate in 7 or 8 of the top spots. The micro sites were basically landing pages that enabled more sign ups. It was a different free offer than the main site and had significantly different copy. We did it in a way where no one would be confused, or least I think we did. Seemed to work on the level I was doing it but perhaps that is quite a bit different from doing it where there is a lot of competition and the websites create confusion.
Thanks.
Hi Lorraine,
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts and experience regarding microsites.
I think it used to be (5 + years ago) a great SEO strategy, but since these days SEO should be integrated with every other part of your marketing and social media marketing it is more about building a solid long term brand and less about having a ton of mircosites…
Thanks again for stopping by!
Nick
This article has come too late for me, I started up several microsites at the beginning of the year and now after reading this maybe I shouldn’t have. lol.
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