SEO: Why Microsites Are Weakening Your SEO Results – Dr. Naveel Builds Your Immunity
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Written By Dr. Naveel | July 16, 2008 | Share This
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Benjamin Franklin created the image you see on the left. Published in 1754 it was among the earliest political cartoons in
Divided Your Microsites Are Weak
Different organizations have different definitions of what constitutes a microsite, but for our purposes let’s use the always dependable Wikipedia definition : “…an individual web page or cluster of pages which are meant to function as an auxiliary supplement to a primary website.” Organizations usually create a separate URL or subdomain of the main URL to house these microsites.
This is bad from an SEO perspective for a number of reasons. There are millions of domains out there on the web. So how do search engines know who they can trust? In part, some of the things they look at are domain age and link development. It stands to reason that the older a domain is the more legitimate it probably is. Also, the more links that a website has pointing back to it the more trusted and relevant it is considered by others. When you build a microsite on its own domain or even a subdomain, you’re essentially starting from scratch. There is no history for the search engines to rely upon. So, all of your separate microsite domains are fighting on their own when they could be piggybacking on the trust your main website domain has already established simply by creating a section for them.
A perfect example of this is Converse’s recent microsite initiative. They created 20 separate microsites on different domains and linked them together with an interface sort of similar to StumbleUpon.com. None of these domains have any history or trust built so the chances of them ranking for relevant searches are slim. Additionally, not all of the domains are easy to remember or spell as evidenced by…
www.atleastyourenotlostatseafor13days.com and,
www.dentalsurgerydoesntstoppatriotism.com
…among others. So, unless you search on these domain names directly or are willing to type in 30+ characters into your browser address bar good luck finding these sites (both situations assume you already know the 20 microsite names). You can always just Google “converse microsites” or “converse minisites.” However you won’t find Converse ranked anywhere — you will find some advertising industry websites that talk about the marketing campaign. I suppose Converse didn’t care about users being able to find their new microsites through search.
When Do Separate URLs Make Sense?
There are only two situations I can think of where separate URLs for a microsite would make sense. First, if you don’t care if users find the website through search. Now, why you wouldn’t want more people visiting your website is beyond me, but if you put every page on its own domain or subdomain you’ll be able to eliminate a significant chunk of organic search traffic. The second is if you plan on eventually building out the microsite to have full featured content. In that situation it may make sense to have a separate domain since the microsite will eventually have its own stand alone identity. Such is the case with Proctor and Gamble who have a main site and a website dedicated to usage and coupons for P&G products. In the vast majority of cases however, uniting your microsites will help in your battle for search engine rankings.
Topics: Domains, Google, Reprise Media, SEO, Search: How-To |
I dissagree, microsites are a good way of organising your content so google can see which sections are relevant to certain keyword groups.
I would use the same trusted domain, with relevant subdomains.
Certainly strength in unity and large sites, like Apple and IBM, have benefited from employing such a strategy.
Our microsites are targeted at different customer types. It works very well. The main VeriPic.com site targets Law Enforcement Photography but people doing other types of photography would be turned off if a site wasn’t create just for them. For example Wedding Photographers or Construction Photographers may be turned off if they saw a Law Enforcement Photography site. That’s why microsites are needed for these other markets.
[…] Search Engine Optimisation wisdom tells you not to do this because your incoming links get diluted - some go to one website, some to another, rather than all […]