Should you have more than one website?

Questions about multiple websites, or mini sites, are common from our customers, so we ought to write about it!

First of all, there is no rule that says that an organisation shouldn’t have more than one website.

Inevitably, this question is about whether multiple sites are good for search engines, and good for the visitor. But in many ways, ‘what is good’ for search engines and people is one and the same thing.

Search Engines do work really hard to discover what is good for searchers, because if they get it wrong consistently, there is nothing to stop us all using a different search box in the future. And let’s face it, they tend to do a really good job of it…it is amazing technology.

What’s good for the visitor?

If we’re considering a different group of visitors, with different tasks, then the answer is easy. Think seriously about doing different business on different websites. The example would be if we had two separate divisions, that happen to share the same building.

As you are still reading, then we should think about that single organisation website.

But as an service provider focussed on our own client’s success, we like to think more (only?) about those visitors who might buy at some point in the future. It makes it easier to decide what might best help visitors make ‘the right decision’.

What do they need to know

This really does focus the mind – because if you had 100 people stood in front of you every day (because we’re doing your marketing)  then how many different questions might you get.

Each visitor has a different set of questions

Lets help all those people by covering everything they might want to know, and put that information under their nose. In our experience, it just works best. Remember that most untamed websites convert at less than 1% – or in other words, just one out of those 100 visitors decide to do something. There’s room for improvement.

So, following this through. Being successful in converting website visitors into sales conversations does usually mean having more information on the website than originally anticipated. Visitors just have such a wide remit, especially early on in their investigations.

How come our website ended up so large

It is easy to sell left handed widgets if that’s what people are looking for, but sooner or later, we’re going to have to explain to other people what exactly they are and why they might want one.

As long winded as this is – it goes to explain why people’s websites will always end up much larger than originally planned.

There are literally thousands of ways to describe the same thing, especially when even slightly complex. When people want their teeth straightened, for example, you couldn’t guess they might use 1 out of 2-3000 different search phrases, at least.

Whichever way that you present the information, whether on long pages (which does work well), or splitting it up into easily navigable sub areas on a website, this will appear messier the more subjects you have.

Can we do anything other than have multiple sites

Strategies will be to ‘turn the website upside down’ so that every sub landing page acts as a visitors personal home page, with everything pertinent to their decision being put under their nose. This is a fine principle, and works great for paid search, and to an extent it is a great principle for unpaid search too. But it eventually presents challenges to Search Marketers when nearly every inbound link you might get from the outside world comes into the home page, and needs distributing.

It’s not impossible, but it gets harder to prioritise content when different parts of the business are all screaming at you to get their stuff to the top.

But inevitably, at some point, it is going to occur to someone to have a different website.

The benefits of mini sites

• Domain words are quite heavily weighted if they are keywords, which works if enough people look for them
• Sites are more specific, and visitors feel you’re focussed which helps conversion (big point)
• Visitors don’t get distracted from your mission. It is obvious what you want them to do
• Links can weigh more heavily when aimed at less competitive ‘sub’ market material

The downsides of mini sites

• You literally have to double your marketing efforts
• Splitting marketing efforts could be like splitting a political party in two, when neither would get into power
• Not as much cross fertilisation of customer types
• If owners don’t take them seriously, mini sites can feel unloved and put people off
• Age is a factor, and new sites take a while to get going with the search engines
• Depending on where visitors come from, it can be hard to track visitors between sites

This last point is important.

If all your deals come show up on Analytic Software as referrals from SITE A, then how are you going to hone your search marketing efforts. The returns available from search marketing often only come after the results have been fed back into the machine a few times, and if you can’t attribute the success, you also won’t be able to turn off the most expensive half of the marketing. Which, by the way, could quadruple the profitability.

How to decide on a mini site

The bottom line is that the more important a particular sub section of the website becomes, then the more likely it should be spun out into a separate website. It will often follow that your organisation will reflect this move and if a complex subject area is important enough to split off your marketing, it will probably be important to focus the sales and operations too.

Alternatively, if there is a very tight focus on one particular goal, and it is a non-complex goal, then it may be good to have people land on a page that takes people directly to the action button.