Should I Use a Microsite?

What is a Microsite?

A microsite is a 1 to 5 page site on a specific subject. A microsite should be an extension of your main site. When you break out products or services into their own domain name with specific content, meta data, and all backlinks to each micro site are specific, you get the answer to what the search engines are looking for. The microsite should also link back to your main site.

A microsite can work well for specific marketing campaigns, however whether to use them or not depends on the business goals and objectives.

When to Use a Microsite
Microsites are useful when you are in a competitive industry and there is a decent amount of search volume present to make a microsite worthwhile.

A microsite is not a one page site or a splash/squeeze. Your microsite must have enough relevant content and transparency to satisfy Google you are committed to providing a good user experience.

Benefits of Microsites

Microsites are useful for PPC campaigns as you can increase CTR to increase your quality score and reduce click costs. You can also achieve higher conversion rates as the messaging can be tailored specific for the target audience, however this can also be done on specific pages too.

As microsites are more focused you become a specialist, which can set you apart from competitors. Being more focused can also help to improve your search engine rankings as microsites can be better targeted. Also microsites can provide links back to the main site to support SEO efforts there.

A smaller more agile site strategy around profitable search queries or micro brands can be more cost effective and efficient than redeveloping, expanding or building out your primary site. This would depend on how your website development works.

Microsites can be a great idea for specific targeted promotions, but whether you use them depends on your brand, your time and your budget.

Benefits of Keeping Content on One Domain

By keeping all content on one domain there is less work needed for optimisation as you are only building the authority of one domain. By driving all traffic to one domain this can help to increase your authority in the eyes of Google as you will have higher visitor numbers.

Any links built to the site will increase the overall ranking of the site even if they are built to internal pages. Sometimes separate sites do not make sense from a usability perspective it is better for user experience to remain in one place.

Should You Use a Microsite?

Whether to use a microsite depends on your business goals. There are benefits for creating a microsite and there are benefits to keeping content on your principal site. In order to make the decision you need to analyse the business goals against the pros and cons.