One huge site or several small websites ? I was in a similar dilemma at the time of launching India Inc. on labnol.org – I could either get a separate web domain or put India Inc. on the same site under different subdirectory.
Finally, like Yuri, I too decided to go with a single site for maximum Google Juice. A inbound link to any category (whether India or Tech) would add to the link authority of the entire website.
Build one large website, not many small ones.
Given the fact that Google takes domain age and link trust into account, it makes sense to focus your efforts on one site. If you are thinking of launching a separate site, think if you can tie it to one of your other sites – generally, if the target audience is the same, it’ll work out well. Link.
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Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/design/should-you-build-one-big-website-or-many-small-ones/282/
Tags: seo, Internet, Web Design
Reader Comments
As a matter of fact, if the target audience is different, it might hurt, if you put sites on one domain, because Google also takes into account the topic of your site.
If the target audience is the same, the topics are related (or close), so you have no issues with search engines categorizing your website.
Even if the topics of your subsites are different, if the target audience is the same or related (visitors to one can go and buy from another), it still makes sense to have one site, of course.
Written by Yuri on 06.18.07
oh! you have got me concerned now. Tech and Business may or may not have common visitors
But is this a problem will the bigger sites as well like the NYTimes or USAToday – they have a separate tech section but the site still covers almost every topic from politics to finance to sports.
Written by Amit on 06.18.07
Well, the topic of the site is only a small part of the equation. As you know, large websites on any topic get largea mounts of links and rank anyways. Take Wikipedia or any other large websites.
The key, however, is to make sure the audience can find the right topic easily. Newspapers are forgiven the fact that they cover many of them, because it is their nature. And they offer easy ways to find and read every section.
Written by Yuri on 10.11.07