Does Your Small Business Need Multiple Websites

Multiple Websites | Branding Strategies | Marketing Campaigns | Small Business Marketing | Questions About More Than One Website

A Unique Guide to Whether Your Small Business Should Build More Than One Website

   Your small business deserves success, and having a well optimized website is an important part of any marketing and branding strategy.  When discussing Internet Marketing and website implementation options with clients, a frequently asked question is about the best strategy to reach their target audience for the variety of products and/or services they offer. The subject then turns into whether or not their small business needs multiple websites. Just what are ‘multiple websites’ or ‘microsites’ (frequently regarded to as minisites)? These are websites that are separate from your ‘main’ domain, or hub, and often are specific to one particular product or group of products.

“One Website; Two Websites; Three Websites; …a HUNDRED Websites!!!”

   For example, you may have a main service or product you offer, say sports car wheels, and your business is ACME Sports Car Wheels, LLC, and your website is www.acmesportscarwheels.com. Business is booming, and you decide you want to offer two other lines of products, truck wheels and electronics, including audio systems and alarms. This is where it can get tricky, and as a small business owner, you have decisions to make. You are currently doing business as (DBA) ACME Sports Car Wheels, LLC. So do you totally rebrand your business to ACME Automotive Wheels and Electronics, or do you add two DBA’s: ACME Truck Wheels and ACME Automotive Electronics?

   As this is a blog about a need for a small business to have multiple websites and not rebranding, we will look at the following as reasons to have, and also not to have microsites, with the above business example as a reference for followup. We would also like to say thank you to Entrepreneur Magazine and Karen Leland for their recent coverage of this subject and inspiration to share knowledge and ideas with others. If you are a small business owner, a lot of information can be gathered from blogs like ours. However, resources like Entrepreneur Magazine and their expert writers are priceless to the small business world.

Build your additional websites, the spokes, around one centralized website, the hub.

   There are exceptions to most rules, and for these guidelines we are proposing, there are as well. As a small business owner it is important to know your target market, and what your prospects and clients need and desire. If you are getting feedback from potential customers saying they wish you had more information about a service you provide, and you just cannot provide that by adding another page to your current website or a by writing a blog or press release, then perhaps having a microsite is a viable option, even if your service or product is very closely related to others you provide. Using our above example of ACME Sports Car Wheels, let us assume they rebranded to ACME Automotive Wheels and Electronics. However, their sports car wheel business is still their most profitable, and highest source of traffic. In that case, they should keep their main website of ACMEsportscarwheels.com and have links to their other site/s that highlight those services and products of Truck Wheels and Automotive Electronics. This scenario would put the main website as the hub, with truck wheels, electronics, and any future services or products added as ‘spokes’ that reciprocate links back to the hub as well. They are attached and connected, but clearly highlight specific parts of the business that are separate from the sports car wheels business.

   The most important thing to avoid from an SEO standpoint is duplicate content. There should be obvious differences in all pages throughout the content. Even the “About Us” page should be specific to the website that it is referring to, although it would be prudent and ethical to make sure the customer knew they were dealing with the same company on each site. The story told, which should be customer geared, will be based on what you are selling there, not what your other products are.

At Tayloe Marketing and Consulting, we are happy to offer your small business or professional service a free consultation. Let us help you find the right marketing strategy to best reach your target market for your product and services. We are your “Small Business Marketing Team” and we will prove with our 100{1dbf4e22a1e1df4e3c276721638baba62db94b5b195c04f26afee58fb4cf455e} guarantee that Together, Everyone Achieves More!

Thank you for reading,

Bradley Tayloe MBA

President and Founder

Tayloe Marketing and Consulting

941-483-6187

brad@tayloemarketing.com

1532 US Hwy 41 By-P South

Venice, FL. 34293