Offsite Backup News

Whether  you a beginning a new online enterprise or supplementing your already existing business with an Internet presence, one of the first decisions you will need to make is what size website to build.  A large site has its advantages, among them that it has the potential of becoming an “authority” site.  However, a small site, often called a mini-site has its share of advantages, as well.

Here are a few potential reasons that you might contract for a mini-site, or even build it yourself:

1.  A mini-site can rank in the search engine results for keywords with fewer external links than a large site.

2.  I think I should learn beginning with a small site, and then I can add more mini-sites to my portfolio once I am ready to grow.

3.  I won’t have to have as much written for a mini-site as I would need for a bigger website.

4.  Most of my competitors have small websites.

5.  It’s not as difficult, time consuming or expensive to build a smaller website.

6.  My spouse told me that I’m not allowed to build a large site.

One could easily put together counter-arguments in favor of a larger site, but that’s not what we’re discussing here, is it?

The rationale of all of those six is valid.  Well, maybe not the one about your spouse; I can’t know about that one unless you write me to tell me.  The other reasons make sense only if you conduct the all important preliminary research.  The third rationale is accurate, however, you must recognize that you will need to do some periodic updates on your pages.  Reason number 4 is niche specific, so I’ll take your word for your belief that it is true in the case of the market in which you are competing.  All other things being equal, reason 5 is self-evident.

I have written elsewhere about the extreme importance of careful keyword research for a small site.  If you have followed my advice in that earlier piece (settling on a very few, closely related semantically, long-tail keywords), the first rationale is correct.  I recommend that you read my earlier article prior to continuing with this one, if any of those terms are unclear to you.

Thus, I am left to address the second rationale–starting with one mini-site and building more in the same niche over a period of time.  There is a particular way that I suggest you go about achieving that dream.

1.  Keep that original list of keywords on your desktop–the list that you hired expert keyword researches to build or that you carefully built yourself.

2.  You already implemented your original website addressing that small list of closely related, long-tail key phrases.  Now look for another set of closely related keywords.  Do the same competition analysis for these keywords that you conducted on the first set (as recommended in that previous article).  If this small group of keywords meet the standards suggesting that they imply commercial intent on the part of the searcher, the implement your second mini-site.

3.  Get links to this site through article marketing, directory listings and other external link building.

4.  Once that site is on its way toward improved search engine rankings and increased traffic, repeat the process for site number 3…and so on.

After a while you will find that you have conquered all of the viable keywords in your niche.  Then it will be time to begin serious efforts to improve your conversion rate by testing as many variables within your site as you can identify.  You may decide to take on a new, preferably related, niche, but not until you are sure you have maximized your traffic and conversion rate.

A good online business takes time.  Learn, so that when you act, you will be acting efficiently…oh, and be patient.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.