Hi Jill:

Hopefully you've been doing well and are still writing for High Rankings. It's been awhile since we've talked but I need your expertise once again. I've been getting inquiries from clients regarding the creation of micro sites and how optimization of them could dilute positioning of the main corporate site. Your thoughts?

My view was that the corporate site would always maintain consistent preferred positioning overall while the micro sites will only obtain optimal positioning around the specific promotions they support.

Al

Jill's Response

Hi Al,

I guess I don't understand what the purpose of the micro sites might be. They're certainly not an optimization technique I would recommend. However, if you are using them for reasons other than search engine rankings, then they shouldn't be a problem.

Jill

Al's Clarification

I guess the concern is that if we created several micro sites to promote/focus on their various philanthropic initiatives (and we plan to create 5) that they could ultimately gain better traction within the search engines than the main corporate site or take away from the focus of the corporate site because a user has to choose between multiple sites.

Keep in mind that the micro sites will be "branded" to indicate their purpose so as not to be confused with the corporate site.

Make better sense?

Jill's Response

It really shouldn't make a difference either way. You can do it as part of the main site, or as separate sites. It will be all the same to the search engines either way.

Do it whichever way makes the most sense from a corporate/branding initiative without regard to the search engines, and then you will definitely make the right choice!

Jill

Al Again

So to clarify your view...

If, say, my client was Nike. The corp. site is Nike.com and one of the philanthropic sites was nikestopshunger.com. If we were to submit the hunger site through natural listings and paid inclusion, are you saying that most search engines would just recognize the hunger site as another sub-domain to Nike.com like Nike.com/stophunger or would it be recognized as a completely independent Web property?

Al

Jill Again

Well, I'm not sure what you mean by "recognizing it." The search engines really don't make distinctions like that. Every page lives on its own merits whether it's from one site or a different site.

In the case of your example, it definitely makes sense to have a separate domain for something like Nikestophunger, as it has nothing to do with the normal mission of Nike. It can and will exist on its own as a separate site without causing any problems for the main Nike site.

Jill

Al

Now I understand. This was a big help.

Thanks again Jill...until we chat again.

Al