A: Should we split our site content into multiple sites on different domains?
Hi Pawell
It all depends on your motivation for doing so. Will it make life easier from an editing and design perspective to divide up your content into multiple sites? Does it make more sense from a visitor and usability perspective? If so, then go for it.
If your motivation is purely about the perceived link popularity and/or search engine advantages, then think again. Why? Lots of reasons. Here's three:
1) Whatever link popularity the site currently has and the number of links to it will drop once you start moving content away from your main domain. Think about it. Existing links from search engines and other sites will be broken if you change domains, you'll have fewer links pointing to you and you'll dilute all the valuable link pop you have built up to date. It will take any new domains a long time to develop link popularity of their own.
2) With more information and content focused on relating themes, your existing single domain is more likely to score higher with search engines due to the "hub and authority" factor. If you split this content off into different domains, you'll have fewer links pointing to your site and fewer pages so search engines (and probably visitors too) will see your main site as less relevant than they did before. Also, depending on the type of internal linking structure you plan on using between your new domains, they may trip the aggressive link spam filters engines currently use (particularly Google) and cause a ranking penalty on one or more sites.
3) Search engine strategy should not rule your web design decisions. Site usability should be the highest priority in that regard and you'll usually find that a highly usable, visitor-friendly site will end up being the most search engine compatible. Funny that!
If you are determined to improve your link popularity, you could start by improving the internal linking of your existing site and cross-link sections where it makes sense to do so. If you haven't already got one, integrate a full text-based site map and have a link to it on every page. Also, keep link building on a daily basis and only swap links with sites that are RELEVANT to your audience.
It all depends on your motivation for doing so. Will it make life easier from an editing and design perspective to divide up your content into multiple sites? Does it make more sense from a visitor and usability perspective? If so, then go for it.
If your motivation is purely about the perceived link popularity and/or search engine advantages, then think again. Why? Lots of reasons. Here's three:
1) Whatever link popularity the site currently has and the number of links to it will drop once you start moving content away from your main domain. Think about it. Existing links from search engines and other sites will be broken if you change domains, you'll have fewer links pointing to you and you'll dilute all the valuable link pop you have built up to date. It will take any new domains a long time to develop link popularity of their own.
2) With more information and content focused on relating themes, your existing single domain is more likely to score higher with search engines due to the "hub and authority" factor. If you split this content off into different domains, you'll have fewer links pointing to your site and fewer pages so search engines (and probably visitors too) will see your main site as less relevant than they did before. Also, depending on the type of internal linking structure you plan on using between your new domains, they may trip the aggressive link spam filters engines currently use (particularly Google) and cause a ranking penalty on one or more sites.
3) Search engine strategy should not rule your web design decisions. Site usability should be the highest priority in that regard and you'll usually find that a highly usable, visitor-friendly site will end up being the most search engine compatible. Funny that!
If you are determined to improve your link popularity, you could start by improving the internal linking of your existing site and cross-link sections where it makes sense to do so. If you haven't already got one, integrate a full text-based site map and have a link to it on every page. Also, keep link building on a daily basis and only swap links with sites that are RELEVANT to your audience.
Labels: search engine marketing (sem)
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home