Definition Mini

Why You May Decide Upon a Mini-Site for Your Business

Whether  you a beginning a new online enterprise or adding to 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.  At the other end of the spectrum, a highly focused mini-site has its own share of benefits.

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

1.  I have heard that a mini-site has a good chance of ranking high in the search engine listings even with a small number of external links.

2.  It seems logical to start on a small scale and add other mini-sites as I am ready to grow.

3.  I won’t have to come up with as much content for a mini-site as I would for a large site.

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.  Actually, I have no idea what your spouse said or what the implied threat was for disobeying.  However some of the other reasons are valid only if you do the necessary research before you begin.  Number 3 is true, however, you may find that you will update the content on some of your pages periodically and perhaps even add specific landing pages if you do pay-per-click advertising campaigns.  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.

In a different article I have addressed the vital nature of detailed keyword research for a mini-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.  If any of those terms are unclear, I suggest that you read that article prior to continuing with this one.

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.  Here’s how I recommend you go about that:

1.  Hang onto that original list of keywords that you constructed (or out-sourced to be constructed for you).

2.  You already implemented your original website addressing that small list of closely related, long-tail key phrases.  At this point, examine the master list for another small set of closely related key phrases; they, too, should have long tails.  Do the same competition analysis for these keywords that you conducted on the first set (as recommended in that previous article).  If this set of keywords meet the same standards applied to those you used in the first site, then it’s time to begin mini-site number two.

3.  Using article marketing, a few directory listings and other external link building, begin your promotion work with site two (while still continuing your work on the original site’s promotion).

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.

Sooner than you think but not as quickly as you wish, you will have mastered your entire 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.

This won’t all happen in the first month; nurturing a solid business takes time.  Be patient and act wisely, and you will definitely succeed.