One site or five sites for geo targeted industry
-
OK I'm looking to try and generate traffic for people looking for accommodation. I'm a big believer in the quality of the domain being used for SEO both in terms of the direct benefit of it having KW in it but also the effect on CTR a good domain can have.
So I'm considering these options:
- Build a single site using the best, broad KW-rich domain I can get within my budget. This might be something like CheapestHotelsOnline.com
Advantages:
- Just one site to manage/design
- One site to SEO/market
- Better potential to resell the site for a few million bucks
- Build 5 sites, each catering to a different region using 5 matching domains within my budget. These might be domains like CheapHotelsEurope.com, CheapHotelsAsia.com etc
Advantages:
- Can use domains that are many times 'better' by adding a geo-qualifier. This should help with CTR and search
- Can be more targeted with SEO & Marketing
So hopefully you see the point. Is it worth the dilution of SEO & marketing activities to get the better domain names?
I'm chasing the longtail searchs whetever I do. So I'll be creating 5K+ pages each targeting a specific area. These would be pages like CheapestHotelsOnline.com/Europe/France/Paris or CheapHoteslEurope.com/France/Paris to target search terms targeting hotels in Paris
So with that thought, is SEO even 100% diluted?
Say, a link to the homepage of the first option would end up passing 1/5000th of value through to the Paris page. However a link to the second option would pass 1/1000th of the link juice through to the Paris page. So by thet logic, one only needs to do 1/5th of the work for each of the 5 sites ... that implies total SEO work would be the same?
Thanks as always for any help!
David
-
Any other thoughts - I'm leaning towards the 5 sites idea but perhaps I'm overestimating the importance of the domain?
Thanks!
-
Thank you Alan, I appreciate your kind words.
One valuable reason to answer questions is that whenever I have a question of my own folks like you and Steve O always put a little extra into answering.
-
"I shouldn't be telling this stuff."
LOL EGOL you know damn well that if weren't telling it, me or someone else would. Sure, we're fools for giving this info out for free when we could be charging thousands.
Yet you also know how enriching it is to give back what was freely given to us, or that we earned the hard way and now have within us to want to help just for its own sake.
And please - don't discount the true appreciation the rest of us who help out when we can here have for your contributions. You carry a lot of the burden in the Pro Q&A system.
-
Yes you should!
Thanks I appreciate it.
-
Lots of people think that they should build 25 sites to kickass on their competitor. Following that temptation will cause you to divide your time on a lot of projects that each will be puny against the competition.
Remember, SEO is like war and great generals know to divide the forces of their competitor and kickass on them one unit at a time with overwhelming force. Don't divide your forces for the enemy.
The best route is usually to put ALL of your effort into a single site in one niche. Then when that site becomes the #1 ranking dominant site in that niche you can think about a second site that will rule the SERPs in one of your most profitable subniches - powered by links from your main site.
When you have that job done then move to another subniche. Save your KW domains for this effort.
Lots of people think that they should build 25 satellite sites to give links back to their main site... but I believe that the really successful strategy is to do the reverse.
I shouldn't be telling this stuff.
-
Thanks for the reply, EGOL!
Yes that's a good way to look at it and I agree - the big domain. That's why I said 'is the SEO 100% diluted' - I wanted to push the point that the off-page SEO would not be 5 x the SEO with 5 sites.
Say it's 50% diluted, then the overall question becomes:
Does it make sense to opt for 5 better quality domains if it means you'll have to put in double the off-page SEO work?
-
Say, a link to the homepage of the first option would end up passing 1/5000th of value through to the Paris page. However a link to the second option would pass 1/1000th of the link juice through to the Paris page. So by thet logic, one only needs to do 1/5th of the work for each of the 5 sites ... that implies total SEO work would be the same?
Let's reverse the math.
Which do you think will win in a head to head battle for "cheap hotel in paris" ?
- One big domain with 5000 backlinks
- One small domain with 1000 backlinks
Whichever you think will win is where you should place your bets.
All of my money is on the big domain.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Google Indexed Site A's Content On Site B, Site C etc
Hi All, I have an issue where the content (pages and images) of Site A (www.ericreynolds.photography) are showing up in Google under different domains Site B (www.fastphonerepair.com), Site C (www.quarryhillvet.com), Site D (www.spacasey.com). I believe this happened because I installed an SSL cert on Site A but didn't have the default SSL domain set on the server. You were able to access Site B and any page from Site A and it would pull up properly. I have since fixed that SSL issue and am now doing a 301 redirect from Sites B, C and D to Site A for anything https since Sites B, C, D are not using an SSL cert. My question is, how can I trigger google to re-index all of the sites to remove the wrong listings in the index. I have a screen shot attached so you can see the issue clearer. I have resubmitted my site map but I'm not seeing much of a change in the index for my site. Any help on what I could do would be great. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | cwscontent
Eric TeVM49b.png qPtXvME.png1 -
How to implement geo-target or hreflang a (1) website to different Asian countries?
Hi ! I have an english website targeting Asia market. Whats the proper way to implement the geo target /hreflang code that will target the entire ASIA region? I saw some suggestions to do this way (below sample) .. However, we know ASIA has a lot of countries. Is this the best practice for SEO? If this is, then do I really need to list down all the countries under Asia? Is there a better way to do this? KOREA -- :
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jasmin.calunsag
CHINA ---: etc... I would appreciate your comments and ideas. Thanks!0 -
Mobile First Index: What Could Happen To Sites w Large Desktop but Small Mobile Sites?
I have a question about how Mobile First could affect websites with separate (and smaller) mobile vs desktop sites. Referencing this SE Roundtable article (seorountable dot com /google-mobile-first-index-22953.html), "If you have less content on your mobile version than on your desktop version - Google will probably see the less content mobile version. Google said they are indexing the mobile version first." But Google/ Gary Illyes are also on the record stating the switch to mobile-first should be minimally disruptive. Does "Mobile First" mean that they'll consider desktop URLs "second", or will they actually just completely discount the desktop site in lieu of the mobile one? In other words: will content on your desktop site that does not appear in mobile count in desktop searches? I can't find clear answer anywhere (see also: /jlh-marketing dot com/mobile-first-unanswered-questions/). Obviously the writing is on the wall (and has been for years) that responsive is the way to go moving forward - but just looking for any other viewpoints/feedback here since it can be really expensive for some people to upgrade. I'm basically torn between "okay we gotta upgrade to responsive now" and "well, this may not be as critical as it seems". Sigh... Thanks in advance for any feedback and thoughts. LOL - I selected "there may not be a right answer to this question" when submitting this to the Moz community. 🙂
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mirabile0 -
Dfferent url of some other site is shown by Google in cace copy of our site's page
Hi, When i check cached copy of url of my site http://goo.gl/BZw2Zz , the url in cache copy shown by Google is of some other third party site. Why is Google showing third party url in our site's cached url. Did any of you guys faced any such issue. Regards,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vivekrathore0 -
Merging two existing company sites into one
Hi Moz community, I have recently started a new job for a Fire & Security company in the UK to help with their non existent SEO efforts. Currently they have two separate websites. One of the websites is for their services and the other website is for their eCommerce store selling fire alarm equipment etc. The eCommerce store is higher up in the SERPs and overall has a lot more links. It also uses a better branded domain name. As I have never attempted such a project I have a few questions. The current eCommerce store is hosted and maintained by another web company which uses their bespoke CMS. What I want to do is take the service website and merge it with the ecommerce domain, however the service site runs on wordpress, which I want to continue for its flexibility. The service page wants to be the new homepage with a link on it to go to the store. I just cant get my head around the whole operation so if anyone could give me some advice to point me in the right direction that would be great. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BradNichol0 -
Does it make sense to combine multiple news sites under one domain?
My company operates multiple news site brands across several markets and typically operates one website per market/brand. We've been advised that in the case of one of the newer markets, where each brand might only be publishing 3 articles a week, that combining all that market's brands under one domain will drive higher traffic from search because Google values higher article flow. Getting this done will be a lot of work. Is the juice worth the squeeze? And assuming we get the UX right and execute 301 redirects correctly, are there major risks to search traffic?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AlecD0 -
Any resources for targeting sites towards long-tail keywords or broad match traffic?
I've been looking around, but haven't had much luck finding info or case-studies on targeting long-tail keywords or broad match traffic. So, for example, trying to target a site about used toyotas. (Not my term, but provides a decent example) Theres more motivated traffic searching "2002 Toyota Camry" than "Used Toyotas". While Used Toyotas make more sense for a site theme from a visitor perspective, I would rather have an article on my site rank for the easier keyword of say Blue 2002 Toyota Camry. I make more money from long tail keywords than Used Toyotas. Any thoughts or references about increasing those rankings would be appreciated. Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MeanGiant0 -
Target Different Countries
How to target same site with same content for different countries? Any Useful tips and techniques for both on page and off page
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | cygnismedia0