One big site or multiple smaller sites?

[Shane]

I'm keen to get some opinions on this...

Let's say you had one relatively large site that was ranking well for terms related to a certain industry.

Now you want to rank for some other terms which are in the same industry, but different part of that industry.

Do you think it would be better to add to your existing site, or build a new site?

I would think its better to build out the existing site that is already performing well, but I'm still seeing that smaller and more focused websites are outperforming other much larger sites in many cases.

Does anyone have any experience with this or thoughts, opinions etc...?

Thanks.

PS. I'm not talking about mini-sites. It's more about the smaller sites that have say 10 or 20 pages of good solid content compared with the 100+ pages of a big site.

 

[findtim]

I'm say 10 or 20 pages of good solid content

if you are going to do that many pages then i think its worth it to use a different domain name, i've done it ( and building another 2 now ) with ecommerce sites with success, same target market but different products thus different descriptions, prices, brand, phone address etc

tim

 

[James]

First question is how competitive is the industry.

In the current Google climate it is good to build a big site and focus quality content for that site. Especially if the sections of content are semi related.

Now building smaller sites with 10-20 pages can be done but I would only do that if its a different niche, and I would set the sites up with caution I have some tips here for that - https://www.dntrade.com.au/57582-post16.html

 

[findtim]

but different part of that industry

thats the unknown for me to advise on appropriate action.

if its building, then is it "wood house v brick house" or is it "roof tiles v plumbing" ?

different houses or COMPLETELY different building sectors ?

tim

 

[Shane]

The industry is business insurance, which is super competitive, but I'm doing okay...

So I have one site which targets business insurance in general, which does quite well, but it seems that the smaller sites rank better in the niches such as cafe insurance, trade insurance etc etc.

Personally I'm using both strategies at the moment - building out the big site and also adding smaller specialist sites - but I'm just interested in getting some other thoughts.

Tim I think what you said about different phone numbers and addresses is important.

I like having phone numbers prominently displayed as I believe it gives credibility, but where do you stop with additional 1300 and 1800 numbers?

I have four different 1300 and 1800 numbers at the moment, but it starts to get a little difficult to manage when they're all coming through to a single office phone!

 

[findtim]

but it starts to get a little difficult to manage when they're all coming through to a single office phone!

if they are all insurance then just answer "hello insurance" or something basic, then ask what product they wanted not what domain they came from.

tim

 

[Shane]

They all come through to our main business phone which takes upwards of 40 calls a day, so we have to answer it with our proper business name.

What I'd really love is a system that shows the 1800/1300 number which is being called so that our receptionist can answer them accordingly, but I imagine that wouldn't be too cheap.

 

[johno69]

What I'd really love is a system that shows the 1800/1300 number which is being called so that our receptionist can answer them accordingly, but I imagine that wouldn't be too cheap.

Get some Skype numbers and divert the 1300/1800's to the Skype, you can login to multiple Skype accounts at the same time and will be able to tell which number they are calling.

This is a cheap alternative.

 

[Link]

Shane - I met http://www.delacon.com.au/ at SMX Sydney. I haven't looked at it much deeper, but they did some pretty cool things with their demo they showed me.

Having worked on bigger sites and smaller sites I definitely prefer to put most of my effort into a bigger high authority site. But if the management of the smaller sites is just adding content, and if you have the resources to do it, then I would see that working in some small, targeted niches.

 

[Shane]

Thanks Luke, that's probably the most interesting thing I've seen all week!

I haven't come across the concept of the 'call whisper' before, but it would seem to solve the phone issue perfectly.

Cheers.

 

[Ash]

You can also look at Jet Interactive for something similar.