Building my business profile

[DarrenC]

I could do with some advice from you all.

I have 3 websites;

1 to promote holiday homes for rent
2 to provide holidaymakers with useful advice and information
3 to provide holiday homeowners with useful advice and information

The main site is 1) with 2) and 3) as sites to promote site 1) and bring in both new clients and new holidaymakers to site. Each site has a different name, but I would like to have one business name, that incorporates each of the websites.

A few questions

1) Would this be a good idea?
2) Can you think of anything negative about this idea?
3) What's the best way to link this sites from an SEO perspective
4) Would it be easier to promote one business that includes 3 "subsites"
5) Would you design a website which promotes all 3 sites in the new business name?
6) Can you see this confusing clients and holidaymakers?

Any advice would be appreciated.
Darren

[Rob]

Darren,

Before I give you my thoughts on your questions just one point first. You say that sites 2 and 3 are to promote the main site. It seems that before you start you are labeling these sites as mere ‘introducers’ instead of stand-alone sites that will offer quality information thereby creating credibility. Starting off with this mindset may lessen your view of the purpose of the sites – they have to offer information first and foremost – any link back to the main site has to be secondary from the visitors perspective. A visit to your main sites will come naturally if the info you provide is of use.

Turning to your questions:

1) Good idea to have 3 sites? Yes. Each site has its own purpose and mini-sites are becoming more popular. As a business / web site develops then over time the site tends to become overcrowded and the core message or product gets lost. If you can clearly carve out separate messages and information that would justify a separate site then I think it’s a good idea.

2) Anything negative? It will take time for the sub sites to gain traffic and credibility but then if you are not prepared to be patient you shouldn’t be in business!

3) Best way to link the sites – include a link on each site to the others and as long as one of them gets picked up by the search engines then the others will be indexed fairly quickly. The real issue is not linking but how to drive traffic to the sites but that’s a bigger topic. Other SEO considerations come into play as well – keywords and phrases, reciprocal links, meta tags etc – all of which are covered in other parts of this forum

4) Promote one business to include the 3 subsites – yes. You have a better chance of increasing profile and traffic if you promote all the sites in one place instead of individually i.e. e-mail signatures should quote all the sites, as should your stationery

5) Design a website that promotes all 3 sites – do you mean a 4th site which has the sole purpose of mentioning the others? Don’t see the point of doing that. Would be a lot of hard work to attract visitors. Your time would be better spent on promoting the main sites

6) Confusing clients – no, as long as each site is standalone and is not a repetition of the other. From what you have said each site will have its own identity and provide distinct information so that should be clear

On sites 2 and 3, where you are going to provide information and advice, don’t be tempted to give away all your secrets ‘for free’. The aim of a web site is not only to provide information it is also a tool for you to build up a mailing list of people who have expressed an interest in your product.

Write a report or ebook alone the lines of ‘10 Things You Have to Know If You Want Rent Your Holiday Home’ or ‘The Secrets of Building a Hugely Profitable Holiday Home Business’. Offer the free report on the appropriate site and people have to request the download. You then have an opportunity to build a relationship and provide more information on your key product on a one-to-one basis.

Hope this helps.

[DarrenC]

Wow Rob - superb post! Thank you very much, it has given me something to work on.

You mentioned about not designing a 4th site - your right it would be a waste of time because I want 100% attention on these 3 mini sites, but how would people know what 'ABC Business' was about if it didnt have a home? How would I raise it's profile without a logo etc on a website?

Basically these 3 mini sites would form the new business.

Darren

[Rob]

I'd operate all sites with the same logo. Sites 2 and 3 could say 'holiday advice blah blah, brought to you by ABC' the company which offers the best ......'

You could also have an 'about us' page common to all sites which summarises what you do and furtehr links back to the other sites.

Keep a common 'feel' to all the sites so you can build up some brand recognition.