What is Better – 1 Website or Many Specialty Websites for Multiple Themes?
Today I received a question from Kim at Cradle Mountain Highlanders in Tasmania asking how we might improve results for Members in Tasmania (BTW: I’m the webmaster for Golden Chain Motels).
I also made some suggestion to Judy on a Tasmanian website for Tassie members only. Tassie is a destination itself as a whole state and we could have a single site where potential Tassie travellers can organise their trip accommodation. I will have to talk to the other members about this when I see them.
Anyway, thanks and regards, Kim
Let’s Look at Results
When I search for ‘Motels in Tasmania‘, Google replies with ‘about 200,000 websites found for motels in tasmania. (0.14 seconds)’. The Golden Chain site is listed in the 18th position and the link goes to a member page for Swansea Motor Inn. A good, or bad result depending on prospective. 1st position for every relevant search would be our ideal goal.
In general, websites get 70 to 85 percent of visitors from Search Engines. So, when we want to make improvements we usually think about changes in terms of how they affect Search Engine Results. If we create a specialty website for Tasmania, will it out perform the main website?
In fact, every web-master is faced with the same question, ‘If I have many websites, will I get a better result than having one big website?”. Why not create a lot of specialty websites; each with a different focus on every region and topic relevant to Golden Chain.
What’s Going On with Search? Possible Solutions
Google has a process called ‘Page Rank’ (named after founder Larry Page). It is a well guarded secret that Google uses to sort and rank results. There are a lot of theories on how to ‘work’ Google. Google would like to say that their results from us building the best and most relevant websites.
Content and Keywords
Search Results start with the most basic element: Are the words from the Search on the Website. Then, Are the Words Emphasized on the Pages to indicate strongly that the content is related to the Search. If we were to increase the Content on the Golden Chain website with more content about Tasmania that is keyword rich, unique and interesting to read – that could improve results a lot. Writing info that is unique and relevant is a task that could be managed for a reasonable cost if Members would contribute.
Inbound Links
Once we’ve done our best to have unique and relevant content, there will still be hundreds or thousands of websites with similar content. Google then looks off the website for other factors to determine ranking. Most important is inbound links. Having a really big website already gives you lots of inbound links because links within your own website count for something, albeit not a lot. The best links come to you from other websites – especially highly ranked ‘authority’ websites.
Getting inbound links is where the One Big website theory makes sense. With One Big website, you get inbound links from all over the country and the cumulative affect is very good for everyone. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work on locality specific strategies to get inbound links. In fact, we want links to our internal pages and not just the Home Page. We can get links to ‘Motels in Tasmania’ that link to our Tassie section. That will raise our position in results.
Watch Out for Reciprocal Links
By the way, Google likes one-way links better than reciprocal links. You might think it would be important for all Members to link to the Group website, but I believe we do Members a better service by linking one-way to the Member’s website. The Group should use it’s muscle to get inbound links from other sources. Then, we not only raise the Group website in search results, but we also transfer positive value to the Member’s Individual website.
But, creating a second Tassie Specific Website Could Have Advantages
Undoubtedly, a second Tassie Specific website could be tailored to a specific message Tasmanian message. It might be advertised in a different way. Perhaps web masters in the world would be quicker to give it free inbound links because they just like the content more. The domain name would also be more targeted to the subject.
As a group within the Group; Tasmania Golden Chain Members might see this as an opportunity to buy ads together. You could have targeted landing pages and content that would improve Pay Per Click Advertising. Also, since the Tassie Members are paying for the ads, they would get more exclusive advantage from the results.
Conclusion
My opinion is that for the extra costs to make and maintain a specialty Tassie website, you would get better outcomes spending that money on ads. I would buy ads with links on major travel websites relevant to Tasmania. With more inbound links pointing to your Tasmania pages on the Group website, visitors will increase. At the same time, I would work as a group to develop unique content about Tasmanian towns and regions, and thinks to do. Uploading content to the website is easy, it is gathering the information that is hard. Perhaps you could hire a travel writer?