How to Grow From a Mini-Site Into an Empire
Whether you a beginning a new online enterprise or adding to your already existing business with an Internet presence, the size and scope of the firts website you choose to build will be among your first decisions. A large site has its advantages, among them that it has the potential of becoming an “authority” site. However, a small site, often called a mini-site has its share of advantages, as well.
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. I’ve noticed that most of the other businesses with whom I’ll be competing have small sites, and it seems to work for them.
5. It is easier and cheaper to build a mini-site.
6. My husband or wife forbids me 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. The fourth reason is niche specific, and I don’t know what niche you are in; you’re the expert on your niche, so I’ll take your word for it. If we hold all other variables constant, the fifth reason is a slam-dunk-self-evidently true.
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.
That leaves the second reason pertaining to starting on a small scale and adding more mini-sites within the same general niche over a period of time. Here’s how I recommend you go about that:
1. Keep that original list of keywords on your desktop-the list that you hired expert keyword researches to build or that you carefully built yourself.
2. You have already set up your first site for closely related keywords in that list that have long tails. Now look for another set of closely related keywords. 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. Get links to this site through article marketing, directory listings and other external link building.
4. As soon as that new site is showing signs of improved search engine attention and increased traffic, continue going through the same process until you have as many sites as your keyword list dictates.
Over time you will find that you have conquered all of the viable keywords in your niche. At that point, pause in your empire building efforts, so that you can focus on testing and revising to increase your conversion rates as much as possible. 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.