Multiple Websites for a Large Home Service Company
-
I have a client who offers multiple services, the current website is already huge because they have added on so many new offerings in the last year and want everything above the fold. As I am building out the sitemap for a re-design, they continue to add more services. (HVAC, Plumbing, Solar, Windows, Electrical) I am working on a sitemap for a re-build, but I am still well over 100 pages deep with huge menu's. **My question is what are the SEO pros/cons of breaking the site up into multiple websites? **
-
Hi Lauren,
Also wanted to add a link to a related discussion here:
https://mza.seotoolninja.com/community/q/does-multiple-sites-that-relate-to-one-company-hurt-seo
-
Moosa,
Thank you for responding! That's a good point about the listings. Although they do have three physical locations we can use. I am planning to lay out all of the pres and cons and present to them tomorrow.
-
There are always pros and cons for it!
Pros are that you will get a chance to target certain type of audience on one particular website. This means you will be able to create more targeted content around the specific type of audience instead of writing web copy keeping multiple audiences in mind.
You can easily target more powerful keywords that tar related to specific niche which is otherwise difficult on a website that convers multiple niches.
As the websites will be more targeted, it will be easier for you to complete within search engine from competitors and rank on the first page for targeted key phrases.
Cons have a list too! It’s not easy to come up with multiple sites as multiple sites means more and more content specific for every niche which can shoot your initial expense like anything.
Multiple websites means multiple SEO campaigns this can again put a huge dent on your initial marketing budget. If there will be one website, there will be one SEO campaign which can lead you towards the conversion in the longer run.
If it’s a local business, you cannot add multiple websites for one business page (I guess) and you cannot create multiple business pages as probably your physical location is the same.
I think the best idea is to see how your audience will react if you come up with multiple websites as compare for having one website for all services. Also what is more beneficial for your brand name. Once you have the answer you can take decisions accordingly.
Hope this helps!
-
No problem Lauren, happy to help.
I did just remember a working example of a strong company here in Aus that has split their services across multiple niche sites, no doubt for all the reasons I listed. They do rank very well for each of their niches; usually #1.
The site is http://www.carsales.com.au/. You can find their other sites under the "Our Sites" menu item in the top right corner of the nav and also under "Sites" in the footer.
This is about the best compromise I can think of, though I'd be hesitant about those followed links between each site. If you went this route, I'd suggest making them nofollow at least.
Best of luck with the campaign!
-
Thanks Chris, I appreciate the response. They were the dominate for years with HVAC and then started adding tons of pages into what is now a hamburger menu when they added Plumbing and then Windows last year. PPC budgets are high, and SEO/site management budget is not an issue but I am concerned about the point you made about the user experience...and not being able to link between sites. Thanks again for the feedback!
-
The pros and cons can both be quite compelling here so it usually comes down to a question of budget and available manhours.
Pros
Targeted niche sites allow the client to be far more specific about exactly what it is that they do. This can make them far more competitive in that particular niche. As an example, one of our clients installs fake grass in commercial applications and outranks the largest national hardware chain here in Aus simply because he does one thing very well while the hardware chain sells thousands of products.
It also makes the site much easier to manage and browse from the user perspective while also being easier on the crawl budget as well.
Cons
Multiple websites means multiple SEO campaigns. You have to duplicate all of your effort for everything from page titles and meta descriptions to content and link profiles. If you have 10 micro-sites then your time investment will increase 10x!
Thinking of the user experience, you may miss out on same conversions and/or upselling if users only visit one of these niche sites and don't realise that you provide several other services that they're after as well. Sometimes, being able to get everything they need done by a single company can be a very strong selling point. Much like paying 1 renovation company to do your entire reno rather than orchestrating 20 different suppliers and service providers.
There are ways to manage this second point to some extent like including badges or a list of other services you provide, though I would warn against inter-linking between each of these sites.
So, if you have the time and resources to put into it, you're likely to see greater success from multiple small sites but for more businesses, this just isn't viable. In that case, a well structured site and navigation is going to be your best bet, as well as strong and relevant internal linking from blog posts and building backlinks directly to those category pages from their respective industries.
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
-
Proper SEO structure for Franchise/ Franchisee websites
Hi Neighbors, Franchise website design and development can be difficult, there’s no doubt about it. I had to find the right balance between a unique and unified brand identity, and a localized experience that accurately reflects the individual franchisees and their efforts. Due to the many benefits, I have structured the to read _domain.com/location _ domain.com = TLD /location = subfolder (location page) I have also built a customized CMS (e.g. Drupal) and have given each location access to manage their location page (subfolder). To accommodate local SEO optimization, franchisees have complete control in terms of optimizing their location page (subfolder). Title tags, meta description, Alt tags, etc... Will any local optimization performed in the subfolder (location page) be stiffened because it was not done in the TLD but in the subfolder ?
Local Website Optimization | | Jeffvertus1 -
Redirecting to HTTPS for web design companies
Hello, We redirected our website about 3 months ago to https from http and noticed a drop in rankings after about 2 weeks. Unfortunately, our rankings have not yet recovered. Can anyone recommend a solutions? The website is https://www.web3.ca/ Do we have to build a lot of new links to https if we currently have links that are pointing to http, for the most part? Also, could the switch effect anchor text links? For example, if we have a link to web design, but the links is pointing to http, instead of https, would that link have less value now? Thanks, Anton Vasiliv
Local Website Optimization | | Web3
Creative Director
Web30 -
Multiple My Business pages affecting local SEO?
Hey Moz! We have a situation with a dentist firm with multiple doctors at the same address. They have two locations for their dental offices, and each of the dentists operate at both offices. The issue: Each doctor insists on having their own by business page for each location and i'm afraid this is hurting their local SEO. We've been tracking keywords by week and we've seen some big fluctuations in ratings and i'm looking into why this is happening. The office in location 1 has it's own Google My Business page and the three dentists have their own my business page set up at the exact same address. The office in location 2 has it's own Google My Business page as well and the three dentists have their own my business page there also. This leads the two addresses of the main offices having multiple My Business pages at the same address competing against eachother since they are all are registered with similar names and specialties. Could this be hurting our local SEO? Thanks! -Z
Local Website Optimization | | zacgarrison_700 -
Migrating to new website with new name and new content
Hi for the past few years I have been running a personal training company from the following domain name www.smpt.me. This has done well in the past and so has some authority in google as it was ranking well on page 1. Over the last 6 months I have set up a new website with some new business partners using the domain name www.healthbyscience.co.uk. This new website, whilst still a personal training website, has different content to the original. We want to use the new website rather than the old one and therefore my question is how I can use the old website to assist with the new website. Thanks
Local Website Optimization | | Health-by-Science0 -
A question about similar services a multiple locations
Moz Friends, I hope you can help with this question. My company has 25 locations, and growing. Our rankings are strong in the Serps and Local Maps. With each location, we create a new page (with a unique URL) for that specific location (ex: Thriveworks.com/knoxville-counseling). We then write about 15 pages of unique content for that location, each page about one of the services we provide like: Depression Counseling, Couples Therapy, Anger Management, Eating Disorder Treatment, Life Coaching, Child Therapy, and the list goes on and on.... Hence, for each location, we create a pile of URLS like: Thriveworks.com/knoxville-counseling/couples-therapy, ..../knoxville-counseling/depression-therapy, .../knoxville-counseling/anger-management... We do this to rank for medium-long-tail searches like "Knoxville Marriage Therapy." As we grow, this results in us writing lots and lots of original content for each location. Original, but somewhat redundant. We would much rather write one AMAZING article on depression counseling, than 25 'okay' ones for each office we open. So, my question (if you're still reading) is our current approach the right one? Should we continue the grind and for each location create a unique page for each service offered out of that office? Or is there a better way, where we can create One anger management page that would suffice for each of our local offices? Has anyone addressed this topic in an article? I Haven't found one... I look forward to your feedback, and thanks in advance!!
Local Website Optimization | | Thriveworks-Counseling0 -
Multiple Domains for Real Estate
Hi, We have 10 different website for our apartments. I am thinking about consolidating them all into 1 website. Is this a good or bad idea? I think it would be good as we would get all the authority for the 1 domain so it would be easier to get new apartments ranked but I am not too sure. I am trying to optimize for local SEO. I am pretty sure that consolidating them is the best option but I would like to be certain about it before we make the investment.
Local Website Optimization | | Jon_B0 -
NAP question about wider service area
My business is based in Suffolk, UK, but I serve an area that includes Essex, Cambs, Herts and Norfolk. I've been making an effort to include a constant NAP across all my local citations for Suffolk in an effort to rank better in local search.
Local Website Optimization | | schitz011
However, what effect does this have on pages when trying to rank for searches for areas where I have no physical location? If my entire site has NAP across it referencing Suffolk, does this impact the ability to rank organically for areas outside Suffolk? If so, what would be the best practice for increasing organic rank in these areas?0 -
Potential sexaual harrassement issues in adding home address to website
Hello Google Local Experts I'm a little stress, to put it mildly. I have been working hard to get to grips with Google+ and Google Local. I have followed all the advice on Moz that I can lay me hands on. Following advice, I have added my private address (in rich text snippets) to the header of my own site. I've not felt particularly comfortable about doing that, but it's clearly one of the messages Google Local requires to be sure that your site is authentic. My concerns got concrete last evening when a new follower on Google+ started to send me private messages - culminating in asking where I lived. Despite family demands I went straight to my site and removed my house number. Now I know I'm messing up my NAP - but Ahh - my About section points straight to my site which at that point had my full address in Bold on each page of my site. I really am upset about this and think that Google should be rethinking their demand for displaying a companies address on the site. If you are self employed you are put in a vulnerable position which is morally questionable. Please would someone give me some advice on the best way to address my worries in the short term? Please could someone with a bit of clout point this potentail danger to women out to the powers that be in Google?
Local Website Optimization | | catherine-2793882