Detlev is modding up this session.
I may leave this session early, to prep for the Search Pulse podcast at 7pm (EST) at WebmasterRadio.FM.
Bill Hanekamp from Microsite.com is up first. He said he is a fan of micro sites and they absolutely work. He defines a microsite and pulls it from the wikipedia. He shows off Philips site for the USA. When Philips wanted to sell a shaver, they made a microsite named shaveeverywhere.com. Microsites work, because anything a corporate site does, a microsite can do better. Google is smarter than we are. Google makes a lot of money by providing the best search results. Thus, Our goal is to make microsites that are relevant to visitors. Harvard Law School case study for a negotiation microsite, again I hate covering case studies...sorry. also, need to do SearchCap now while in this session. Sorry for skipping it...
Abhilash Patel from Passages Malibu is up now, he says he doesnt build many microsites. Some pitfalls to avoid is running mini site networks succeed only to dilute their resources and traffic. Benefits of launching a microsite: - Duplicate content - More sites = more traffic and sales, sometimes - Test new marketing strategies - Experiment with aggressive SEO Difficulties of multisite: - Duplicate content - More sites = more work - More linking needed - Original content and creativity is hard to scale Questions to As Prior to Launch - How competitive is that vertical? - Budget and human resources needed? - Quantify the traffic opportunity Reasons The Network Could Fail - Original content - Don't divide and conquer your own resources - Obvious linking between all your microsites - Brothers & Sisters effect - Same server, same class C ip address Is Your Network Transparent? - Registration info - Matt Cutts at PubCon on Webmaster Profiles - Competitive Webmastering by Graywolf and Andy Hagans - Use reverse IP Lookups for competitive analysis What Else Is On Your IP? Your Other Sites? - How much do the search engines use this IP stuff in their algorithms - If your goal is rankings, keep the sites separate - If your goal is branding and identity, your OK Ways To Build Your Network - Use copyrighters - Contact your own link neighborhoods - Acquire a site - Whois everything - Expire domains
Sally Falkow from Expansion Plus. She is giving case studies... errr...Ill skip this one also, sorry folks.
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