There’s a great article over on SEOmoz today about whether it’s best to have one single authority site or a bunch of smaller niche sites. Their feeling is that the authority site is best. It’s easier to build links to. Search engines tend to respect authority sites more. Visitors may trust them more because they know the name.

My own way to work has more or less been to mix the two up. I have some big domains, but in some cases I’ve split off a smaller domain to focus on a particular niche within the topic of the bigger site.

Generally this relates to how each site is marketed and what I’m trying to do with the site. When I want an authority site, the concern is mostly giving the best information. But there have been times that I would rather focus more on sales than on information, and so the smaller niche site comes into play

I find it works pretty well in some cases. You can think of it as the difference between the soft sell and the hard sell, if you like, although I wouldn’t say I do too hard a sell on any of my sites.

When you read the article, make sure you read the comments. There are some really great ones in there, especially relating to when each one is best. For example, a smaller niche can convert better because it is so much more focused. This can relate to relevancy and giving the site visitors more precisely what they want.

As I see it, there are two ways to work this. You can have a large site that is primarily informational, and the niche sites can be more focused on making sales, or the large site can be about sales, and the niche sites give more detailed information. I’m not really sure which would be the best answer.

But one of the keys is to always try to make the sites linkable. You want people noticing your content. More informational sites can act as presellers for your selling sites.

But always keep in mind that you want to be able to sell again and again to your customer list whenever possible. The large site can have the advantage of offering more. On the other hand, good use of autoresponders on smaller sites can bring things together.

No matter what you do, keep your mind on a few things: The needs of your site visitors, the quality you offer and how much time you really have to manage your sites.

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