I am in the insurance industry and was wondering what path to follow when creating an online presence. I have multiple product lines including annuities, HSAs, major medical, cancer insurance, etc. The purpose of the site is to generate leads both in my area and in areas where I can share leads with other agents, so geography is not really important. Is it smarter for me to create one large mega-site with multiple categories and tons of content or would it be better to create several small niche websites focusing on a specific product? I can see from Google results that sites with a specific keyword in their URL seem to have a significant advantage in rankings on minor keywords - but small niche mini-sites appear to be at a true disadvantage on single primary keywords - big sites seem to get those. Is this observation correct? Also, would it be very risky to place all my eggs into one URL? If I have many sites, one or two might do well. If I have one site and it tanks it would be very bad. Any suggestions or advise would be greatly appreciated.
I would say half the affiliate marketers like to have one large site and the other like to have a bunch of small sites. There are positives and negatives to both. I find it hard to focus on one thing for a long period of time. So having multiple sites works better for me. If one small site comes down or then all of my revenue isn't tied up. If you have one large site and your server crashes, you will lose all of your revenue while you are working on your server problems.
Either one works, It's easier to work with one large website, and easier to grow it because you have your concentration on one thing.
It's hard enough to promote the hell out of one site. But after soem ime I might branch out myself. I really don't know.
IMO, I would suggest multiple sites. You can get a bit more focused on the content of each of them as individuals than encompassing everything you do in one mega site. In addition, I think you could do a lot better by linking each of your sites (crosss promoting them) to the others as this should get each of your smaler sites more authority as opposed to having just one site with none. It also gives you an opportunity to try a variety of marketing approaches on a smaller, more manageble budget. Testing is always good. I'm no expert in this (linking & authority stuff) and I may be using some terms incorrectly, but overall my point is that diversity, if an option, is the best bet. But again, only in my opinion.
Multiple sites work for me. Where applicable, they are crosslinked. And 301 is king if you know how to use it.
Thanks very much for the input. I think I will start with a few niche sites on different servers. If that doesn't go well, I can later roll them all up into one site.
I would go with one main website you focus on then a few other websites that are smaller and in different niches so you do not just as they said above "put all your eggs in one basket" because it is always good to diversify.
I have had both a very large site and now I have heaps of sites, it really comes down to your staff, are you going solo ? if so then sticking to one or two sites is essential, if you have some staff then multiple sites can be better .... I have found that if you start another site then your original sites suffer and you spend more time on your most recent sites. Having to many sites is a trap and isn't a good idea.
Yes, but maintaining many small sites is far more time consuming ..... any updates to any scripts you are using would mean far more work....
It is what you want Development of your online venture at a faster pace then having smaller sites initially is a good idea, but then you need money for promotion and staff But if you can concentrate on 2-4 websites at a time say in 6 months time, then develop them with little or no money spend except hosting and domain fees-this is also very suitable if you are solo in your venture
You should have both. Everybody should have one large site on something extremely general like video games, clothing, make money online. then they should have minisites on smaller niches. YA DIG!?
I own a roofing site. Something else I also wanted was available. Instead of building several sites, I buy several names, 301 redirect and have all type-ins land on the same page. Try this site. http://www.albertsroofing.com Try this site http://www.slateroofspecialist.com
It's definetly a matter of choice large sites tend to have more pull and can get special perks, smaller sites tend to diversify your risks some what
One large site is easier to promote and manage, but if you are selling or promoting things which do not relate to each other then put them on separate sites.