What is the difference between a bunch of microsites and a link network?
-
Hello SEO community. I have started an online marketing company that focuses on a specific niche and have been researching how micro sites can be beneficial for SEO. For example the "Nifty" presentation mentioned how micro sites are going to be key for local seo.
However I have also heard that link networks are increasingly bad and are penalized by the Panda updated.
While we are writing good, original content for our clients, I like the microsites because:
- URL - we can choose urls for the main keywords
- Content Focus - we can focus on specific content
- Ranking - these sites seem to rank pretty well
- Citations - we are able to give citations for our clients from these sites
But am I worried, am I creating a link network? Even thought I am putting out useful, good content, is this more hurting me than helping me? Should I give up on this strategy or continue? Help!
-
I'd add the critical factor is "will this micro site stand on its own?" Meaning - is there enough unique content, value and trust for this site that it deserves to rank for its own phrases?
If the micro sites share most or all keywords or content as the main site, or if the quality of the micro site is poor, or if it is only filler content purely for liinking, there really is no difference between micro sites and a link network.
So if you want to go the route Charles describes (and I too have used with great success many times for many clients), be willing to achieve those goals. If you think you can "get away" with artificially faking it, you may get away with it for a while. However even if you do, all it takes is one manual review or an algorithm update to wipe out all of that work, and even possibly flag your site in a way that would require four times as much effort to recover.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Internal Linking: What is the best practice for pages not included in Nav bar?
I never quite understood why internal linking was such a big deal for SEO, but now I'm having second thoughts and perhaps understanding it more. I always thought since most websites have a navigation feature--usually the menu bar located at the top and often another one in the footer--that internal navigation was usually already built in to most websites and therefore, a silly topic to make a fuss over; however, I may be the silly one after all. I am now creating pages that are not included in the navigation so.... What is the best practice for this? If I am creating say, pages for certain locations and those location pages begin to number in the hundreds, it makes my navigation bar a little too cumbersome to have all those pages in a drop down menu. So I made a Locations page and just link to all those pages from that page (and from nowhere else). But now I'm wondering if this could be a bad internal linking practice and perhaps hurt my online visibility as an SEO ranking factor. Is this a crawl problem? And if so, is there a better option that provides a good visitor experience while appeasing the search engines.
Web Design | | Dino640 -
Spotted Hidden Omiod Links in Footer - What do you think is Going on Here?
Hi guys, Hoping one of you have come across this before. While taking a look at the source code for a website I've recently started working on, I spotted some 'display:none' code in the footer of the page. Here's a snapshot of the code: close XMETAhead title : 404 Page Not Found | ( 39 chrs ) [http://www.omiod.com/chrome-extensions/meta-seo-inspector/info.php?meta=description&cont=404 Page Not Found.](<a href=)" title="more about description" target="_blank" class="ad_seo_link">description : 404 Page Not Found( 170 chrs )[http://www.omiod.com/chrome-extensions/meta-seo-inspector/info.php?meta=keywords&cont=404, 404 error page,](<a href=) " title="more about keywords" target="_blank" class="ad_seo_link">keywords : 404, 404 error page ( 7 items )SCRIPT![](<a href=)http://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.google-analytics.com">www.google-analytics.com http://www.google-analytics.com/ga.js <div< a="">class="ad_seo_title">HTML5 report</div<>Doctype is not HTML5, there are no HTML5 tags, but at least no obsolete HTML tags were found. 1/5
Web Design | | ecommercebc0 -
Too Many Outbound Links on the Home Page - Bad for SEO?
Hello Again Moz community, This is my last Q of the day: I have a LOT of outbound links on the home page of www.web3.ca Some are to clients projects, most are to other pages on the website. Can reducing this to the core pages have a positive impact on SEO? Thanks, Anton
Web Design | | Web3Marketing870 -
Optimal Link Structure - Internal Reciprocal Links
Reading the moz article on internal links, it mentions that the optimal link structure for a website should look like a pyramid. Are these one-way links or reciprocal links? Does it matter when trying to get keyword optimized pages to rank*? If so, under what conditions should one be used instead of the other. Related:
Web Design | | atomike238
Are internal reciprocal links weaker than one way? Whiteboard Friday - Sitewide, Reciprocal, and Directory Links I am trying to get the right pages to rank for their corresponding keywords, but under the On-Page optimization, the pages are ranking for the wrong keyword.0 -
Using a query string for linked, static landing pages - is this good practice?
My company has a page with links for each of our dozen office locations as well as a clickable map. These offices are also linked in the footer of every page along with their phone number. When one of these links is clicked, the visitor is directed to a static page with a picture of the office, contact information, a short description, and some other information. The URL for these pages is displayed as something like http:/example.com/offices.htm?office_id=123456, with seemingly random ID numbers at the end depending on the office that remain static. I know first off that this is probably bad SEO practice, as the URL should be something like htttp://example.com/offices/springfield/ My question is, why is there a question mark in the page URL? I understand that it represents a query string, but I'm not sure why it's there to begin with. A search query should not required if they are just static landing pages, correct?. Is there any reason at all why they would be queries? Is this an issue that needs to be addressed or does it have little to no impact on SEO?
Web Design | | BD690 -
Simple Wordpress Question regarding Footer Link
I have a client with a site that has the company that built their website's link in the footer. How can I remove this? I am pretty proficient with Wordpress but I am drawing a blank. The site is www.northatlantacleaning.com Thanks and I do extend the courtesy of awarding 'Best Answer' and thumbs up etc to good responses.
Web Design | | Atlanta-SMO0 -
Two Different IP Addresses For Different Parts Of One Site Okay?
I have a client who has a site in Drupal and, for reasons too complicated to go iinto, wants to host part of the site in Wordpress from a different server. So it would be like oldsiteexample.com being in Drupal and the new oldsiteexample.com/marketing and everything below /marketing being in wordpress on a different server, obviously with a different IP address. Are there SEO considerations in this? The existing oldsiteexample.com has a lot of authority/rank/traffic and don't want to inadvertently risk that. Thanks... Darcy
Web Design | | 945010 -
Is there any difference in using an underscore vs. a dash in the directory portion of the url?
A friend who is a software developer asked this question regarding the directory portion of the url: Is it better to use dashes or underscores? I know in the domain name Matt Cutts recommends dashes, but what about the directory extension?
Web Design | | RobertFisher0