Is it Preferable to Create Mini Sites or Authority Sites?

Online marketers have been debating the choice between an authority site or minisite for years. One thing to keep in mind is search engines naturally want to give their users good content. While all business owners will do what they basically want to do, it is understandable that an owner will follow their marketing instincts and goals. While only operating with a network of minisites, that approach does require a certain amount of risk and greater effort. Although you can more successfully do that with an authority site. But minisites do have their uses and can be skillfully promoted for profit. Just remember that with minisites, you will be restricted to the lower tier of keyword phrases - the long tail phrases as they are called. Even amidst all the uproar, albeit a quiet one at that, over what Google is doing, there are people still reporting very positive results with the use of mini sites. All sites require careful planning and research, but the minisites have an inherently narrower margin for error. What keyword phrases you build your minisite around will pretty much mean the difference between a profitable endeavor or a bomb. Even though a minisite can have a high search engine position on page one, you will need many of them to accumulate significant traffic numbers. Google changes it formulas and policies from time to time, based on their preferences and calculations. Mini sites, or sites without much content, are definitely going down in popularity with Google, which, in 2010, has been favoring authority sites. Just like with pay per click advertising, you will incur a lower quality score if your site is deemed, thin. You can still do something with SEO and mini sites, but you will have to work harder at it. The same efforts that would have gotten you lots of traffic earlier this year or before will get you less now. Unfortunately, that has become a fact of SEO and Google life. There are particular circumstances in which a mini site could work well. You could choose to target another nation, where there's less competition for your niche and rank well for your mini site. It would be best to find a host in that country for your mini site, and then you could optimize it locally. Your results, of course, will depend on many factors, such as your product, the demand and the competition, so you have to do your research and testing. You can also keep in mind that Google does not have a total monopoly when it comes to search engines. It's always possible to optimize your sites with other search engines, like Bing in mind, even if they're not as big as Google. That's something to try if you want your mini sites to be profitable. More people than you realize have wondered if a network of minisites is better than one big authority site. These questions tend to get asked, more often, by those who have not had a lot of time spent in IM. Different things appeal to different people for all kinds of reasons. If you feel more attracted to mini sites, then that is what you should build.