Microsites can be utilized for a plethora of different reasons. When a company creates a new product, they may make an entirely new website to help with the promotional side of their business. In fact, it only makes sense to create a microsite in some circumstances. Before explaining how these sites can be used to help your SEM strategies, let’s see what these microsites actually do.
Microsite Usages
Microsites are different websites, typically a new domain or a subdomain in some cases, which can be used to help a business promote itself in a new way. Perhaps a business is now running a new charity event every year where they give away a certain amount of products. This would be a prime example of a case where a microsite may be able to fit into their SEM strategy. A new site would be created for that specific charity event.
The main goal of a microsite is to provide a new avenue of promotion. If you are now selling skateboards when you used to sell merely clothing, the need for a new microsite filled with skateboard information may be acceptable. In fact, microsites can function completely on their own, but they usually direct the visitor to your main domain at some point. However, this is not always necessary.
The Microsite Army
Think of microsites as extensions of your main website. If you are a gardener, you may have a plethora of information on different types of plants, flowers or planting techniques. A microsite would focus on one particular flower or maybe a particular genera. The goal would be to have this website rank in the search results as a completely separate entity from your website.
Oftentimes, these sites will also have their own SEO campaigns ran on them as well as delve into PPC. This is the ideal way to introduce a new product or service and it can be very profitable when it is carried out correctly.
Microsite Ranking Advantages
Some SEO professionals will have these microsites link back to your main domain. When done correctly, they can also have a positive effect on your search engine rankings. However, this has to be done precisely or it can be seen as SEO manipulation. There always has to be a goal of these sites so that they are not merely made for link juice purposes, but actually provide some form of substance.
A microsite that was created properly will be able to help a company increase their overall exposure as well as their sales. These are merely extensions of your main website that can provide the extra exposure a company needs to increase their profits.