In this article we discuss how to use minisites or mini websites to expand your market reach on the internet. Mini-sites when used correctly can greatly improve your online success. We have many clients that use the mini-site advantages outlined below.
Mini Site Definition Mini Site Development Uses Mini Website Success Advantages Mini Websites Using Keyword Domains
Mini Site Definition
What is a Mini site or a Mini Website? A Mini site is quite simply a term used by the website development industry meaning a "SMALL FOCUSED WEBSITE". There is a little more to it than that and we will discuss this later when we talk about "Mini site Development uses" and "Mini Website Success Advantages". But first let us continue with the Mini site or Mini-website definition. Usually a Mini-Site is less than 5 pages, I hear you say but many websites are less than 5 pages! That is correct, but here is the main difference between a Mini site and a normal website; it centres around the website content focus. A full or "Normal Website" features ALL the aspects of your company or products and services. A Mini site only features 1 or a few of your products or services and this means it has a narrow focus. A full or Normal Website has a full or broad focus. So it is fair to say that the main difference between a Mini site and a Website is one has a niche focus and the other is all encompassing so actually it has little to do with the number of pages.
Mini Site Development Uses Mini Site Development uses are very varied and I will give you some good examples here. Remember we referred to FOCUS. Probably the best way to explain Mini Site focus is to take an industry and break it down and then you will be able to see many examples where Mini Site Development could help your business. Lets look at a department store; they sell Furniture, Bedding, Computers, Appliances etc. Someone like Harvey Normans is a perfect example. We could develop a Mini Site for Appliances and optimise it for the niche part of their business and drive traffic from people looking for Appliances to Harvey Normans main website. It is far easier to have a Mini Site rate well for niche areas, than it is the have a full website rate well for ALL the areas of their business. Even though Appliances are a niche part of Harvey Normans business, it can get broken down to an even smaller niche. Lets say we built a website for White Ware, it is easier to optimise a website for white ware than it is to cover all Appliances, so its is a niche within a niche ;-). You have cottoned on now I know and you are thinking what about a Mini Site for Fridges or Washing Machines.... Exactly these are even more focused.
Now we will look at another Mini Site Development use where we are not interested in product niches but rather the different way people search for your product or service. A good example of this is the Rental car industry. To rate well on Google for Rental Cars in New Zealand is Very Very difficult and highly competitive. Rental Car Companies spend thousands on website development and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) in an attempt to gain market share. So how do we compete on a small budget? With Mini Site Development that's how - let me explain. Lets say you are starting a nationwide rental car company called "TLD CAR RENTALS LTD", it will be near impossible to rate well for all areas of New Zealand so we can build a Mini Site for Rental Cars Wellington and Rental Cars Queenstown etc etc. This is known as Geo Mini Site Development or Geographic Location Focus. Some of the more successful Rental Car companies in New Zealand have up to 30 Mini Sites built to cover the regions around NZ where they do business.
Another search focus Mini Site strategy can be around VALUE. If we stick to the Rental Car business example and we want to focus on the backpacker market (Huge and Growing!) then we can build a Mini Site focusing on Backpacker Car Rentals or Cheap Rental Cars (We did this for one of our clients and it now drives 90% of all his traffic to his main website - from one cost effective Mini Site!- Cool Eh)
Be SURE to read the last article on this page about "Mini Sites Using Keyword Domains - VERY POWERFUL INTERNET MARKETING!!!
Mini Website Success Advantages Mini Websites have a huge and under utilised list of advantages. Lets say you have a successful business selling sporting equipment. However you have one frustration and that is your competition is getting all the Air Rifle business despite your marketing efforts. As frustrating as this is, there is really a simple answer; build a Mini Site and have this site focused solely on Air Rifles - list all the brands and their history on separate pages, good use of keywords and content rich pages etc etc (Sorry started to flow of into Search Engine Optimisation SEO - another huge topic!) Anyway you get the idea, you can use this approach for any area of your business that needs a boost. We challenge anyone to tell us that the Internet is not the future for almost every business! The Printed Directory Book Is DEAD!
Mini Websites Using Keyword Domains You are about to learn a very powerful secret! Take all that you read on this page and multiply it by 10!!! If you build a Mini Site using a Keyword Domain Name that describes the niche product or service you are marketing, your chances for being found on the FIRST PAGE OF GOOGLE are greatly increased. In the "Mini Sites Development Uses" section we talked about building a Mini Site to help Harvey Norman boost their White Ware sales, if you use the Keyword Domain Name www.WhiteWare.co.nz then your chances of success increase enormously. The reasons why Keywords are so powerful for Mini Sites are covered in the Domain Name Secrets article. The Rental Car Company example used city location domains for the Mini Site, the Geo Domain Name article covers this. The example of the Rental Car company would use www.RentalCarsQueenstown.co.nz or www.RentalCarsWellington.co.nz Grow your business!TLD can help your business GROW by developing 1 or more Mini Sites using Keyword Loaded Domain Names - its not rocket science but you need to know the Secrets and be prepared to do the work and allow time for the strategies to take hold. We specialise in the development of: GOOGLE FRIENDLY KEYWORD DOMAIN NAME DRIVEN MINI SITES & MINI WEBSITES. |
