Blogs

The weblog started growing in popularity around the turn of the century. Websites have been easily available for people for over two decades, but they were clunky and often required technical expertise to build and maintain them. The rise of the early blogging platforms made it possible for everyday people without technical training to put up a personal site on which they could express their thoughts and share with others.

They were journals online. Literally, they were weblogs of our lives. The term was eventually shortened to blogs, and they have grown in popularity over the years. Today, there are around a quarter of a billion blogs floating around on the Internet, though most are completely abandoned by their original builder.

Blogging for your business is a way to give a personality to the company. They can be used to establish expertise. They can even be used to promote things happening from day to day at your business, like sales, employees of the month, and customer testimonials.

Microsites

There was a time not too long ago when microsites were all the rage for SEO. There were companies that specialized in creating hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of microsites that could be used for generating inbound links that helped the primary website rank for certain searches.

This was cut off completely. The Penguin update of 2012 eliminated these automated, low-quality links to the point that having them could actually do damage to your rankings. These networks were, for the most part, taken down. Several prominent SEO firms closed as a result.

A genuine, high-value microsite is one that works very similarly to your primary website. It can be an extension of your website, or it can be a stand-alone variation that covers a particular set of topics.

Unlike a blog, the content on a microsite is almost entirely set to drive business. That gives it the advantage of bringing more direct value to your business, but it also makes the site harder to get ranked for keywords.

A strong microsite is one that combines a little bit of everything. It has some pages of content that are similar to a blog that bring value to the visitor, but these pages should be timeless. In other words, since you're not posting content to it on a regular basis, the content should be able to stand on its own regardless of when it is seen. You wouldn't want to cover a particular event on a microsite, for example.

People often confuse microsites with landing pages or focus sites. A microsite can have landing pages, but a stand-alone landing page or squeeze page is effective only in certain situations and does not offer any value from a search perspective. When added to a microsite, this kind of page can act as a way to generate leads, while the rest of the site brings SEO value to your primary domain and also has the ability to rank in searches on its own.

When building a microsite, think of it as a smaller variation of your own website. Cut out the less important components. You shouldn't have an About Us page on a microsite, for example.

An example of a microsite would be a car dealer's inventory placed separately from the website itself. On the primary website, a dealership will have sections for service, parts, finance, specials, and the works. With a microsite, the home page would talk about the various models available in the brand. Then there would be the full inventory feed that creates pages on the site and takes them down when a vehicle is sold.

Microsites do not replace any aspect of the primary website. You should not direct people from your primary website to the microsite. The opposite can be done; there's nothing wrong with having a service or parts button that takes people to the appropriate pages on the primary website.

A properly positioned microsite will rank for the company by name and will also rank for the specific needs. In the previous example, you would put it on a domain like www.bradleyhondainventory.com. It should rank for Bradley Honda as well as other terms, like Honda Accord New Jersey.

The disadvantage of microsites is that they require a good amount of effort to build. The advantage is that they do not require much effort to maintain. Build it. Add content every month or two. Let the search advantages permeate!

Customer Appreciation Sites

Appreciating customers is easy. As business owners, you know that your customers provide your paychecks and keep the business up and running. Most people appreciate their customers, but are they doing anything to show them this fact online?

A customer appreciation site fills this need. It's not for everyone. A roofing contractor, for example, doesn't have a whole lot to say about their customers other than to thank them. They don't have “regulars” because it's normally a one-time gig. They don't have fans because it's difficult to stand out for doing a great job. If the roof is done right, the customers are satisfied but they're not going to say, “Wow, he fixed our roof better than any roofer we've used in the past!”

For most other types of businesses, customer appreciation sites work nicely. They comprise two components: the customers' stories and offers from your business.

Many businesses have loyalty programs that come in the form of loyalty cards or online check-ins. These are ideal for helping to select the right people to put on a site. Coffee shops often have “buy nine, get the tenth free” punch cards. This is a great way to build a customer appreciation site!

When someone fills out their punch cards, the barista simply has to ask if they can be put up on the customer appreciation page. All they need is to have their picture taken with their favorite drink, a first name, and the way they order their drink. This becomes a post on the customer appreciation page and can generate fun, utilizing the principles of gamification. I won't go into too much detail—gamification could take up a couple of chapters and has nothing to do with search—but I suggest looking it up for your business.

What's the point of all of this? Yes, it's fun and gives your customers something that they can use to promote your business to their friends, but it goes further. First of all, it makes for great content that can be shared on your social media sites. Second, it gives you another site where you can have a constant flow of content similar to your blog. Third, it adds unique images to your web presence that can individually rank in Google image search.

The most important reason, however, goes back to what I discussed about reputation management. These types of sites can take up real estate for the all-important searches for your business by name, but they can rank for other important searches as well:

• “Company name” reviews
• “Company name” complaints
• “Company name” feedback

When people do those searches, they're deciding whether to do business with you. By positioning customer appreciation sites well on those searches, you'll be able to stand out from the competition. Remember, if they're researching you, they're probably researching your competitors as well. If they don't have a customer appreciation site (and they probably don't), then you'll stand out as truly appreciative of your customers.

Focus Sites

I saved this one for last because they're the most important secondary sites that you can have. For the majority of businesses, if you can put time and effort into only one type of secondary site, this is it.

A focus site is exactly what it says—it's a website that is focused on one particular topic. We've built thousands of focus sites over the years that have helped automotive clients dominate countless searches.

Here are some examples of focus sites that work in the automotive industry:

• Model-specific focus sites
• Auto service focus sites
• Used car specials focus sites
• Event focus sites
• Geo-targeted focus sites

With each of these, you want to remember to stay completely focused. It should go without saying, but it's easy to try to include too much. The goal of a focus site is to rank for very particular keywords. By adding too much that is off topic, you can prevent it from doing its job.

Using Secondary Sites Properly

I have clearly laid out how each of the four major types of secondary sites should be used. If you have the bandwidth to make them awesome, then do it. If you do not, be selective. It's much better to skip a type of secondary site in order to make the others strong rather than to stretch yourself too thin and miss out on the benefits from any of them.

Focus on quality above all else. This is a bulk play to some extent, but that bulk must be tempered with quality. Just because you build them doesn't mean the people will come to them. Put in the effort if you can or save them for later if you can't.

You should be using the techniques laid out in this book to promote these secondary sites as well. Apply strong onsite SEO principles to them. Generate links to them. Share them on social media. Just like with your primary sites, these secondary sites need SEO juice to work properly.

Lastly, do not let the secondary sites take away from your efforts on your primary site. These are luxuries. If your primary site is not in perfect working order and ranking well on searches, you shouldn't put your effort into these secondary sites. Save them for later when you've already dominated everything you can with your primary website.

Additional Resources

Learn more about advanced SEO tools such as secondary sites, blogs, microsites, and focus sites by visiting www.googleopolybook.com/secondary-site-strategies.