One Big Authority Site Or Mini Sites? What Is The Best?

10 replies
  • SEO
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Hello Warriors !

I want to start a new project and I am not sure what to do. I was thinking to build a big authority website with 100+ pages to put all my work in. On the other part i know that is much easy to hit 1 position in google with a mini niche website (exact much domain or something close). I am afraid that if I do, lets say 20 little sites with 30 pages each and I let them like this, I will lose my 1 position over time because we all know Google like fresh content. And with a big authority site ....well I am a little afraid to put all my work in a single place...you never know what can happen.
So guys, what do you think that is the best choice : Big site or mini niche sites ?
Thank you !
#authority #big #mini #site #sites
  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    I would go with a larger site If you have the content.

    You rank pages not sites, so If your not doing any hardcore BH SEO, you'll be fine.

    I've been at this for 5+ years, running larger 1k+ page sites & have never had a site deindexed or anything like that. Most guys that complain about being deindexed in the SERPs will never tell you the whole story, they'll only say whatever makes them look innocent, lol.
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  • Profile picture of the author 1warriorfan
    Agreed, especially with unique content. You'll dominate with that number of pages and some "half-hearted" deep-linking.
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    • Profile picture of the author Stephen Dillon
      I really think a combination of the two is the way to go.

      You do not want to slap up a big authority site overnight.

      So while you are building your authority site slowly you can work on some related
      smaller sites that are micro niches of your authority site.

      This gives you a lot more credibility and options.

      Stephen
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      • Profile picture of the author dminorfmajor
        Originally Posted by Stephen Dillon View Post

        I really think a combination of the two is the way to go.

        You do not want to slap up a big authority site overnight.

        So while you are building your authority site slowly you can work on some related
        smaller sites that are micro niches of your authority site.

        This gives you a lot more credibility and options.

        Stephen
        Not the worst idea I've ever heard. At least then your "authority" site could link to your smaller sites and there's XXX amount of related, quality backlinks right there.
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  • Profile picture of the author NickVCover
    Forgive me if this is a simple question, but can't individual pages within a site be geared towards "mini-niches"? So the big overall authority site contains the 20 or 30 mini sites (assuming of course that all the mini-niches are closely related in topic), and as such have those 20 or 30 page one ranks?

    @Spartan 78: Great question, btw.
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  • Profile picture of the author pianochris
    I would have a backup plan with another sie or two. Wht happens if the main site stops? Use the smaller sites to target the niche markets and with different keywords but have them all related to the same topics
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  • Profile picture of the author natejohnson78
    I agree with Stephen. In my early days, I would target many moderately competitive keywords within the same very broad market by using smaller sites of around 30 pages and go after domain matches. I've since diversified by also targeting those same keywords with a very large authority site of hundreds of pages. I've achieved first page results with both, however, I feel a bit safer knowing that all my eggs are not in one basket. It's a good deal more work, but the peace of mind is best for me.

    Also, dminorfmajor, that was one of the initial reasons I chose this strategy, but it needs to be treated very delicately and works best if you spend a few extra bucks on hosting packages from several different providers to really spread out those smaller sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author secretbonus
    It's not a bad idea to do a bunch of smaller sites to start with and then if one catches on, focusing on building a larger site from that smaller site. Otherwise, a larger site and promote one section at a time. There is nothing wrong with starting a site say with domain of bigbrowndog.com and start out with dog tips but then expand the site towards lots of different topics. However, if you rank well on actual dog tips, you aren't going to want to venture too far out of dog tips until you are very well established in your niche, and it should only expand to another related area field first like all pet tips and then maybe domestic animal related content, then animals, then outdoors,etc
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  • Profile picture of the author secretbonus
    Actually, it's probably more important that you do whatever motivates you. You have to be in this for the long haul, and if you don't do what excited you most, you won't be able to persist with the kind of intensity you need to
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  • Profile picture of the author Spartan78
    Thank you guys. I think i will go with a big authority site. I know that i will need to work more to hit first page with a article called, for example "build big arms", comparing with a exact match domain called "build big arms" but i will give it a try. I will try to build a big site with maybe 5-6 categories (niches) that will be like 5-6 mini sites.
    Thanks again!
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