Mini Site or Content-based Web Site?
By Herman Drost
Are you in a dilemma whether to create a mini site or a content-based web site for your
new product or service? The purpose of creating a web site should be to attract visitors
and convert them to paying customers. Is a mini site with a few pages enough to do this or
should you spend more time and create a content-based web site which contains many pages?
Let's look at some of the Pros and Cons:
Mini Sites
Pros
1. Easy to set up - you don't have to be a programmer these days to create a mini site.
Web site templates or software allow most of the work to be done already.
2. Little time - you could create a mini site within one day if you have your entire
content ready to go.
3. Laser focused on selling one product or service - a mini site can simply be one long
sales page with an order button at the end.
4. No distractions - customers are distracted by other options on the web site. With no
banners or links to other sites, the customer can be directed to purchase immediately.
5. Inexpensive to create - if you use a free hosting account (not recommended), you would
just pay for registering a domain name. Paid hosting services for a mini site can be
acquired for only $30/year.
Cons
1. Difficult for search engines to spider - a web site containing many relevant pages of
content will tend to rank higher in the search engines than a one page mini site.
2. Lacks pages of content - mini sites often lack in-depth information about their product or service.
3. Difficult to increase link popularity - getting links from other web sites increases
your link popularity. Webmasters form other sites want to link to a web site which
contains valuable information that expands their visitors experience.
4. Less traffic - less pages means fewer chances for people to find your site in the
search engines, thereby limiting the amount of traffic your web site receives.
Content-based web sites
Pros
1. Search engine friendly - creating a content-based page for every targeted keyword will
enable visitors to enter from numerous points within your site.
2. Easy to acquire links from other sites - webmasters want to link to web sites that will
expand their visitors experience by providing more information (ie articles) or simplify
their tasks (ie software).
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