Many business owners are wondering whether one Web site is enough, or whether they should have two or more sites.
Typically their thinking starts by them saying it would be "too cluttered" to have everything on one site. Fair enough - it's good that they don't want to confuse site visitors. But what exactly does "too much clutter" mean?
Web sites aren't like brochures or books, which are designed from start to finish and don't make it easy to jump to a specific section. A well-designed Web site can have huge amounts of information, and still make it easy for site visitors to quickly find what they want (Amazon.com is a great example).
So what does make a Web site "too" cluttered that it might warrant a second site? There are three things.
1. Specific markets
If you work with multiple niche markets, and there isn't a big overlap between what these markets want, it makes sense to build a separate site for each niche. Otherwise, you're distracting your site visitors with too much that isn't relevant for them.
How much is "a big overlap"? I reckon 80%. In other words, if at least 80% of your Web site isn't relevant for one of the niches, build a separate site for that niche. Or, to put it another way, if more than 20% of your Web site is not relevant for that niche, build a separate site.
For example, if you sell weight-loss pills for women who've just had a baby, and also sell protein supplements for body-builders, you probably need a Web site for each market because there just isn't enough overlap between them. On the other hand, if you sell your weight-loss pills to two related markets, the same site might serve both.
2. Specific products
Not all of your products and services are equal, and some deserve more attention than others. You can do this by simply promoting them more on your Web site (for example, with a prominent link on every page, video testimonials, more effort in your copywriting, etc.). But at some point you might decide to "peel it off" into its own site.
At what point do you make that decision? That's your call. There's no hard-and-fast rule about this. You'll usually know when you think a product is important enough for it to have a stand-alone site, without any distractions from everything else you offer.
3. Specific marketing
The third situation is when you build a Web site for a specific marketing campaign, whether it's to promote an event, a product or something else. This new site might have different branding and a different layout; it might have a specific call to action; and it will certainly be linked closely to that one particular campaign. In fact, it's part of the marketing campaign itself, rather than being its outcome.
Of course, instead of building a separate site, your marketing campaign could simply direct people to a page of your current site. And that's usually the right solution. But there are exceptions - that is, marketing efforts that you think are so important that they warrant their own site.
So do you need more than one Web site?
These guidelines will help you decide whether it's worth investing in a separate Web site. If you don't need one, don't get it. But if you do need it, it's much better to build it than to keep struggling with a site that's trying to do too much.
Finally, keep in mind that it's no longer expensive to create Web sites. It used to be, and that would be an important factor in the decision-making process. But that's no longer the case.
Typically their thinking starts by them saying it would be "too cluttered" to have everything on one site. Fair enough - it's good that they don't want to confuse site visitors. But what exactly does "too much clutter" mean?
Web sites aren't like brochures or books, which are designed from start to finish and don't make it easy to jump to a specific section. A well-designed Web site can have huge amounts of information, and still make it easy for site visitors to quickly find what they want (Amazon.com is a great example).
So what does make a Web site "too" cluttered that it might warrant a second site? There are three things.
1. Specific markets
If you work with multiple niche markets, and there isn't a big overlap between what these markets want, it makes sense to build a separate site for each niche. Otherwise, you're distracting your site visitors with too much that isn't relevant for them.
How much is "a big overlap"? I reckon 80%. In other words, if at least 80% of your Web site isn't relevant for one of the niches, build a separate site for that niche. Or, to put it another way, if more than 20% of your Web site is not relevant for that niche, build a separate site.
For example, if you sell weight-loss pills for women who've just had a baby, and also sell protein supplements for body-builders, you probably need a Web site for each market because there just isn't enough overlap between them. On the other hand, if you sell your weight-loss pills to two related markets, the same site might serve both.
2. Specific products
Not all of your products and services are equal, and some deserve more attention than others. You can do this by simply promoting them more on your Web site (for example, with a prominent link on every page, video testimonials, more effort in your copywriting, etc.). But at some point you might decide to "peel it off" into its own site.
At what point do you make that decision? That's your call. There's no hard-and-fast rule about this. You'll usually know when you think a product is important enough for it to have a stand-alone site, without any distractions from everything else you offer.
3. Specific marketing
The third situation is when you build a Web site for a specific marketing campaign, whether it's to promote an event, a product or something else. This new site might have different branding and a different layout; it might have a specific call to action; and it will certainly be linked closely to that one particular campaign. In fact, it's part of the marketing campaign itself, rather than being its outcome.
Of course, instead of building a separate site, your marketing campaign could simply direct people to a page of your current site. And that's usually the right solution. But there are exceptions - that is, marketing efforts that you think are so important that they warrant their own site.
So do you need more than one Web site?
These guidelines will help you decide whether it's worth investing in a separate Web site. If you don't need one, don't get it. But if you do need it, it's much better to build it than to keep struggling with a site that's trying to do too much.
Finally, keep in mind that it's no longer expensive to create Web sites. It used to be, and that would be an important factor in the decision-making process. But that's no longer the case.
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