Google me the Value of an Authority Site
Posted By Melanie Prough on April 2, 2009
Recently, I have really taken this question to heart. Due to the current host crowding algorithm, I am increasingly aware of the value of a portal type site to secure good position in the search results. However, some folks have been buying domains like they are stocking up for a bad storm.
In comes the mini site theory. No doubt the mini site approach has its value, but only if it’s done right. So, you buy 5 or 6 nice domains, build small keyword dense websites on each one and that’s where the trouble can begin. The goal here is to dominate the search results for our targeted keyword phrases with multiple domains, but hardly anyone has considered how difficult it is to rank these smaller websites for our larger phrases. They in essence lack many things that are just plain key to rank well.
I think some issues that plague these mini sites are that in addition to our main site they are very labor intensive, and inevitably we are spreading ourselves thinner and taking valuable time away from the main goal.. Which is traffic to our main site. They as a rule have lower quality content on a substantially smaller scale, and require extra link building, as they don’t generate organic inbound links nearly as effective as our main site can. Ask yourself this, how many blogs can you maintain?
Don’t get me wrong, the mini site theory does work, if the program is executed properly. I think overall, many webmasters think that a keyword rich domain with 3 pages of mediocre content will magically rank. This seems to be a common misconception recently. The fact is, those mini sites actually require more attention from you, as they lack many of the very forgiving qualities of a bigger authority type site.
So the question is obvious, what is an authority site, and how can you create such a phenomena?
Generally speaking, an authority site has many special traits which categorize it as such. They are generally larger to start with, and if the content is good are generally favored by search engines. They tend to escape that search engine fear of “fly by night” websites. They can accumulate backlinks far better organically, including inner pages such as category or landing type pages. The biggest perk in my eyes, is when the idea strikes and we have time… There is but one site to add the content to. No matter what your level of time budget, if the time you have is spent on a authority site… The results will pay off better.
Authority sites that have been cared for seem to enjoy several nice metrics compared to smaller sites. They have better indexing strength, as we have been able to add good content more frequently. They can easily diversify within a larger theme and grab more longtail searches and attract a wider range of visitors, which can easily be funneled into other sections within the site. (If you have not neglected the site’s navigation). So what’s the ranking value?
It is as simple as this… You can throw these wonderful content ideas up on a mini site or you can build common, but different areas within your authority site. Side by side, they authority site will, as a general rule, outrank the smaller sites for the same phrases. The reason is simple, more links, more trust, more content, and a healthier indexing score.
Even before the host crowding algo was “tweaked”, I have been playing with this idea. Last February, I built my first authority type site. The concept was simple, create related but diverse content in 5 top categories and 4 smaller categories. The main site was already ranking top dog for its theme phrases, and the next logical step was to grab more traffic. In comes some research… What in addition to what they were getting would this crowd I was attracting need, use, or click through?
So I started with 3 top main categories, and 4 smaller ones. The smaller ones are further down on the scale for many reasons. They might be targeting smaller “ponds” in relationship to traffic volume trends, or maybe they just have innately less ability to rank. The top categories, were at the time, way out of my league, but clearly a naturally useful content addition to my already loyal visitors. So how has it worked out?
The main concept theme has maintained its top ranks, and the category pages are ranking well also. Site visitors are sending me a nice message regarding the “usefulness” of my site by hanging out on the site for an average of 4:32 minutes and viewing an average of 3.78 pages per visit! In my estimation, these are very important metrics with which to measure your site. Traffic is up at least 5% every month consistently. Links to the website are coming in consistently on their very own, no begging. How about some anatomy?
The majority of the sites pageviews break down as follows:
<ol><li>Main page – 49.26%</li><li>Top category 1 – 19.67%</li><li>Top category 2 – 15.61%</li><li>Top category 3 – 8.95%</li><li>Top category 4 – 6.49%</li><li>Top category 5 – 5.68%</li><li>All 4 smaller categories – 6.87%</li></ol>86% of visits come into the site via the main or category/landing page, and 47.3% continue on to another area of the site. The traffic is obviously very much based on the topic volume, but I think after less than 1 year 10,000+ unique visits a month is clearly not bad. The original site, regardless of its top rankings was in a “small pond” with regard to search volume, so logically I added diverse, but clearly related and useful content.
The site enjoys frequent crawling, fast indexing, and every month without fail, my “Top Search Queries” in Google webmaster tools are full. Not bad for a starting site that was suffering over 30% supplemental pages nearly a year ago.
So, consider this before you build that next mini site, with a probable “mini” ability to commit to it…. You’re likely to get “mini” results.
Peace and SEO
Melanie Prough
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