Mini Site or Content-based Web Site?

Are you in a dilemma whether to create a mini site or acontent-based web site for your new product or service? Thepurpose of creating a web site should be to attract visitors andconvert them to paying customers. Is a mini site with a fewpages enough to do this or should you spend more time and createa 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 daysto create a mini site. Web site templates or software allow mostof the work to be done already.

2. Little time - you could create a mini site within one day ifyou have your entire content ready to go.

3. Laser focused on selling one product or service - a mini sitecan simply be one long sales page with an order button at theend.

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 domainname. Paid hosting services for a mini site can be acquired foronly $30/year.

Cons

1. Difficult for search engines to spider - a web sitecontaining many relevant pages of content will tend to rankhigher 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 fromother web sites increases your link popularity. Webmasters formother sites want to link to a web site which contains valuableinformation that expands their visitors experience.

4. Less traffic - less pages means fewer chances for people tofind your site in the search engines, thereby limiting theamount of traffic your web site receives.

Content-based web sites

Pros

1. Search engine friendly - creating a content-based page forevery targeted keyword will enable visitors to enter fromnumerous points within your site.

2. Easy to acquire links from other sites - webmasters want tolink to web sites that will expand their visitors experience byproviding more information (ie articles) or simplify their tasks(ie software).

3. Become an authority on your product or service - addingpages of content related to your product, helps people to makean informative decision before purchasing.

4. Lots of traffic - creating lots of keyword focused pages andacquiring incoming and outgoing links to and from other sitesgenerates lots of free traffic.

Cons

1. Too many options - customers can become indecisive if theirare too many options to choose from.

2. Too many links to other web sites - this may take visitorsaway from your site and not return. Ideally you want to keepthem at your site.

3. Can be expensive to build - content-based sites can costthousands of dollars to develop if you take into account the cost of graphics and/or hiring someone to build it for you.

4. Takes a lot of time to develop the web site - buildingcontent-based pages takes time. It may take several years tocreate hundreds of content-based pages.

5. Attracts "tire kickers" - visitors want to look around toglean free information but may never buy.

Conclusion:

Before you decide on what type of web site to develop, firstthink of the purpose of your site. If you just need a sales pageand want to drive targeted traffic to your site using paid advertising(ie paid per click search engines, ezine ads) then a mini site couldbe sufficient.

If you plan on becoming an authority on your product or serviceand want to attract lots of free search engine traffic, then acontent-based web site will serve you better.

Alternatively, you may create a combination of the two ie beginwith a mini site, leaving room to expand it to a larger content-basedweb site in the future.

Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)owner and author of http://www.iSiteBuild.com Affordable Web Site Design and Low Cost Web Hosting Subscribe to his "Marketing Tips" newsletter for more originalarticles at:subscribe@isitebuild.com. You can read moreof his in-depth articles at: http://www.isitebuild.com/articles