One or few VS several websites

[Craig Sjoquist]

My question is it better for creating traffic and presenting my portfolio to have several websites or just a few or maybe one.

At present I have 13 websites all of them have some sort of sign portfolio on them, none are fully developed even my main site lacks. Lately have gotten slack on doing any work on it and others.

So I'm ready to work again. Only one is payed hosted, and the 12 others are free hosted nothing fancy mind you.

This question hit me when another Signs 101 member posted several sites all pointed to one. Myself not liking all going to same home page, but maybe this works well or I'll have them go to different pages compared to 13 different websites.

Where or what sites should I look for to maybe help me find a answer, confused ?.
Thank you

 

[Locals Find!]

My opinion on multiple websites and even multiple domain names for the same / similar products. Is like having 13 different sign shops all owned by you in the same building. Your spending a ton of time and resources to maintain all of them. Why not put all the same time and resources into just one and make it the very best out their.

Please don't be confused that I am suggesting letting those domain names you own go though. Sit on them and have them pointed to your main website. This will increase their value and turn them more into an internet real estate investment. Rather than being just an albatross diluting your brand and your wallet.

 

[briankb]

Ditto on everything Adtechia said plus...

You would be better off SEO wise to find one domain and point all the others using 301 Permanent Redirects to the main domain. This is the recommended method by Google. http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=93633

The next step would be to start a blog and write about your jobs and post your photos of the job. You should still keep a portfolio but the blog will allow your website to have new content. And the search engines love new content and google specifically rewards websites who are unique and are unique content creators.

 

[SignManiac]

I have only one for my sign company. It does very well.

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

Thank you .. Guess I've some work to do redirecting and to which page, also improving my main website into alot more pages and up keep.
I certainly not a writer so doing a blog not sure if I'll be able to make good use of it properly.
My wants to make use of Picasa for a portfolio so far not advanced well or facebook hopefully the redirect will ease up my work load.

Please any other suggests most welcome. thank you

 

[briankb]

your blog doesn't have to be particularly verbose or conform to a specific format. when I say blog I mean more of a place to share what's going on with your business and/or express any tips you may have for customers. using a "blog" engine like Wordpress is just a lot easier than editing a website constantly to add new pages.

don't be worried about writing or making your own "newspaper" like blog. make it whatever you want. the primary purpose to create unique content for your website that will be of interest to other people.

 

[Locals Find!]

Brian makes some strong points about the Blog idea its great for your rankings. If your like me and don't write well at all. You can always hire a professional to write for you.

I do this quite often. I tell them what I want in my words and they clean it up and make it better for the average person to understand. Your in Orlando so you should have a very nice pool of talent to be able to choose from and fit your budget.

 

[Custom_Grafx]

+1 on blogs.

Blogs really bring in the searches... without even trying.

What you write,no one else writes - the uniqueness gives your site and SEO edge.

Just a photo, with a paragraph description of the job is enough to generate results. Keep it regular, and it will work very well for you.

 

[mountaingraphic]

+1 on wordpress.It makes the content management a lot easier than brushing through code. It does take a little messing with to get use to the features but once you get the gist then its all down hill from there.

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

Ok this is inspiring Briankb thank you ...ya'll made it sound a bit easier then I thinking. yeah what a laugh, but I'll certainly give it a try.

 

[Mike F]

Consolidate as much as you can, unless you're in 13 completely different industries there's no reason to have 13 different websites.

 

[Rooster]

I use a single site with landing pages for each different type of product that link directly from the ads targeting that product.

I need to add a blog to my site. It definitely seems to be what google rewards with higher rankings now that they've cracked down on the link farms.