Is having one website or multiple websites better?
Some businesses may have several websites for each service they offer. So business owners who plan to start creating an online presence, including website development for their chosen format, might be confused if to create a large single website or a smaller multiple website.
Single Website Benefits
- Less time is invested:
- Cost-effective:
- Cross-selling is easier:
- High ranking in SERPs:
A single website can be started at a faster pace and can be easily maintained. Only less time is needed to be invested in building a single website when compared to multiple sites. A healthier website can be developed with less effort. Apart from saving time to set up, other development stages also take a shorter time as well. Hosting and maintaining multiple websites divert the focus and the time that has to be invested in business activities.
A single website can be built with minimal funding. You can limit fixed costs like hosting and other variable costs in website development. It costs less for a single website which needs only minimal website plugins and extensions when compared to multiple websites.
Customers could easily discover new products as per their needs through cross-selling. Thus with a single website, it would be easier for businesses to offer several products or service options to the customers. They can access everything from a single site. It is easier for new customers and returning customers as well to find and purchase.
It is easier to optimize a single website for better ranking in SERPs at a low cost. When managing multiple websites, SEO efforts become divided, making it harder to build authority for each one. There are high chances of duplicate content occurring across multiple sites, which can negatively affect SEO ranking. Various other third-party websites are more likely to link to a single website with a strong focus on the 4 pillars of SEO (content, technical SEO, on-page SEO, and off-page SEO). Your site's ranking can also be increased through a single website strategically showcasing more relevant content based on your specific niche.
Managing a website itself is harder and is even harder to manage multiple websites. But let's find out the benefits that come from multiple websites.
Multiple Websites Benefits
- Each brand or services have a separate website
- Improve affiliate linking
- Mitigate risk of failure
- Can build Geo-specific sites
Many businesses are selling multiple brands or offering various services. So they split off each brand and service into different individual sites. This makes it easier to promote the site using the respective domain names and keywords. By separate websites, each brand creates its own brand identity and avoids confusion.
Several websites use affiliate marketing to earn income. The authority of a website is determined by the type of content provided in it. A content-rich website thus improves the capability to rank high. So it's great to provide affiliate links in sites with content and topics relevant to the affiliate links given. One affiliate link to a content-rich site is better than giving several affiliate links to a single website.
Having multiple websites helps in balancing the work in case of site breakdowns. Even if any of the websites are down or have any technical issues there are still other websites working for generating business. As each product or service is provided with individual sites, any changes like adding or removing products or services don't affect other sites.
Some businesses offer services across various geographical areas. These services in different areas can be handled with multiple websites for each location. The ranking chances depend on the market size where small ones are easier to rank.
Which website is better?
Every business has different needs and thus the decision to choose single or multiple sites depends on the needs and requirements of users. Multiple websites are developed better for businesses focusing on different target audiences. However multiple sites may be negatively affecting marketing strategy. Also, there will be some problems in proper maintenance and optimization. It is better to have a single authoritative site for productivity and high ranking.
