For years the debate has raged over which type of site you should build; mini sites or authority sites. However, Google seems to have the final say in the outcome of this type of debate. But recently is seems as though Google has grown disillusioned by its previous liking for mini sites. However, the last few changes in ranking algorithms seem to favor those content rich authority sites rather than mini sites. Obviously, Google is seeking a way to provide more pertinent results to their users. Yet even a mini site can still offer positive results in your marketing efforts. Before we continue, let’s look at a couple of sites: home schooling or how to snowboard
It’s commonly believed that mini sites have the advantage of bringing you profits in a shorter period of time. There is something to this point of view, to be sure. To think only of short term profits, however, can be a limiting point of view. One approach would be to break down a niche into many micro niches, based on careful keyword research. Each one of these smaller niches could be made into a mini site. If everything is right, and your research is solid, then you will rank for them fairly quickly. Don’t forget, though, that Google is not very fond of this strategy. It’s generally understood that making authority sites offers more compelling reasons than building mini sites. It just seems to be the trend that is being forced by Google. But there are long standing pluses with larger sites in terms of promotion and SEO. The ability to backlink to multiple internal pages can mean authority sites are far easier to promote. Other webmasters are often happy to link to authority sites containing plenty of good quality unique content, which gives you more backlinks.
One benefit of authority sites that you do not see often concerns ranking for other keyword phrases. It’s possible to get your site ranking very well for synonyms of your chosen keywords and phrases as well. When you see this happening, you have the option of exploring those possibilities for even better rankings. Those synonyms should be analyzed to see what other keyword phrases and variations you might be able to expand on for even more rankings. Many established authority sites see this happening to their rankings. However, it does take time for those rankings to show up.
When we consider everything, there’s no way to satisfactorily decide whether authority sites or mini sites are better. They really represent two distinct business models, so you can’t directly compare them. While there are some areas where they overlap, but there are even more dissimilarities.
The only question you have to answer for yourself is, which model is for you? Also, what are your preferences with regard to business building? An authority site has more long-term benefits, and mini sites can often move with the tides of algorithm changes.
