Once your website content is created, building from that is the main focal point.
Enter: MicroSites.
MicroSites are either single-page or small standalone bodies of work with their own domain or subdomain name.
A MicroSite is often designed to operate in conjunction with an existing site to help strengthen its authority.
MicroSites are often used to focus more fully on an event or campaign or to launch a new product.
Even better, MicroSites are relatively inexpensive to run and maintain and analyze. So, no wonder they are increasingly popular.
It’s likely that one piece of content will not perform well on its own, and the denser the subject matter the more Google sees value for the reader. The more value Google sees in your content, the higher you’ll get ranked.
That’s why it’s vital to completely cover all aspects of a subject and its subtopics. That means covering arguments for and against, and answering all the questions arising from it.
Microsites 2.0 is a coined term I’ve seen used by Kevin Indig from GT.com.
This term aligns with how we approach content in Neil’s agency as it is close to what we consider topical
depth of a website site.
Google is now less focused on the keyword searches and more upon – a sort of journey based system.
What this means is you need to cover a topic in greater detail for the basics to advanced questions users
ask.
We have covered aspects that fit into this model like FAQ Schema and Internal Links.
The concept is about covering all the questions answered against a customer’s journey through a
particular site, the greater their authority Google gives and the higher rankings.
1. We start by finding the problem to your solution “Hypnotherapy”.
2. Once we have the problem “Quit Smoking”
3. The next step would be to write out each solution that would fit this problem
4. After collecting our solutions we need to check the questions via something like
https://answerthepublic.com
5. Mark the comparison and conversions keywords around you subject
In our Ecommerce example, (in this case Lowes.com) this page fits this Microsites format as well:
This newer concept doesn’t just add products but also includes internal links to articles, frequently asked
questions, and ‘how-to’ guides: It’s a hub for information.
It’s clear to see how this type of ‘signpost’ page is more helpful to a visitor over conventional home
pages.
The added bonus is that the more a site has the ability to answer a visitor’s questions, the more likely
they are to buy and, indirectly, the greater the ranking will be for a successful visit.
We term this idea of concentrated information as ‘topical depth’.
The concept of a microsite is to create a focused index ( a book, if you will) that covers a customer’s
journey from initial interest to purchasing.
This idea crosses over from eCommerce to service providers and to blogs.
Here’s something for you to try if you want to map out how to create your own microsite.
A microsite consists of a few key elements so make sure you have these on key pages you are trying
rank:
Table of contents
Linked Articles / Internal Links
Prev / Next
Side Navigation On The Posts
Authorship
In this hypothetical example, I want to rank for the term ‘eBay Fees’ and its related content:
The first step would be to find all the problems around this subject matter and create all the topics for
this before I went off onto other non eBay related items.
Go to Answerthepublic.com
● Type “eBay Fees”
● In this scenario, 133 questions are highlighted around this subject and I know that to rank more
highly for that term I have to address those questions on my site.
● I would group the questions to be able to more easily write a longer form article alongside the
Land and Expand strategy.
To summarise find the main problem a potential target customer has, work through their predicted
journey from the most basic questions, and answer as many problems as possible.
Example:
This table above would then mean we need to create content with the structure like the microsites
pages but cover a topic completely.
Keep an eye on the type of content that each column may offer such as videos, guides, tools.