MSDSoft - 9:05 am on Sep 20, 2010 (gmt 0)

Hi all,

I am planning to sell products online for several niches.

I would really appreciate advice on the pros and cons of building one web site with one domain, one web site with several sub-domains (one for each niche) or one web site for every niche.

I am not a SEO expert and I would like to be sure to chose the best option before I start working on the project.

I can think of the following pros and cons at first sight:

1.- Single domain for all the niches:

Pros:

- Only need to build/promote one site.
- All SEO efforts will be centered in one site.
- Visits from all my niches will be centralized in one web site, which could result in cross sales.

Cons:

- If the web gets banned you lose everything in one shot.
- Visitors may be confused if they find a single web with very different and unrelated products.
- Search Engines may not like (not sure of this) web pages with too many different and unrelated keywords.

2.- One domain for every niche:

Pros:

- Visitors will be comfortable in a focused web site.
- Search Engines will find the keywords coherent and relevant.
- Search Engines could not ban all my websites at a time.

Cons:

- Need to build several different sites.
- Web site promotion must be repeated for every web site.
- Visitors of one niche do not know the other products in which they could be interested.

With respect to sub-domains matching niches, I am not sure if it is a good idea to point each sub-domain to a folder in the single web page in terms of SEO.

This is just non-experienced brainstorming. I would be glad to get ideas from experienced people.

Thanks for your advice.