A client of mine developed a microsite last year to respond to a growing issue that it covers in its main site. Basically a spin-off. Content is a mixture of RSS feeds from the blog of the main site, summary of papers from the main site, and about 25-30% original content.
Traffic was great in 2009 when the issue was hotly debated, but now that the issue has flatlined, they'd like to fold the site and redirect its traffic back to the main site.
The site has the following characteristics:
1. Great domain name, using the exact keywords for its issue area.
2. Strong rankings in Google. The site is #1 for the keyword that is its domain name (18.6 million search results). It is #4 for a more generic term (95.9 million), and #2 for a more specialized term (2.9 million).
The main site, which also covers this topic, is nowhere in the top 100 for these key terms.
3. Whereas at the start of the site in June 2009, about 55% of its traffic came from the main site. In Sept, only 1.6% of its traffic came from the main site as the microsite now has a solid number of links including media.
The client, however, is concerned with the manpower and resources needed to maintain the site. Plus, now that the issue has simmered down (though with the huge potential of being resurrected at any time), they feel that they should focus on the main site and not dilute their efforts with a microsite.
My questions are:
1. Does having a separate site really beneficial, or not?
2. What will be lost or gained when the site is folded back into the main site? When traffic is redirected to the main site, will the benefits of the site -- e.g. ranking well for important terms that the main site was never able to do -- transfer to the main site?
Thanks
