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I am a newbie here. Thank you all for sharing on those wonderful forums, I learn so much!
My question is this.
I am working on an e-tail apparel site for a client. He sells upscale dresses and he has two business models. One, classy dresses for women ages 18 to 40. Same merchandise.
I feel that it would be beneficial to highlight the prom side of the business separately from the rest of the store and drive the traffic accordingly.
On the other hand all the e-commerce side of the site is the same, no matter whether one is buying a dress for a prom or for other reasons. And so I see no need in having two different web sites.
I propose to create two different home pages with two different domains and keeping all other pages the same.
Can someone comment on this approach? What are, in general, the good practicies in promoting to different audiences, who, nevertheless, want the same services at the end?
Thanks in advance!
What I would recommend is to have just one web site, one domain name.
Let's say you have "www.domain.dom" as your main site.
Then, make your prom site "www.domain.dom/prom".
You can promote either URL, based on the target audience. Link to the prom directory from the main page and link to the main page from the prom page. That way, if people happen to land on the wrong page, they can easily find the page they really wanted.
You also avoid the duplication of content from having two separate domains, which Google frowns on. Have good quality content all around, for both the classy dresses area and the prom area. Include advice on choosing a prom dress as well as general prom tips. Content, content, content.
That would be my advice for this particular site.
If the audience was vastly different, then I would use two separate sites. For example, if you were selling classy dresses and also cheap or "pre-worn" dresses, I would have two separate sites.
But, for classy dresses and prom dresses, both cases are likely to have a similar audience, i.e. women or girls who are looking for a nice dress. So, in your case, I'd use a single site.
Dan
Great advice, thanks.
