Three Sites or One?

[kscotbarr]

I have a client who provides three distinct, although related, services. Some of his competitors only provide one of those services, and thus their sites are more saturated with that particular service. Would it be best to develop three different sites optimized for each particular service, or could I achieve the same effect by optimizing different sections of one site for each service?

[Doc_Sheldon]

Hi, Kevin-

Without knowing a little more about the niche and the services, it's difficult to give a definitive answer. But I think that in most instances, I would be inclined to simply concentrate on fleshing out the pages that deal with each individual service, all contained within one site. In that fashion, I think you'll gain more authority to the site, while still focusing on each service as needed.

[EGOL]

I agree with Sheldon, especially if there are cross-selling opportunities between the related services.

[CodyWheeler]

If this is one client, unless they are separate business entities, hands down it should be one site. It's A LOT easier to SEO one site than it is three, and your work is going to pay off a lot more as well.

[MarieHaynes]

I have a similar situation with a client.  She's got one site right now and she wants me to create a second one.  It's mostly because she found a domain name that she's in love with.  But, I know that one site is going to be a lot easier to promote than two.  Her two ideas for sites are very closely connected.

I think I've finally convinced her to stick with one site but have a section of that main site totally dedicated to her new idea.

This way, any links that come to either section will benefit the site as a whole.

[kscotbarr]

Thanks all for the advice. I'm definitely recommending combining everything into one site. Right now he's got 2 sites, each focusing on different aspects/services that he provides. Any recommendations on how to effectively leverage the traffic he's already getting to the 2nd site (that I'll remove)?

Also, can anyone point me to examples of sites that have effectively optimized for multiple services on the same site?

To give a little more background, this client offers a number of related services, including doctor assisted weight loss and hormone therapy (among several others). Many of his competitors only deal with one of those services, so their sites are all about weight loss or hormone therapy. My client's concern is that a potential patient will come to his site for, say weight loss, and be turned away because it's lost among all of the other services, while his competitors are clearly all about simply weight loss.

As EGOL noted below, this client thrives on cross-selling his services, and in my mind one of his main selling points is that he is a one-stop-shop for multiple, related services.

[noweare]

I am a business owner and have multiple services. So I can give you my recommendation from my experience.

Maintaining multiple sites is a PITA. One problem is you have one company name but two websites for it, or if you do have a different company name for each, how will the phone be answered. Sure, you can get around that but there a many other inconveniences, like multiple business cards etc.. or with one physical location will only allow you one google-local entry.

The main page has a main h1 heading at the top  listing the services ie   "Epoxy Flooring, Concrete Resurfacing, Stone Restoration serving Delaware"

What I did is Summerize each of my services on my main page with h2 headers followed by a paragraph below the heading optimizing the text as best I could.

The h2 headers and paragraphs are formatted in 2 columns by 3 rows (6 services) on the main page as try to dilute any top to bottom bias.

What's very important is what EGOL said about cross services ie cross selling, Its much better to expose your customer to all  your services.