Would you Consider this High Quality?

[TakeshiYoung]

Microsites can be done in a spammy or non-spammy way. I don't think the content of your site is necessarily spammy, but the domain name (plastic-storage-bins.com) does seem a little spammy. Most web users do not trust domains with tons of dashes in them, and exact match domain names (especially those with dashes) were devalued quite a bit with recent Google updates.

And again, your site needs backlinks. A link from a microsite with zero backlinks does not count for anything. You need to build links to your microsite in order for it to have any value. But if you're spending all that effort building links to your microsite, why not just build the links directly to your main site, which will have more impact?

A microsite is only a viable strategy if you have the resources to do twice the amount of work link building, or your microsite lends itself to getting backlinks easily in a way your main site cannot (for example, a meme tumblr or a joke site).

[Prime85]

I'm not spending effort building links to the microsite (as you should know by the lack of backlinks pointing to the microsites, as you just pointed out).

I'm spending effort building high quality content on the microsites because each microsite is about a specific product line that i carry on my main website...

I'm not concerned with building links, I'm concerned with building quality content about the specific products or product lines that i sell and then i will include a link back to A) the manufacturer of those products, B) my e-comm website where they can buy those products and other sites as well such as pinterest or wikipedia etc...

[TakeshiYoung]

Hi, you asked why your sire isn't ranking. It's not ranking because the site doesn't have any links. Your site needs links if you want it to rank. The links to your e-comm site aren't going to have any value unless your microsite has a strong backlink profile.

[Prime85]

Fair enough ... but what happened to "content is king"?

Also, if the site isn't being shown in the SERPS how could people find it and "naturally" link to it?

[TakeshiYoung]

"Content is king" means that content should be the foundation of your marketing efforts, because your content is going to be what drives your leads and customers. If you have truly amazing content, you won't have to put as much effort into link building, because people will link to it naturally.

But a site still needs links to rank. Links are the primary component of Google's algorithm. Links help Google determine if your content is "high quality". A search engine bot can't just read your content to determine whether it's valuable (beyond basic grammar and spelling), it looks to see if other people are linking to that content, to determine its quality.

If you really want to just focus on content, create absolutely amazing content about storage bins, or come up with a clever or funny twist that can help your content go viral. But remember that your site needs links to rank, and those links have to come from somewhere.

[AWCthreads]

Why did you do this in the first place?

[Prime85]

Hi, I did this in the first place because my ecomm website sells a bunch of different products.

I created microsites because i believe it would be beneficial to consumers to be able to read as much useful and helpful content as possible about the specific product line they may be interested in.  So i spend a lot of time updating these microsites with tons of content about that specific product in hopes that it will help consumers make an informed decision/purchase ... Only problem is they can't find the microsites in the SERPS so my content is going to waste.

[Prime85]

Takeshi, first off i want to thank you for your time and opinion/advice...

The biggest problem i'm having "building" links to the microsites is that they can't be found.  How would someone know to link to that site if they can't find that site and have never seen that site?  It's like a catch 22

[TakeshiYoung]

No problem. You can't sit back and hope people find you, you have to actively promote your content. This could mean e-mailing your customers, promoting through social media, posting links Reddit, contacting other people in your industry, etc. You can't just have great content, you need to go out there and spread the word about it.

Also, if you are looking for link building ideas, this is a great list: http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies

[AWCthreads]

Relatively speaking, your main site doesn't sell a bunch of different stuff.

Our site sells a bunch of different stuff.

I sense you're frustrated that page 1 for "plastic storage bins" is taken over by the biggies like Rubbermaid, Lowes, Walmart, Target, OfficeMax and lesser names with moz rank domain authorities over 50 when yours is at 27.

I think the microsite/doorway strategy was ill conceived.  The time would have been better spent on your main site creating new and improved content and perhaps an on-site blog linking to your products.

[crackingmedia]

Hi, fair comment, it is a legitimate tactic in the context of the example Matt gives in that video.

My concern - and that is where I should have taken more time to examine the backlink profile of monsterbins.com - was that I quickly saw those two sources of backlinks from the satellite sites and then (wrongly) thought you may have a bunch of others doing the same. So apologies for thinking that!

On the matter of your satellite sites, Takeshi is correct that domains with hyphens can be seen as spammy (see more info here: http://moz.com/learn/seo/domain). You purpose though is correct - to build quality content around the individual categories that make up the whole. But without a link profile to them, then you are likely to struggle. In this context and in my view, you are going to be better off growing content rich pages on the monsterbins.com site (e.g. a bins blog!) and promoting that site alone with valuable information that people will share and link to.

All the best to you with what you are doing.

Peter

[Prime85]

Thanks for your opinion... Please keep in mind i am not questioning the rank of my e-comm website, we will continue creating and improving content and those rankings will continue to improve as the content continues to expand and improve... (FYI, it is constantly updated and there is an on-site blog linking to products/categories/other blog posts etc...).

I'm not particularly concerned with Moz rank domain authorities b/c that can be easily influenced by artificially building links (which i'm not interested in doing).  In regards to us "not selling a bunch of different stuff", well i guess we'll just have to disagree about that, but that's neither here nor there...

This post was about why my microsites don't rank at all for the high quality content that is on them.

I appreciate your help/advice

[AWCthreads]

I'd put all the link building efforts into the main site and scrap the microsites.

As a customer, I don't like clicking on something and being redirected to another site.

As someone who links to stuff, I don't link to something that redirects people to something else.

Google not only knows your backlink profile and perhaps in your case, your motives.

[akramsabra]

I would suggest to put your resources, content and efforts on the main site, so that it becomes an authority in this domain of bins in general, because not all people now the differences that you as an insider knows. so if i search for bins then i would find all the resources in one place, and google will eventually see that there is a lot of resources in one place regarding this subject matter, and the people who want to link to your site naturally will find that your site has real authority in this domain.

concentrated efforts will always win over diluted efforts.