Microsites: Subdomain vs own domains

[kinimod]

I am working on a travel site about a specific region, which includes information about lots of different topics, such as weddings, surfing etc. I was wondering whether its a good idea to register domains for each topic since it would enable me to build backlinks. I would basically keep the design more or less the same and implement a nofollow navigation bar to each microsite.

e.g.
weddingsbarcelona.com
surfingbarcelona.com

or should I rather go with one domain and subfolders:

barcelona.com/weddings
barcelona.com/surfing

I guess the second option is how I would usually do it but I just wanted to see what are the pros/cons of both options.

Many thanks!

[vivekrathore]

I prefer the second option as you dont have to build Domain Authority for both the domains seperately. Building Links and DA is a cumbersome task in itself and doing it double is double the effort.

Building links for a single domain for one domain is half the task and double the profit. Both your sub-folders will benefit from the main domain authority.

Hope it helps.

[kwoolf]

From all the data I've gathered, I see the best way to go is subfolder. An exception might be if somebody searches for weddings in Barcelona, I think weddingsbarcelona.com would come first, all other factors being equal. How much that means to you I'm not sure, but if you want a safe way to go I say subfolders, as your SEO efforts for one will also help the other.

[vivekrathore]

exact-match domain will not help seo rankings. EMDs are no longer as helpful as they once were.

[JaneCopland]

Unless there is a specific reason to keep the areas separate (e.g. you don't want people to be confused about the brand, or one activity is very inappropriate when paired with the other), it's usually best to keep the content on the same domain. brand.com/activity also usually looks more professional than exact-match-keyword.com. Furthermore, you often gain more trust when people see that the site's offering is well-rounded and includes a variety of activities.

You can also benefit from accumulating good reviews from happy customers to just one website, rather than accumulating surfing holiday reviews for one of your travel sites, wedding holiday reviews for another and so on.

Again, if you feel that the subjects clash badly and will create a weird user experience, you might look at developing different websites, but if you have a range of different activities / holidays that involve one location, I'd be 99% confident that these should all site on the same domain.