Considering Using External Domain Name To Build Separate Community

[Trone]

We are currently working with a client who sells classic Chevy muscle car parts: www.classicmuscle.com. They also own OldMuscleCars.com which is being redirected to the classic muscle site. Through our remarketing efforts in Adwords, we've noticed a growing number of affiliate blogs/forums/auto community sites (ex: classiccars.com) where customers are hanging out and seeing our banner ads.

Our thought is to potentially create a new community site centered around muscle cars in general (not just chevy which is CM's specialty) that can be used in part as a lead gen tool (banners and text links would lead back to the classic muscle site) as well as a platform to explore other highly sought after vehicles (potentially expand outside of current chevy models or into other brands like ford). My questions is what are the implications of creating a site like this and are there any concerns (ranking or otherwise) with linking back to the classic muscle site? We're already ranked well for a majority of our current target keywords so link juice is really a secondary motive to lead gen.

Best regards, Ryan

[reserve123]

I like your idea, and I think the fact that you are proactively looking at potential situations speaks volumes.  Having said that, my best advice would be the following:

1.  Make sure that you create unique content on your new site that does not overlap or duplicate anything on the current site.  The user experience should be entirely different between the two sites.

2.  Do not create links or banners all over the new site linking back to the other site.  Something thoughtful is fine, but tread lightly.  Powered by www.ClassicMuscle.com in the footer might be ok, but no guarantees.

If you create something of merit, there will be loads of value created in the lead gen department without relying on people clicking on links or ads.  The community will tell you what they want, and if you actively moderate it, I suspect you will find a lot of business.