How Best To Accommodate A Site's Changing Subject Matter?

[94501]

Hi,

I'm dealing with a several year old site that has had a lot of success in organic search around one particular subject and is now evolving into other subjects. Would like your experience on how best to handle this.

Here's what we have so far:

First, the site was about niche craft carpentry. Then, it added training. Then, it added training in other subjects in smatterings, like plumbing, electrical, etc.

Now it's considering adding training in subjects even further from niche craft carpentry. So, interior decorator training, landscaping training, etc.

Nearly all of it's organic search traffic (about 200,00 per month) comes from blogs, articles and discussions related to the original topic of niche craft carpentry... not training. As we've branched out from carpentry into carpentry training and then other subject training, have not had great success in organic with these new less related topics. We've had some for carpentry training type terms, but not much else.

If the site owners are hell bent on expanding into these other training subjects for business reasons other than search, how would you structure it?

For instance, would you go originalsitename.com/landscaping or landscaping.OriginalSiteName.com or what?

I understand that a landscaping.originalsitename.com is for all intents and purposes a new domain name and won't have the authority of the original. However, would it have more chance of breaking free of how Google has pigeon-holed the original site's subject matter as niche carpentry-relevant only?

Or, would you just keep adding subjects to the original domain name and figure that one of these days google is going to see it as the Lynda.com of an expanding galaxy of home improvement?

I should add that the future of the site is training, so landscape training or interior design training is pretty far from high end niche carpentry stuff.

What do you think?

Thanks!

[ClaytonJ]

Answer - 100% = originalsitename.com/landscaping. I am an evangelist on this topic with clients!

The nexus is there and I am not sure it is that far removed. People who are looking for training are looking to be educated on related areas.  I would not put much thought into the choices as the above is superior to a subdomain for ranking purposes generally.

I also suggest you have a read of this article  http://www.bruceclay.com/seo/silo.htm which may also facilitate higher rankings for the new pages when implemented.

[bdiddy]

I agree with John. Keep it on the root domain and avoid diluting the online equity you have.

About a year ago I went though this with a client in a similar niche, contracting. The company had multiple websites and was considering dividing them up even further. However, we took the opposite approach and consolidated all their web properties into a single site.

Organization, that's the key. I'm talking about the design as well as the navigation structure. On this particular site we instructed the web developer to color code each section to differentiate the content even further.

The results were great and traffic didn't fall off. In fact, we were able to start attracting traffic for a wider variety of keywords.

Google is smart. It will adapt and learn what your website is about as it evolves.

[94501]

HI John & Brodie,

Point taken. What if the subject matter gets even more further field than the original/existing subject matter. Would it ever be an answer to subdomain.OriginalSiteName.com ?

Thanks!

[bdiddy]

Yes, but this is a judgement call. There's not necessarily a right or wrong answer.

We went through this with our own company last month. We updated and branded our reputation management software which is much different from our agency business. We decided to go with a completely separate domain, ReviewJump.com, knowing full well that it would require a completely separate marketing strategy. In effect, we split our available resources (time, labor, budget) in order to build up this separate property. In the end we felt it was worth it, even though it meant starting from "scratch."

How different are your subject matters and does it make logical sense to separate them? Then, I guess the question is, are you willing to split your marketing resources between multiple properties?

[ClaytonJ]

Brodie has identified the issue - it is splitting available resources. The work that goes into one domain is huge. If you have two domains - then you are doubling the work.

Ie I use the house analogy. Two domains is like owning two houses, two sets of bills, travel between the two, everything different. You likely need different resources, to make it look and feel differently to some extent. If you keep everything on the same domain - it is like adding a new room to an existing house, so overall the bills are kept down. You can tidy up everything as you move around the one house.

So I always try and err on the side of caution, and try wherever possible to fit within a existing well maintained domain assuming there is a content and relevant nexus. However if the nexus is not there - then well you have no option.  As stated by Brodie it is a judgment call. The positive is you can always buy a new house later....  even if you start on your current domain. Also if you want to sidestep the decision all together - you can leave the decision to the money men - CFO and let them know they need to double the digital budget - and see what they say... with a brand new domain...

Good luck hope you have enough info to make the right decision.