Is it a bad idea to build unique sites to build credibility for your main site?

[ciinc]

It is hard to sum up the question in one line, but basically my company has bought several descriptive domains that we would like to build out into microsites that link back to our main site.

For example...say we are a florist. Our main site talks about all the different kinds of flowers we have and the work we do.

So the idea is to buy weddingflowersdallas.com (example only...) and have a mini site that has the same look and feel as our main site, but has unique content that talks solely about our wedding flower business and has a few links back to our main site.

1. Is this a no no from a google perspective?

2. Is this a good strategy in general?

Thanks,

David

[Theo-NL]

I think this would be 'Doorway pages' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doorway_page) and more specifically:

"More sophisticated doorway pages, called Content Rich Doorways, are designed to gain high placement in search results without using redirection. They incorporate at least a minimum amount of design and navigation similar to the rest of the site to provide a more human-friendly and natural appearance. Visitors are offered standard links as calls to action."

Doorway pages are not allowed by Google.

[ciinc]

Definitely have no desire to do anything close to black hat...so redirection and the like just isn't on the table.

We have several divisions here and while our main site talks about all of them, it is easy to get lost in the shuffle.

The idea here is to have a site with a descriptive domain that talks about a single division (i.e. wedding flowers as opposed to funeral arrangements). We would have links back to our main site, of course, for people to learn more about the company, but each site would have unique content and would stand on it's own.

[KeriMorgret]

The general response you'll see in the SEOmoz Q&A is towards spending your time on your main site rather than creating lots of micro sites. Arguments for one site include only having to update/maintain one site instead of five the next time there's an update to the software you're using, and not having to do all of your link building times five (if you have four micro sites and your main site). With microsites, you're often splitting up the value of your sites into pieces, rather than having all of the value go to your one main site.