Is a microsite worth pursuing in this example?

[Michael_Rock]

It appears that the site www.wilsonevergreens.com has all of the strengths in place but cannot get past the 'plateau' for ranking for 'christmas wreaths.

I knew that Google put a strong emphasis on have the keyword in the TLD and this is where Wilson Evergreens is lacking so I considered a microsite to rank for the keyword phrase that will point to Wilson Evergreen's site.

Examining the option of TLDs and using them show that pretty much the same sites show up in the results whether you use 'christmas wreaths' or 'wreaths for christmas'.

According to Google AdWords External Keyword Tool both terms are searched for about equally. I did a search for purchasing the domain www.wreathsforchristmas.com and it was taken but the .net version was available.

The site www.wreathsforchristmas.com does not even show up in the SERPs for 'wreaths for christmas'. However it is a poorly constructed site with almost no marketing so I can understand why.

Quote from Rand Fishkin, "If you have an exact match domain name for a particular keyword you're targeting, microsites can be powerful. Google's preference for and ranking boost given to exact-match domains is a very powerful tool to use for SEO. " (from http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites)

My question is do you think it is worth purchasing www.wreathsforchristmas.net to boost sales for www.wilsonevergreens.com?

[RyanKent]

Do you think it is worth purchasing www.wreathsforchristmas.net to boost sales for www.wilsonevergreens.com?

The question cannot be answered without knowing more information. The answer varies greatly by business model.

• How much profit do you earn per customer?

• What is your conversion rate?

• What is the traffic for the term in #s?

• What rank are you committed to achieving and how much will that cost? You need to compute the cost of acquiring the domain, building the site, and any SEO necessary to obtain and hold the specified ranking.

Once you have answers to the above questions, it's time to do the math. Based on a particular ranking and search volume, you can estimate how much traffic your microsite would receive. Next, you can compute your conversion rate and establish a dollar figure for sales. Finally, you can look at how profitable those sales are to help you understand if it is a worthwhile pursuit.

All of the numbers involved are estimates, but they can give you an idea sometimes of "no way" or "definitely". When the numbers are middle of the road is when you either skip the project as not having a big enough payoff, or you examine making changes to improve metrics under your control such as profitability or conversion rate.

[EGOL]

It appears that the site www.wilsonevergreens.com has all of the strengths in place but cannot get past the 'plateau' for ranking for 'christmas wreaths.

Are you sure?  I think that the competitors have you outgunned, have better content and have superior optimization.

Not bashing... just sayin'.

If you buy a keyword domain and put your same site with same assets on it you will still be getting your butt whipped. You would still have the same problem.

I say improve your current site and forget about the microsite.  Attracting traffic to a microsite to hope that they click off to your main site and hope that they buy something there is like trying to kill a rabbit with a ricochet.  Forget that and just shoot the damn rabbit!

Your site appears on page four for "christmas wreaths" with the index page ranking.  Although your wreath's page is better optimized than the homepage it is not your best ranking page for that query because it is a weak page.   Your homepage is more powerful than your wreath's page but it is poorly optimized for "christmas wreaths".

If I owned your site my short-term attack  would be to reoptimize my homepage... load it with christmas wreaths... and use it to attack the  "christmas wreaths" SERPs.  That might improve your rankings but I am still confident that your site will not have the mojo to make the first page.....  so my long-term attack would be to produce incredible, fantastic,  asskicking, best-on-the-web content in the christmas wreath theme, get it on my site and promote it with the hope of attracting a lot of very high quality links.

"christmas wreaths" is not the easiest SERPs to win and there are a number of fantastic sites above you.  Do not think that you have an easy battle in front of you.

If you want to win in these SERPs you will need to develop an attitude.

You will need to exert yourself and improve your site so that it will convince everyone everywhere that you are The Man in the christmas wreath business.  If your attitude is for anything less then you are not going to win.  Keep in mind that at least a few people above you and a few people below you are excited, hungry and aggressive about doing the same thing.  So be sure that you set your goals above what is already out there.

If you think that you are The Man in the christmas wreath business then you might be able to do this... but keep in mind that it will not be easy.

Good luck!