Comparing Authority Sites and Mini Sites

Mini sites and authority sites represent two alternative online marketing models, and not everyone understands the real differences. Usually it is the newer people to online business who sometimes wonder which is best to build. Actually, there are a number of things to think about as well as to consider, as it concerns search engine algorithms and personality (Google).

What it really comes down to, however, is your own personality and your long term goals for your business. Authority sites and mini sites both have certain features to recommend them, and we'll be looking at some of these below.

Whether you decide on a mini or authority site will depend to a large extent on what kind of market you want to target. Even when the two types of sites target similar markets, they'll be doing so in a different manner.

If you wanted to target a broad range of products within a particular market, then you can accomplish that quite easily with a large authority site. If this is a large market, then a mini site wouldn't give you the scope to promote more than one or two products. Which approach you decide is entirely up to you, and there are many reasons why you would want to choose one over the other.

Google enforces its ideas and preferences by creating algorithms that make it harder on sites that go against what they want. If you listen to what it's been saying recently, you can be sure that mini sites are considered less valuable than sites with more valuable content, i.e. authority sites. If your site is considered thin, or lacking in content, you'll be given a low quality score, in a similar way you'd have to pay more if you were advertising with pay per click. Ranking highly with a mini site, then, and effectively optimizing it, is going to take more time and work than before. The same efforts that would have gotten you lots of traffic earlier this year or before will get you less now. We can't change how Google ranks sites, so we have to live with it.

Authority sites are also excellent tools for establishing fast credibility. Large sites filled with helpful information are just more credible to visitors. The larger sites simply invite the assumption of authority for many people. This is how credibility is often established. This is something that would not often happen with mini sites. But those tend to be very rare, indeed.

Have you been asking yourself if it is better to create an authority or mini site? The question seems to be asked more by the inexperienced online marketer. Still though, we all have our unique desires and goals for what we want to do. We would not suggest you do something for reasons that conflict with your desires and natural interests. But no matter what, you will benefit from learning as much as possible about both authority and mini sites.