Do you have one site, or multiple sites?

Question

As I've played around w/creating a business website, I found myself wanting to publish two sites: one for motivated sellers, and one for potential investors (private money folks).

I wonder how you all tackle this idea, that there are multiple facets to our business, and the message we have for one group is not appropriate for the others. I picture us potentially having one site that goes on our marketing materials - like yellow letters and postcards - and another site for business cards/networking.

So do you then have a couple of sites? Or do you have a way to do it all in one?

John Blackman · Answer

We use multiple sites as each has its own context.  The primary ones we use are:

1) Sales site, has all of the pretty finished product to go buy

2) Investor site, tells our story, our values, and how we treat investors.

One is for buyers and the other is for investors.  I would never merge these onto the same site.  Depending on what you do determines how many sites you need.  I believe each site should talk to a single desire so it is focused and clear.  The more your site does the less it stands out.

Karin Crompton · Answer

Thanks, everyone, I always enjoy hearing a variety of responses.

I think @Ted Schmidt and @Scott Costello touched on the same point I was trying to get to - the messaging and whether it would get mixed.

For example, let's say I'm sending out direct mail and including a website on that mail for those folks. The home page would be all about "We Pay Cash," "We Close Fast," and ways to help them out, etc etc. It'll address their problems and offer solutions.

However - when I want to tell a potential private money lender what we do, my message would be about the great returns on their investment, it'll tell them I buy properties cheap, etc. I'd probably include a blog about investing, probably before and after photos, that kind of thing. So this is a totally different message ... but aside from that, I wonder whether the notion of us buying properties cheap would be a turn-off to the motivated sellers? (Granted, we'll make it clear to them that we're investors and buy at a discount - but they don't need that shoved in their face, so to speak.)

But there is the time and cost factor as well. I'd need to keep them updated, and one site is certainly easier than two. So for the people who have one site, what do you put on the home page? What's the one, broad-based message that appeals to everyone, whether a motivated seller, a fellow investor, or a potential private money lender? And then from there, do they simply choose the tab that matches the reason for their visit?

Scott Costello · Answer

For my wholesaling business I like to have 2 websites...a company site and a seller lead generating site.  The reason why I like to separate the two is that I don't want my sellers getting bogged down with to much information.  They are interested in selling their property, so the site they reach via search will just tell them about all the ways the can sell their property and get cash fast with no hassles.  It's all about solving their problems.

My company site does have a seller section as well, but deals with my overall business. Buyers and sellers and private money lenders.

Hope that helps

Ted Schmidt · Answer

Karin,

That is a great question and is a topic that I have been struggling with for 16 years.

My original intuitive approach was to make every site highly focused on a narrow niche in a large market place.  This strategy has paid off in SEO at the expense of having a single place and methodology for managing the sites.

Recently I have been more inclined to publish dual purpose sites in vertical niches where there is little or no competition. These sites have sections for borrower - lender , buyer - seller, investor - home buyer, etc.

If the domain is too broadly focused on general terms like real estate, mortgages, investments, etc., it will be completely meaningless from an organic search perspective.  The only way to get traffic to those site is pay, and pay a lot!

I spend a great deal of time updating and managing the different sites, not to mention the domain fees.  Most of these sites appear on the 1st page of Google and many of them number 1.

I hope this information is helpful.

Christine Glasner · Answer

We don't have a website yet.  Is a splash page the same as a squeeze page?

Aaron Montague · Answer

Multiple websites and/or splash pages are good ways to capture the effectiveness of your marketing.

You need to be slightly creative with your URLs.  Make sure your folks have a reason to hit up splash pages directly.  If you offer 5% OFF services in "City 1", make sure they can only get that discount through that splash page.  People are fairly savvy, so a URL like:

myREsite.com/goherefor5discount

Is mostly going to drive people to myREsite.com.  But if they realize the discount is not available directly from the site, they'll find that splash page.  It gives you a good idea of how effective your non-online advertising is going.  You control where links arrive from Google Ads, and such, so it is less vital.

Will Barnard · Answer

For what you are wanting to do, one site would be fine, however, you may want to create some splash pages to drive traffic to your website and capture leads there.

Aaron Montague · Answer

@Karin DiMauro

It is login based.  I need to create the login, as that part of the site isn't open to anyone.  I have my current holdings, possible investments and a contact page on the public side.

The rest of my site is behind the scenes.  What folks can see back here is login dependent as well.  What I see is different than what my investors see.

Karin Crompton · Answer

Oh that's interesting, @Aaron Montague - so who goes where? And do they log in to the private area?

Aaron Montague · Answer

You can manage both under 1 site.  Unless  your sites have totally different purposes, I would keep the information together.

My site has a public area and a private area.