Are three sites better than one?

[frobn]

I am working with a broker who has three offices in So Florida. I was planning on setting up three separate web sites. He asked if it would be better to set up one web site with separate sections for each office. While I can see pros and cons with both approaches I am wondering which would be better from a SEO perspective. I would appreciate feedback.

Thank you.

[johnc]

With more than one sites, it is possible for you to exchange one way backlink; e.g. link the other webmaster's site from one of your sites and ask for link back to your other sites.

[HomeSurfer]

I've always felt one strong website was better than multiple web sites, especially nowadays, especially if you're talking about Google. Plus, it is easier to focus your efforts on building it up so that search engines consider it to be a serious source of information as opposed to simply being a marketing tool.

I mean, why do you think newspaper sites do well nowadays? They inform consumers, PLUS they act as a marketing tool.

There are others who will not agree.

[vegas-kid]

There is no right answer to that question IMO. You need to determine the goals of the broker and that will answer the question for you.

Does he want the sites as a selling resource for his agents? Does he want the sites to simply say i have a site or is he actually going to spend money marketing them to buyers?

Ask the Broker his goals and make sure he understands the obstacles, then you will have your answer.

Vegas-kid

p.s. yeah! 15 posts.

[Nu-Home-Source-Realty]

I have many sites, so i can hit many different keywords. More targeted traffic

[ericbramlett]

From a purely SEO perspective, I think that one site is better than multiple. You want as many IBL's as possible, and it's easier to focus on one site than 3. That being said, I have 8 sites that I market - but that's for marketing reasons rather than SEO reasons. (Yeah 15th Post!)

[MR22]

I would go with one site as well, you could still rank for the other keywords as long as you do some good seo on the inner pages, plus it would be alot easier to manage.

[northcaptiva]

I have multiple sites with one main site that gets most of my traffic. The other sites still generate a few leads now and then. Since we do everything in house, every lead is worth the extra effort. We also target each site to different keywords... so they all show up in different places on different seach engines. Every now and then, it helps us have multiple sites on the first page of a term... knocking out some of our weaker competitors.

[Kyle]

1 site that is has a high "PageRank", multiple pages of content and select key words in the text of the site, is MUCH MORE successful than multiple sites. Email me if still interested I will give you some more info.

[Nu-Home-Source-Realty]

my second site just hit the top ten of google in less then four months. i have many others that will be there soon.

[erogers]

With MSN and Yahoo algos being rather different than Google, I think many folks are forced to "abandon" MSN and Yahoo after a certain while to go after Google. With multiple sites, I can optimize for Google with my main site and still catch MSN and Yahoo traffic with my other domains.

[spanishproperty]

Of course 3 sites are better than 1 - if its done properly. Theres no good having 3 sites that are poorly maintained and poorly built, the same with one site.

Its like having all your eggs in one basket having one site unless this site is absolutely one hell of a site that pulls in the business.

I have never seen one website that has good search results in all three main search engines - it is better to have 3 well run sites optimised for the different SE's.