Microsites are exactly what the name says: a smaller, targeted version of your regular website. Companies often need a separate website to highlight a particular promotion, product launch, product line or to just focus on branding and positioning. While landing pages are similar to microsites, they are typically focused on eliciting a limited, immediate response from a visitor, while microsites tend to focus on a deeper engagement with multiple calls to action.

When you have multiple product lines that each deserves specialized positioning, microsites can help with establishing differentiation building focused SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies. Even more than landing pages, microsites allow for detailed information, such as pictures, videos and product literature to be presented in a controlled context.

Often, new product launches are advertised using a three-prong strategy: TV, Radio and Online. TV commercials and Radio ads both get the primary messaging out, including a call to action such as a microsite URL. Microsites are also used as part of a segmented SEO plan. Often, when a particular section of a corporate website is not getting organic visibility, a microsite can help to clarify and differentiate that content, making it easier for search engines to classify and rank the value of that content. And the microsite is always just a click away from the full corporate site, enabling your overall marketing assets to provide support.

One example of a microsite being used to highlight a particular product is found on the Miele USA website. When you visit http://www.mieleusa.com, a microsite is available for the s7 vacuum:  http://www.mieleusa.com/s7/.

When building a microsite, you can choose between creating continuity with their main corporate site or differentiation from that site, based on the campaign and purpose. You can either use a completely separate domain name, or use a sub domain or directory off the main domain. You can also continue the corporate branding and look or establish a unique look.

Chick-fil-A chose to create microsites to highlight store locations. They even used the store address's street name in the URL to add to the SEO value. Here is a link for a Chick-fil-A microsite: http://www.cfarestaurant.com/blackstone/home.  In addition, for many companies, it offers a way to control the corporate branding at a local level.

The benefits of Microsites are clear

• Quick work around for SEO
• They offer a great way to testing consumer behavior
• Targeted content for quick action
• Corporate Branding control