One other interesting thing you mention is the Niche site acting as pre- sales for Product or Service site.
I’ve always used Niche sites for Products, but I have the feeling they may perform as well (or better) for Services. I find it harder to sell services online then it is to sell Products.

I’m going to have a try at (pre-)selling services from a Niche site….

Thanks!

You bring up two good concepts. For some companies, they may, in fact, want to sell that product directly on the niche site. Usability would dictate they do so if that fits their overall marketing / sales goals.

If you’re a services company, it’s clearly a case where you would want to provide contact type forms on the niche site as well. In that scenario I have seen conversions come from people who never leave the niche site AND I’ve seen conversions where people have clicked through to the main site. (People like to make choices as long as they are clear and intuitive to make).

Not optimizing for the exact same phrases may dilute the link value. There are so many nuances to whether that will happen or not, it would require it’s own break-out of testing to find out what the impact is.

At the very least, if the phrases the niche site is optimized for are tightly related (synonyms, etc.) to the main site, and thus the content is also, then such a situation would at least be mitigated.

Bottom line – test, experiment, test…

I agree that you have to plan and monitor it carefully, so that you can take action (or stop doing SEO…!) to prevent the Niche site taking over the main site.

On the other hand, when the Niche site ranks well for Big Blue Widgets, why would’t you want to sell it on the Niche site? If you direct them to the main site, it’s one extra click.

You also mention that it’s possible to optimise the Niche sites for different keywords than the main website. I think that’s a good way to prevent the Niche site from overtaking, but the backlinks may be less valuable, in that case.

It’s a very interesting subject that provides lot’s of food for thought…

Thanks, Alan!

I went back and read your previous post and think you’re a very good addition to SEJ.

Good Job!