I've been wondering if it is better to create one large site, or to create several sites targeting various vertical markets in the same area. I just don't know which way makes more sense, I have more than 30 domain names for various parts of the market, from luxury homes, to active adult community and communities surrounding our large metro area.

I have thought about creating separate sites for each and linking them to each other and targeting the content of each site to that specific market while providing services and content to the general metro area as well.

Any thoughts on which way to go would be greatly appreciated.

I'm new to this site and have found a wealth of information already.

I prefer to focus on one quality website as opposed to a bunch of little ones. 30 times the websites require 30 times the links, 30 times the content etc - not worth the effort when you can rank one larger site for many terms.

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I should have clarified that I'm only looking at 5 or 6 sites actually. I'm located in a market that is dominated by a particular agent. So it we will never be able to get above that agent, therefore looking at other ways to draw attention and get visitors.

If I went with one site I'm not sure how to segment the site to make the content area and interest specific.

One quality site is better, in my opinion. Unless, they are totally unrelated to one another and cover different topics.

Hardly anyone ever agrees with me, though -- on lots of topics (not just this one). And that is sort of a good thing.

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I have my main site (Cook County) and have created a couple of smaller sites, including my Oak Lawn site below and an accompanying but separate blog. Here's what I like about doing it this way.

The Cook County site covers such a large area and even though I optimize certain pages for my other large suburbs of Chicago, the main page is not specific enough to those suburbs (I work in over 40 of them, about 10 are large enough for their own separate site but I'm focusing on 2 larger suburbs and their surrounding neighbors).

My Oak Lawn site is not that competitive so I don't need to spend quite as much time constantly getting links for it. I've only got one top position in Google with it but am waiting for other kw's to rise. Same with my Oak Lawn blog. What I do like is that in MSN I have #1 & #2 positions with both sites for some kw's (& sometimes my Cook County site is on the lst page too (so I have 3 sites on the lst page-no dupe content), #1 for one site & a lower # for another, etc. This way, if for some reason a kw I'm trying to target for one site doesn't make it then it seems like the other one does (for now in MSN).

As mentioned, sometimes when you cover a huge area like I do, a larger, main site does seem somewhat impersonal compared to other sites that are made for a specific town, even if you have a page or more on the large site for those towns.

Also, if for some reason your site drops out of one of the major se's, hopefully one of your other sites will back you up. It is more work and effort but again, it's usually a bit less work with the smaller area specific sites.

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I am having a hard time deciding this as well, it should be said, I am a new agent and so far don't really have much for a real estate website. I feel like if you can make 3-4 websites that look/function great then go for it. It may be hard for you to get on the top of the search engines with all of them, however in your other advertising you could put a luxury homes website url on that target audience. If you look like an expert in your field more people will want to use you so I think if you can look like 3 experts why not play the field.

Just my 2cents!!

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I'd go with one site. It's much easier to maintain, and if you segment it to specific categories, locations, etc., you'll still get the visitors. Also, a larger site with more information makes it easier for the visitors that may have more than one interest. They really don't want to be clicking from site to site if the information they want is all in one place. That makes your one main site all that much more valuable not only to your visitors, but to the search engines because you'll have much more content there.

Another thing to consider is that many search engines can or will penalize you for interlinking too many sites on the same ISP block. The reason for this is that search engine spammers and manipulators used to just generate 100 of sites, sometimes almost identical, but geared towards different keywords, and interlink them all to mimic "popularity". In order to avoid potential penalties, you'd have to host them on separate servers, or with separate hosting companies.

One site with all the information as opposed to several specific sites is kind of like comparing a book to a brochure. You don't need to worry about falling out of the search engines if you're writing good, original content that's important to your visitors, as opposed to using the latest fad to move up in the search engines. And if you constantly look for link partners that will actually deliver traffic, that gives you a good cushion, too.

Your print ads, email sigs, correspondence, brochures should obviously all have your web site included, and that should give you steady traffic, too. You wouldn't want to send them to a half dozen different places. That would dilute your purpose.

I would say the only advantage to go with many is that sometimes if you have a good website theme going you can beat out larger and more popular sites using geo targeting key words.

If the domains are good enough you may want to permently redirect them to your main site. I am surprised what people will actual type into web browsers. like www.keyword1keyword2keyword3keyword4.com

I have many websites and what people are saying is true.

I'm glad I read this post because I was thinking of spinning off some of my pages into seperate websites. I already have more specific domain names that I currently point to those pages. Some of my pages rank better than my home page for certain key words. I thought I would do one with my name as the domain so clients who already know me can find me and then unbranded ones for different neighborhoods etc. for new leads from surfers but all linking to one another. Would that hurt my SE rankings if I have several sites?

I think there are advantages to both...I think the only way you can have multiple sites work for you is to focus EACH site on a specific topic, and have those sites optimized for those specific topics. For example, I have one client who has 8 sites... 6 focus on one particular town. These sites are now ranking quite well for that specific 'town' search and are optimized solely for ONE community. Another site is focused only on LISTINGS. No MLS, no buyer info, just tons of information on how to interview an agent to list your house, how to prepare and price your house for sale, and page by page illustrations of everything that agent does to market your home. The other site is the main [general] website.

All of these sites are heavily cross linked as well, which helps in rankings.

On some searches, his sites comprise 2 or 3 and sometimes 4 slots in the top ten.

More importantly, last November, one site got zapped by Google for some reason. It completely disappeared from the index for about 4 weeks, then reappeared. (ah, Big Brother!) However, for that 4 week period, he was still receiving plenty of traffic due to the other sites. So, you're also not married to Google and their algorythm changes, etc. If one site drops, the others may remain, etc. It's just a good strategy if you have the time, if you can afford it, and most importantly, if you keep all site completely and totally unique with unique content and focus. (just to insure rankings, we've also hosted all of these sites on different servers as well).

But there's something to be said for putting all your energy into making one really good, effective site - which is more than most people ever do!