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Is WordPress Multisite Right for You?
SEO Considerations

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SEO Is HARD.
 Keep up with Google’s latest
technical requirements
 Push out a ton of high quality and
well-keyword-optimized content
on a regular basis
 Acquire quality inbound links for
the domain
 Constantly monitor performance
 Consult with an SEO expert or
agency on a regular basis

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SEO Is EXPENSIVE.
SEO can easily end up being a five-figure-per-year investment.
The moment you deploy another website, that expense nearly doubles.

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SEO Opportunities for Multiple Websites
 Claim more than one spot
on Page 1 of search results

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SEO Opportunities for Multiple Websites
 Show search engines that each site is clearly focused on one topic or
geographical location
 Makes each individual site more likely to rank for its topic or within its
target region

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SEO Opportunities for Multiple Websites
 Incorporate desirable keywords in each domain name*
*This “exact match domain” SEO tactic doesn’t carry the weight that it used to
in the past, but it certainly does still carry some weight.

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Network Design Decision
If you want to try to realize some of these potential SEO benefits, and are
certain that you can handle the additional workload and budgetary investment
required for optimizing multiple sites, then your next decision is how to deploy
and start managing your multiple websites.
Multiple (Different)
Domains
Subdirectories Subdomains
domainone.com,
domaintwo.com, etc.
maindomain.com/site1,
maindomain.com/site2,
etc.
site1.maindomain.com,
site2.maindomain.com,
etc.

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Multiple Domains
domainone.com, domaintwo.com, etc.
Benefits Downsides Good fit for…
“Exact Match
Domain”
opportunity
Must build up domain
authority for each
domain separately
For global organizations that need
a strong search engine presence in
multiple different countries, a
multi-domain approach with
different country code top-level
domains (aka ccTLDs), i.e.
maindomain.au for Australia and
maindomain.es for Spain, can be of
particular benefit

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Subdirectories
maindomain.com/site1, maindomain.com/site2, etc.
Benefits Downsides Good fit for…
Eliminates the
issue of having
to acquire high
quality links on
multiple
domains
Does not offer the
benefit of having
various “exact match
domain” names
For an organization that has limited
resources for public relations and
social media efforts, the
subdirectory approach can make
more sense than having separate
domain names—since search
engines will see all the content as
belonging to a single site

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Subdomains
site1.maindomain.com, site2.maindomain.com, etc.
Benefits Downsides Good fit for…
Offers the opportunity to
use keywords in the
subdomain name, yet have
all sites share a main
domain and therefore
somewhat share inbound
link equity across the
network
Domain authority
still needs to be built
up separately for
each subdomain by
acquiring reputable
inbound links for
each
Franchises or companies
with multiple physical
locations, where each
individual location will be
doing its own marketing
efforts for its own site

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No Single Right Answer
• As you can see, there’s no single best approach here. Different approaches
make sense for different businesses.
• And the decision on how to set up your Multisite network gets even more
complicated if there’s already separate domains or subdomains in existence.
• The decision of whether to maintain that structure, or whether to use
the transition to WordPress Multisite as an opportunity to consolidate
or change the structure, must take into account:
• How long the separate domains or subdomains have been in
existence
• How much inbound link equity each has
• How much the keywords in the domains or subdomains seem to
be having an impact on rankings.

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Recommended
Reading
• SEO Considerations for Managing Multiple
Websites