While it is nice to have a comprehensive website that offers all the information your target audience needs, it is not always the best approach. Sometimes it is simply more effective to have a landing page or a completely self-contained microsite dedicated to a specific topic, which enhances it and focuses the visitor's attention.

What is a Microsite?

A microsite is, as the name implies, a small website, with few pages or even just one page of detailed content on a particular subject, in order to capture and keep the attention

• on a specific product, e.g. used at a new product launch;
• on a specific service;
• in the presentation of a contest;
• in the launch of an event, conference...

When big brands like McDonald's or Coca-cola organize a contest, they usually create a separate website for the duration of the sweepstakes entry period, once the contest is over, they take down the website. This is an excellent example of a microsite in action.

While they may be for some organic traffic purposes, they are often not part of a long-term SEO - Search Engine Optimization - strategy, rather they serve a concrete purpose, usually of short duration, and once the purpose is accomplished, the microsite is usually shut down and traffic from it pointed to the overall brand website.

What benefits can you find?

• Opportunity to highlight a specific theme or product
  Power greater consumer attention. A good example we often find is a real estate company creating a standalone microsite to highlight a top property or development and ensure it receives the right level of attention.
• Do smart testing
  These small sites are often a good opportunity to test the market and figure out what works best, before evolving into more detailed and complex sites.
• Greater agility
  Because of its smaller size and complexity of content, a microsite is easier and faster to create and generally involves lower investment, in contrast to larger projects that require months to design and program.

If you believe a microsite may be the right approach to what you want, remember that the first step is to define a clear purpose focused on a single goal. This will help you put the emphasis on a specific subject and define the content. With all this, it will be easy to find the right graphics and call to action that lead the visitor to accomplish what you thought for him. And monitor, always monitor, to understand the impact you have had.