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Crazy Or Not? Turning An Ecommerce Page Into A "Directory"

Planet13

6:03 am on Aug 23, 2011 (gmt 0)

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Suppose You Sell Brand X Cameras. Hence, you want to rank number 1 for the keywords "Brand X Cameras"

You have a category page named mydomain.com/brand-x-cameras.html that lists about 12 current models of Brand X Cameras for sale.

Brand X has been around for years and many models of brand X cameras are no longer available. No site has much information about those discontinued camera models.

Suppose you have information about 100 of those discontinued Brand X cameras and you create a page for each of those discontinued camera models (i.e., 100 new pages).

Would it be wise to link to it from your brand-x-cameras.html page, since it also links to the 12 current models of cameras?

My thought is that it would build up the "authority" of the brand-x-cameras.html page (since it acts as a "hub" to the pages with the discontinued cameras), but would hurt the longtail of the current products since the page rank would be split up amongst 100 new pages (which feature cameras that you can't even sell anymore.

Or, would it be a better idea to link from the brand-x-cameras.html to a SINGLE discontinued-cameras.html page, and from there link out to the 100 individual pages of discontinued cameras?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

lexipixel

7:28 am on Aug 23, 2011 (gmt 0)

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No site has much information about those discontinued camera models.

I'd take all the old camera info and build a "brand x camera history" site, (no ads, no links to your ecommerce site, no outbound links at all).

Once you get the "brand x camera history" site to rank, start adding links to your ecommerce site.

Planet13

3:35 pm on Aug 23, 2011 (gmt 0)

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@ lexipixel

I'd take all the old camera info and build a "brand x camera history" site, (no ads, no links to your ecommerce site, no outbound links at all).

Hmm...

I can see what you are getting at.

Can I ask if this is something that you have done yourself and seen good results?

I am reluctant to do this because Brand X Cameras are such an integral part of my ecommerce site that I worry the two sites might be "in competition" with each other for rankings.

Also, I want to use the page that links to the discontinued cameras as link bait, and I thought it would be better to have a page that will be attracting links ON the main ecommerce site as opposed to off the site.

Those are my concerns anyway.

HuskyPup

4:10 pm on Aug 23, 2011 (gmt 0)

Surely they won't be in competition with each other if the ecommerce site only sells new widgets and the directory site only has evergreen information of discontinued widgets?

I wouldn't hesitate linking them from the very start providing the information is different. YMMV!

lexipixel

4:28 pm on Aug 23, 2011 (gmt 0)

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Can I ask if this is something that you have done yourself and seen good results?

Not to give away any family secrets... but yes.

I almost always build "feeder sites" for ecommerce sites... blogs, directories, galleries, whatever info I have or can build that's not directly related to product(s) for sale or the selling process goes onto a separate site --- sometimes 2-3 of them.

Hoople

4:41 pm on Aug 23, 2011 (gmt 0)

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I created a non-commercial link site recently. The main competition's site ranking had been off the 1st SERPS page prior to my creating my link (directory) site and has since dropped further. I'm hoping my effort was the cause!

There are only two established 'authority' directory sites in this niche that's a sub-niche of a larger sector. The linked to site is small beans by WW standards; a few thousand views and less than $50k USD 'net' per year.

The first 'authority' directory site no longer takes new links nor responds to their form's email requests. The second has the links wrapped in a double link condom that makes a nofollow link seem juicy :-)

If there were more than two 'authority' directory sites I would have just persued link requests but felt the smallness of the niche justified the effort creating and linking such a site.

Planet13

5:41 pm on Aug 23, 2011 (gmt 0)

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@ lexipixel:

I almost always build "feeder sites" for ecommerce sites...

Thanks for the "confession."

Do you try to "hide" any connection from google that you own both the sites? (Like do you put them on separate servers, use separate google analytics / GWT accounts, etc.)?

Or do you leave it out in the open that you own both sites.

Also, I am worried about the "time investment" in getting a new site (the discontinued cameras site) to rank. It takes about all the time I have to build links to my ecommerce site - building links to a feeder site seems like it would be a significant time burden on top of continuing to build links to my ecommerce site.

...blogs, directories, galleries, whatever info I have or can build that's not directly related to product(s) for sale or the selling process goes onto a separate site --- sometimes 2-3 of them.

Doesn't that go against conventional wisdom? Don't most people suggest that you put the supplementary content ON THE SAME DOMAIN as the ecommerce site?

lexipixel

6:59 pm on Aug 23, 2011 (gmt 0)

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I put them on other servers and try to maintain a disconnect other than the inbound links to the money site.

Doesn't that go against conventional wisdom? Don't most people suggest that you put the supplementary content ON THE SAME DOMAIN as the ecommerce site?

I was giving an answer based on the facts you presented.

Your original post made it sound like "scrap content" somewhat-dated and your fear of diluting the PR of the ecommerce site's current "for sale" item pages.

Inbound links from a separate site would not dilute the PR of the ecommerce site.

There are many ways to skin a cat. If you can word the content so it sells the new products, keep it on the ecommerce site, e.g.-

"...in 1982 Brand-X introduced the "Model XYZ", over the years they've improved and refined the features adding focus-o-matic in 87, red-eye-be-gone in 91, and made the body smaller and lighter in 96... todays model the Model XYZ-11 is the culmination of nearly 30 years of innovation..." [Click Here] for latest models.

If it's good, original content that can add to the ecommerce site's overall user exerpience, that's another way to go.

Planet13

8:26 pm on Aug 23, 2011 (gmt 0)

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Hi again, lexipixel:

If it's good, original content that can add to the ecommerce site's overall user exerpience, that's another way to go.

yeah, I think that is what it is more analogous to. I don't think i will be able to monetize it. I just thought that if google saw that there was a LOT of content on my site related to the main keyword, I might score more authority points in google's eyes, and I might be able to get some more inbound links more easily.