This NADA was riddled with the Microsite buzz or at least where I was. I heard more than a few sessions on this topic and it amazes me sometimes that these “Experts” who talk about microsites and conversion still think that if you just throw a Microsite out there it will instantly get traffic or if you build a lot of them somehow visitors will just trip into them.

Just quit it…Please!

Don't ruin a good thing before it ever gets started with these crazy notions of volume of sites and bad content.

A Microsite is:

1. Written and designed for a specific audience
2. Optimized to the visitors intent
3. Fulfills the promise made by the ad that drives the traffic
4. Simple easy to navigate with a specific purpose
5. Ultimately visitor generated through testing

A Microsite is not:

1. A deep link landing page within your Random Access Website
2. A duplicate of your Random Access Website
3. A copy of a vehicle brochure online
4. A duplicate of a vehicle listing (Your VDP)

I have heard there are now vendors duplicating the VDP (Vehicle Display Page) of your website or online listing into a Wordpress site and calling this a Microsite… Are you kidding me!

That’s just what you DON'T want to do: take something that is converting terribly, pay more money to duplicate it several times so we can get bad conversions for more money in other places…REALLY?

Dealers please understand what your goal is with conversion marketing through microsites before you jump in with these crazy Microsite schemes.

Vendors that are pushing this, stop understand what a Microsite is for before you get into conversion rate optimization. Don't just jump into this because it’s the buzz word of the day.  

Larry Bruce @pcmguy