Multi-site SEO is a complex but essential strategy for businesses managing multiple domains or subdomains.
It’s not just about optimizing each site in isolation – it’s about creating a unified approach that ensures all domains work together to boost rankings and conversions.
By building a cohesive digital presence, multi-site SEO helps businesses target different audiences, meet specific user needs, and consolidate SEO authority.
This approach can significantly enhance visibility and performance, but only when executed with detailed planning and a clear strategy.
What Is Multi-Site SEO?
Multi-site SEO is the practice of optimizing multiple domains or websites under a single organization.
It involves a centralized codebase that operates as the brain across the network, while strategically allowing administrators to manage each site’s content, pages, keywords, and internal links separately to avoid internal competition while boosting visibility.
For enterprise companies with diverse brands, locations, or audience segments, multi-site SEO is critical to creating a cohesive digital presence.
It allows businesses to cater to various customer needs while building domain authority across their entire portfolio.
Additionally, a multi-site network allows the content and codebase to be managed centrally while providing the option for unique customizations for each of the child sites.
Image from author, October 2024
The Top 9 Multi-Site SEO Tactics We Used For Orlando.org
When we had the opportunity to lead the multi-site SEO and website strategy for Orlando.org, it was a unique challenge.
The Orlando Economic Partnership (OEP) was managing four different web properties, each targeting distinct audiences – businesses, talent, investors, and media.
These websites were disconnected, had separate management, and faced issues with data tracking, SEO performance, and user experience.
Integrating these sites into one cohesive multi-site architecture wasn’t just about improving SEO; it was about streamlining and end-to-end experience.
Here’s how we did it.
Screenshot from Orlando Economic Partnership, October 2024
1. Selecting The Right Domain Structure And Centralized Architecture
One of the most critical decisions in multi-site SEO is selecting the appropriate domain structure.
Here are three primary options, each with its own impact on SEO:
Separate Domains: Ideal for businesses with distinct brands, separate domains allow each site to target different audiences without overlap. However, this structure requires considerable effort to build authority for each domain, as SEO equity doesn’t transfer between them.
Subdomains: Subdomains (e.g., blog.example.com) are separate from the main domain but share some of its authority. This structure provides flexibility to target different keywords while retaining some SEO benefits from the root domain. Additionally, it allows each of the websites within the sub-domain to retain a centralized codebase but with unique layouts and design templates.
Subdirectories: Subdirectories (e.g., example.com/blog) are part of the main domain and directly benefit from its existing SEO authority. This structure is easier to manage but might limit flexibility when targeting different audience segments or geographic locations.
After careful analysis, we decided that a subdomain structure was the best choice.
This setup allowed us to create distinct spaces for businesses, talent, investors, and media while keeping SEO authority centralized under the parent domain.
Each subdomain could be tailored to its audience’s needs, and the flexibility in targeting keywords was critical for improving performance.
Screenshot from Orlando Economic Partnership, October 2024
By using a centralized architecture with subdomains, we simplified content management, optimized user flow, and ensured SEO authority was distributed efficiently.
This strategy prevented internal competition between subdomains while allowing each one to rank for its intended audience.
2. Audience Research And User Behavior
The foundation of our strategy was rooted in deep audience research. We analyzed the behaviors, pain points, and goals of each target group to tailor the subdomains accordingly:
Businesses: Needed insights into Orlando’s infrastructure, tax benefits, and talent pool to determine whether relocating or expanding in the city made sense.
Talent: Focused on job opportunities, cost of living, and lifestyle factors like housing and schools to decide if Orlando was the right place to live and work.
Investors: Required data on Orlando’s economic growth, market opportunities, and potential returns, relying on detailed investment case studies.
Media: Needed quick access to press releases, success stories, and economic statistics to cover developments in Orlando’s growth.
Through this research, we developed ideal user journeys for each division.
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By developing user personas for each audience, we ensured that each subdomain addressed the specific search behavior and content preferences of its users, which guided our strategy.
3. Establishing Content Silos For Audience Segmentation
Creating content silos was essential to improve SEO relevance and user engagement. Each subdomain had clearly defined content categories aligned with user intent, ensuring that visitors found exactly what they needed.
For OEP, we segmented the site into four content silos – each targeting a specific audience (businesses, talent, investors, and media).
Screenshot from author, October 2024
This helped improve the clarity of messaging while bolstering topical authority for search engines. Each subdomain’s content and keywords were optimized to serve its specific audience’s needs without overlap, ensuring a streamlined user experience.
Screenshot from Orlando Economic Partnership, October 2024
Important Tip For Avoiding Duplicate Content
Multi-site SEO strategies often risk duplicate content and keyword cannibalization, especially when managing multiple subdomains.
To avoid this, we implemented canonical tags and conducted regular content audits to ensure that each subdomain had unique, well-optimized content tailored to its audience.
This prevented internal competition between subdomains and kept each site ranking for its targeted keywords.
4. Configuring The Multi-Site Website Architecture
Once we had a solid understanding of our audiences, we turned our attention to building a centralized, multi-site architecture.
This allowed all digital properties to be managed under one domain while still serving segmented content via subdomains.
The key to this architecture was establishing dynamic data relationships across content types. By centralizing the content database, we could repurpose specific content across subdomains with tailored messaging for each audience.
Through user research, we analyzed user journeys, drop-offs, and conversion paths to guide the type of data relationships needed.
For example, businesses needed to see success stories, but the same content could be reframed to attract talent by emphasizing job creation.
Image from author, October 2024
5. Mapping Out Our Content Types And Taxonomies
To make content easily accessible and cross-promote it across subdomains, we categorized it using flexible content types, such as Page, Post, Video, Podcast, Event, Success Story, Statistic, Downloadable, Company, etc.
We also used taxonomies to categorize content to help us build key relationships across the various content types like: Industries, Topics, Regions, Team/Unit, Post Type, Department, Theme, etc.
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This system allowed us to connect the same content to different subdomains, depending on how it was categorized.
For instance, market data relevant to investors could also appear under businesses or regions, ensuring that content was dynamically linked across the site.
Example Use Case: Cross-Promoting Content
In the aviation industry, we tailor existing content types to the audience:
Company profiles could highlight leading tech companies in Orlando, attracting new businesses.
Team member bios would show key executives, enticing talent.
Statistics could show key stats for the industry relative to attracting businesses or talent.
Downloadables like reports on market growth could capture investor interest.
Screenshot from author, October 2024
By linking content like market data, company profiles, and team members through smart taxonomies, we ensured the same content was shown to the right audience across subdomains.
This not only improved SEO by focusing content around related keywords but also enhanced user experience, providing visitors with a more tailored journey.
6. Establishing Our Domain Transition Phases
Phase 1: Content Audit And Consolidation
The first step was a comprehensive content audit to identify which content needed updating, which could be consolidated, and what could be pruned.
By eliminating duplicate content and refining the focus of each subdomain, we ensured we wouldn’t compete with ourselves.
Image from author, October 2024
Phase 2: Prioritized Migration And Data Relationships