Structure for multiple sites.

Hello,

Currently I have 5 websites, which had already been difficult to maintain and even worse now financially given the state of the world.  Three of the websites offer services that target the same people, but slightly different offerings.  For instance 1. Is an annual conference/event for artists.  2. Retreat for artists that is offered 2 -3 times a year.  3. On the job training at historical non-profits.

What I want to do Is to combine all 3 of the before mentioned websites.  So when you put in the url for each of the current it takes you to a page that will list all 3 businesses and you click on the name and it takes you to business.  Does this make sense?

Not sure how best to direct the urls in the site itself.  I realize that once they click on, for instance the name for one it will show the url for the main one.  I hope I am making sense.  

Thank you for any help you can give me.  I hope everyone is staying well!

A client recently contacted me. He has 3 industries, wanting to put them on one website to save costs, instead of using 3 web. These are the Coffee Shop, Church and School.
The solution here is to create pages for all three industries, then use the Code to set up a separate Header for each web (ie in each industry, it will have a header with its own logo and navigation).

You can think about that.

I think you are you are speaking to web Domain Forwarding? So, let's say i punch in 'bob.com' to Google I will land on the home page of a site called 'mel.com'. There on the Homepage of 'mel.com' I see three links to 'Mel.com' the business, 'bob' the business (no longer a .com) and let's 'pat' the business (no longer pat.com).  Likewise, if I punch in 'Pat.com' I will land on the homepage of 'Mel.com' and see the three options?

I don't know how mature your business areas are, length of time the sites are live etc. There are other options. For example, you can forward your domain to a social media account of the same name, such as a Facebook page. (I'm unsure if a domain with SQS enables this). I believe if you have a Google Business page, Google now offers a limited web page to be associated with their Business Page if the name is the same. There are a few other ways to go once you own a domain name. 

That said, the best option (again depending on your domain/business names, social media accounts etc. ) is to identify those similar businesses as you've done above and roll them into one website with specific landing pages and links to the other business area pages, but do so under a single domain name. The site will have one domain and you start treating the other areas of business at a brand level which is more than a good thing (so mel.com\bobevent2020). No domain forwarding or redirects. 

My first question would be: How much existing advertising collateral  have you out in the world  associated with each website, and how much traffic do they each drive?  If you want to save the cost, I'd suggest simply emailing existing customers and inform them that you are consolidating websites and set up the pages under one domain name. It works. You may loose a couple along the way, but they'll find you.  

There are many SEO considerations for re-directs and forwarding and most will create problems for you unless your domains are substitute domain names for your brand which is common in retail. For example, if you punch in 'mac.com' you will go to the 'apple.com' website. Larger companies spent years sending (not saying Apple did!) out legal letters to stop companies trading under .com names that they knew were similar or substitutes for their own brands. (i know as I received a couple of letters.) My point being that unless your other domain names are used regularly as direct substitutes for your main website name then put them aside and build the business from a page on a single site and when things start to grow look at the possibility of using these other domains. 

My starting point for SEO is always to look at the NAP information as this is how Google etc. looks at your business first before you started putting in the connectors to Social Accounts and Ads etc. - Take your Name Address and Phone Number (NAP) and start searching these to see what returns and in which directories your businesses return. Then look to the Google Business Page etc. From there look at your current sites: Google categorizes all your offerings as 'events', Facebook likewise 'events', so you actually benefit from a single website with the event calendars moving though Google Business Page and Facebook Event pages etc. and you can change and update the landing pages for these events accordingly. The hardest question is which domain do you use? but, use a single domain.

I hope the above is helpful. I don't know the extent and history of your work, or how the sites are plugged into the net. I wish you the best with your decision and am happy to answer any further questions in the forum

Be well! - John

Thank you both for your replies.  I didn't get notifications anyone had answered, so I apologize for just seeing these.

@tuanphan any chance you could share how to do this?  This is what I've been looking to do.   If you go to the home page it give you 2 or 3 "brands" in the header and then once on that brand's page it acts like it's own site with a sub gallery or two. 

Thanks!

1 minute ago, mikekow80 said:

@tuanphan any chance you could share how to do this?  This is what I've been looking to do.   If you go to the home page it give you 2 or 3 "brands" in the header and then once on that brand's page it acts like it's own site with a sub gallery or two. 

Thanks!

If you need to create "2 websites" and the template supports Secondary Navigation, you can create items on these 2 Navs, then use the code to hide the corresponding Navigation on each website.
Since each template will have its own unique code, I can't know the code that's right for your website without checking the url. You can create navs first, then create a question and tag me/send to my email via signature, I can assist.

If the template does not support Secondary Nav, you can also create all pages in Main Navigation, then create questions (&tag me) or send to my email. I can provide code to hide the corresponding items on each website. For example hide English, French Items on Spanish Pages and vice versa.

This is the way I usually do, but it is suitable if your website does not have too many pages. If your website has hundreds of pages, you will need to use JavaScript to optimize this process. JS will be complex and there will be no free solution.

@tuanphan or any others:

I'm also looking to do exactly this...  We have birdmafia.com  which is an online shop/about of our company products based on my wife's art... we also have elbpapercutting.com which is going to be a portfolio of my wife's art and contact for custom pieces/work....  Right now elbpapercutting.com is parked to the birdmafia.com main page.   I'd like to make a main page that links to one or the other (but just using the main site birdmafia.com) so I need two different navigagtion headers I guess.   It looks like certain template families do put the secondary navigation in the header (instead of on side or at footer) so it seems like this is possible (in 7.0 which we use.)

My question is, is it? Can you make the secondary navigation in header override the main navigation in header on all pages that will be about elbpapercutting?   

Trying to explain better:  birmafia.com stays as is except home page will be large full page picture with something like "Emily Brown papercut art + design" with two links available "enter birdmafia.com"   and "enter elbpapercutting.com"     Birdmafia link would take you straight to the shop and have the normal header navigation it does now.  If people click elbpapercutting link it would take them to something like www.birdmafia.com/home2 that would have new header navigation all geared towards personal artist and art.  Like two websites at one domain basically.

Thanks for any help.

3 hours ago, veganedge said:

@tuanphan or any others:

I'm also looking to do exactly this...  We have birdmafia.com  which is an online shop/about of our company products based on my wife's art... we also have elbpapercutting.com which is going to be a portfolio of my wife's art and contact for custom pieces/work....  Right now elbpapercutting.com is parked to the birdmafia.com main page.   I'd like to make a main page that links to one or the other (but just using the main site birdmafia.com) so I need two different navigagtion headers I guess.   It looks like certain template families do put the secondary navigation in the header (instead of on side or at footer) so it seems like this is possible (in 7.0 which we use.)

My question is, is it? Can you make the secondary navigation in header override the main navigation in header on all pages that will be about elbpapercutting?   

Trying to explain better:  birmafia.com stays as is except home page will be large full page picture with something like "Emily Brown papercut art + design" with two links available "enter birdmafia.com"   and "enter elbpapercutting.com"     Birdmafia link would take you straight to the shop and have the normal header navigation it does now.  If people click elbpapercutting link it would take them to something like www.birdmafia.com/home2 that would have new header navigation all geared towards personal artist and art.  Like two websites at one domain basically.

 

Thanks for any help.

try this https://beaverhero.com/2sites-same-subscription/

@tuanphan THANK YOU!  I see at top it says code is for 7.1          I'm on 7.0, so would the code towards the bottom listed under Brine family be correct (except changing church and coffee to whatever my pages are?)

Does this mean I don't need to look for a new template that supports secondary navigation?

And lastly, how about naming/organization so I'm not confused when working in "PAGES" ?  I will have two SHOPS (/elb/shop  and   /bm/shop) but I'd rather not have them say ShopBM and ShopELB in the header navigation that customers click on. Is there currently a way to leave the header navigation as Shop and change what we see on "PAGES" while building on the left? So, I know which pages to click on to edit and work on?   This would pretty much apply to all pages of site (shop, about, news, contact), literally building two very similar sites on same domain.

On 6/1/2020 at 9:27 PM, veganedge said:

@tuanphan THANK YOU!  I see at top it says code is for 7.1          I'm on 7.0, so would the code towards the bottom listed under Brine family be correct (except changing church and coffee to whatever my pages are?)

Does this mean I don't need to look for a new template that supports secondary navigation?

And lastly, how about naming/organization so I'm not confused when working in "PAGES" ?  I will have two SHOPS (/elb/shop  and   /bm/shop) but I'd rather not have them say ShopBM and ShopELB in the header navigation that customers click on. Is there currently a way to leave the header navigation as Shop and change what we see on "PAGES" while building on the left? So, I know which pages to click on to edit and work on?   This would pretty much apply to all pages of site (shop, about, news, contact), literally building two very similar sites on same domain.

I answered your email.

I will update code for 7.0 soon.

@tuanphan To clarify, would you be able to have separate domains for each  site even though they are on the same subscription?  Would that be possible?