Does it pay out to split up a website?

Hi everone,

I am planning to re-design my travel & language website. I am currently twisting my mind about either keeping all the content onto the one domain I own, or splitting the content up into multiple domains. Splitting it up would allow me to target my audience more accurately and spread my risks, but each website would be less large and each domain will cost me money. Also, the domain of the existing has been in the google directory for a few years, whereas newly registered domains would probably end up in the sandbox.

From a SEO and Adsense perspective, what makes more sense? To have 1 site with 1000 pages, or 10 sites with 100 pages, cross-linked to each other?

Thanks.

I preffer one better than 10...
a friend from Colombia

Okay, 2 different opinions, that's cool! But the coolest part, is of course why? What are your motivation to split it up, or not to split it up?

Hello everybody, I am new here and this is my first post. Personally, I go by the philosophy that no web site should be more than 3 levels deep. An average user spends 8 seconds on a page, so if you haven't landed him on what he's looking for, he is off to the next site. It would be helpful if you supplied a link to the site. The way the information is layed out is crucial. If the alternate languages are not relevant to the travel, then I'd split them up into two entities. If the traveler is going to say Cancun, then I'd only make Spanish a secondary language. Same goes for Germany, Russia, Paris, etc. I believe there are some java scripts that can translate your content automatically depending on user preference.

Hi Z-axis,

You may be right on that... only that my language website is purely about language, and not travel in general... it contains pronunciation, phrase guide, grammar guide, and various resources for learning different languages. As I am not able to post the website URL, I can just explain that the different languages (currently 8 languages) are displayed in the side bar, and by clickin on it you can go to that section.

Assuming, that someone who is for example looking for a German phrases guide, the question is really:

- Do I integrate a German language section in a very large language site (like the one I am having now), which also covers other languages? Does Google, and other SE, recognize the large size of the site with hundreds of pages and its unique content as more important, and does it capture the relevant German language sections when someone uses a keyword to search for it, or

- Does Google and other SE rather value smaller sites (up to 100 pages only for the entire site), which focus on one specific topic, in this case the German language, which contains relevant German language related keywords throughout the entire site, rather than only a part of the site?

Thus, using the examples above, which of the two websites is most likely to obtain a higher website ranking in Google and other SE when a language-specific keyword (e.g. German language) is used?

BTW, automatic language translation software I find pretty horrible, I used it once and got tons of negative comments from visitors. Not very good stuff, especially if the site depends on the correctness of the translation.

I will split one better than 10...
You will be paid an SEO agency that is trying to cheat Google into thinking their websites are popular.

It may or may not be a scam, but I would avoid this kind of opportunity.