In my article on Search Engine Land, I talk about how microsites can help your company. To give you a good example, I address a microsite that my company, Netconcepts, built for Countrywide called Credit Demystified implementing a tag cloud and tag pages that boosted the Google page count to 1,100. In this quote, I talk about how content and intent are both really important if you are considering a microsite:

There's a time and place for creating a microsite, versus further building out your main web site. If your site is likely to gain more traction and interest with webmasters and bloggers by being at an arm's length from your main site, then by all means consider it. For example, CreditDemystified.com is a microsite on improving one's credit which contains not only articles, but also podcasts and RSS feeds. Given how "bloggy" the site is, it's more likely to get link love from bloggers than a series of articles hosted on Countrywide's site will.

To read more about this article, feel free to read The Pros & Cons of Microsites As An SEO Option.

Remember those old commercials... "This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs." ? Well, if you do, then just imagine a take-off on the commercial... "This is your website. This is your website on WordPress." But in this version, imagine the latter is an Olympic weightlifter on steroids. If I hadn't made the case enough for WordPress as a CMS for regular websites (not just blogs) in this recent post and in this recent case study, then I guess the traffic increases must not have been impressive enough for ya! ;-)

So we decided to start experimenting with WordPress on microsites for clients. The first client guinea pig was Countrywide, and the site was Credit Demystified. I don't have any Before and After stats to share on this one, because the site was launched under WordPress from the get-go. Once we have a bit of a track record going (the site is less than a month old), I'm hoping that our client will give me permission to share some metrics here. So stay tuned. And in the meantime, check out the site. Any feedback is welcomed!

Here are some of the advantages of a website powered by WordPress:

1. tag clouds -- which provide keyword-rich text link navigation, which link to...
2. tag pages -- which contain excerpts of posts/pages that are related (by the fact they have the same tag in common)
3. RSS feeds -- which help with link building and garner you visibility in the feed/blog search engines like Feedster and Google Blog Search
4. Technorati tags -- to garner visibility on Technorati's tag pages, thus delivering you Google visitors too by the fact that Technorati tag pages tend to rank really well in Google
5. keyword-rich, search-friendly URLs -- that are spider-friendly and tend to be indexed and ranked better in search engines than the complex, dynamic-looking URLs that are typical of content management systems
6. content-rich, search-friendly HTML -- thanks in part to the presentation layer (usually) being cleanly separated from the content layer, along with semantic mark-up, which gives the search engines good clues as to what copy is important and what is not
7. visitor participation -- through comments, trackbacks, and pingbacks
8. post-dating of content -- to automatically "go live" on a scheduled date
9. ease of maintenance -- with no, or minimal, HTML skills required
10. extensibility -- through plugins (it's pretty easy to write your own. Heck, I I managed to), sidebar widgets (like the Swicki buzzcloud**), and direct hacks to the open source PHP codebase.
11. easy handling of "rolling events" -- like speaking engagements, news releases etc.
12. free support -- from the very responsive developer and user communities

The first six of the above list are of primary benefit to your site's SEO.

These were compelling enough reasons that search marketer Alan Rimm-Kaufman is porting his corporate site to WordPress. Good on ya, Alan! Now who else can I count on to make the switch? :-)

So remember, you don't have to have an actual "blog" to reap the benefits of having a "blog". I recommend you peruse both Netconcepts.com or CreditDemystified.com and prove it to yourself.

** Footnote: In case you were wondering what the heck a swicki was, it is a custom search engine, like this one, and a buzzcloud is a tagcloud type thing, but of popular searches rather than tags, that displays on your site along with the Search box, like the one displayed in the right column on my daughter's Neopets Cheats site.

Have you considered incorporating content partners and marketing partners into your online strategy? For example, partnering with content providers who could augment your own content with additional related content? Or partering with sites whose visitors match your target market?  If, for example, you wanted to reach women online, you could partner with a site like iVillage.com and build a microsite together, then have them promote it through their site and subscription lists.

Think about the sites you advertise on as potential partners. Join forces and create a microsite together and then promote it to a joint captive audience. Or make a deal with them and syndicate some useful content onto their site. For example, you could develop a whole library of useful tips and, rather than doing standard banner ads, you could provide these tips to your partner, who would then fold it with the rest of their content. Et voila!... "Sponsored content"!

Even better if, between the two of you, you can develop some sort of "hook" or viral component, such as a funny video, an addictive game, a downloadable ebook, worksheet, calculator, widget, etc. 

Got an example to share of a site where the whole is greater than the sum of the partners? Post a comment!

Microsites can be really good at going "viral" if they are clever and have "pass it on" appeal. Subservient Chicken, Burger King's microsite was such a site. It featured a person dressed up in a chicken suit wearing lingerie. You could give it commands by typing them into a box. Pretty weird. Not surprisingly, it became quite popular and went viral.

You improve the chances that your campaign will go viral if it's a microsite because then it's at an arm's length from your corporate/brand site. Corporate sites rarely go viral. Subservient Chicken, for instance, surely had more "pass it on appeal" as a separate site than as a subdirectory within the BurgerKing.com site.

Emerald Nuts launched a funny microsite called AngryLeprechaun.com, which they tied in with their very expensive Super Bowl commercial and promoted through press releases. The site was a spoof; supposedly a leprechaun was supposed to be in the television commercial and was edited out in the final cut. Consequently, the leprechaun was very angry about it so he set up his own website. Visitors can watch the 'unedited' video clips with him in the commercial. Cute idea.

Another funny microsite is the counterfeit Mini spoof site. Brilliant!

What are your favorite microsites? Post a comment!