Microsites: Hot Tool

If you are launching a new product or service, Tennyson Group's Web Site Design division offers a specialised service in planning and developing microsites. So what is a micro site?

A microsite, also known as minisite, is an Web Site Design term referring to an individual web page or cluster of pages which are meant to function as an auxiliary supplement to a primary Web Site. The microsite's main landing page most likely has its own URL.

They are typically used to add a specialized group of information either editorial or commercial. Such sites may be linked in to a main site or not or taken completely off a site's server when the site is used for a temporary purpose. The main distinction of a microsite versus its parent site is its purpose and specific cohesiveness as compared to the microsite's broader overall parent website.

Microsites used for editorial purposes may be a page or group of pages that, for example, might contain information about a holiday, an event or similar item which gives more detailed information than a site's general content area may provide. A community organization may have its main site with all of the organization's basic information, but create a separate, temporary microsite to inform about a particular activity, event or similar.

Often, microsites will be used for editorial purposes by a commercial business to add editorial value. For example, a retailer of party goods may create a microsite with editorial content about the history of Halloween or some other holiday or event. The commercial purpose of such editorial microsites, (beyond driving product sales), may include adding value to the site's visitors for branding purposes as well as providing editorial content and keywords allowing for greater chances of search engine inclusion.

Microsites may be used for purely commercial purposes to create in-depth information about a particular product or service or as editorial support towards a specific product, such as describing a new technology. A car manufacturer, for example, may present a new hybrid vehicle and support the sales presentation with a microsite specific to explaining hybrid technology.

Wikipedia