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I find myself occasionally explaining to clients that their website is like a "living, breathing thing;" that it needs care and attention in order to flourish on the search engines. I also find myself offering the analogy that effective web marketing is much like putting together a puzzle: You take all of the pieces of your business that you want to market, and fit them together within an online marketing strategy. While all of the individual pieces are important, it is even more crucial to keep your eye on formulating the big picture. But what happens if you have a puzzle piece that doesn't quite fit into the framework of your overall web-marketing? Microsites may be the answer.

By definition, a microsite is a supplementary website used to brand a niche market. These sites are typically designed to target a specific type of visitor, and can serve as a promotional tool for specific topics.

Here are some suggestions of how and when to effectively use a microsite to round out your marketing strategy:

• Focused knowledge - While your primary website likely offers a basic informational overview on a subject, a microsite is a perfect platform to demonstrate your more extensive expertise on the same subject. Offering detailed information on one aspect of your organization will set you apart from your competitors in the eyes of a consumer by showing your authority.
• Elevated presence - Microsites enhance your presence on the Search Engines, promoting consumer awareness of your organization/business. Microsites offer multiple ways for you to provide targeted information to potential clients, and multiple ways for those consumers to find you on the Search Engines.
• Compartmentalized branding - If you are branching out in a new direction that doesn't necessarily fit within your current marketing strategy, microsites offer a powerful method to market your new business/practice area/service/product. This will prevent branding confusions, and prevent complications should you later decide to sell off the new brand completely.
• Targeted keywords - If you have extra domain names that are exact matches for particular keywords you want to target, microsites may provide a powerful boost on the search engines.

Think of what aspects in your business may benefit from implementing a microsite. You might be surprised at the results.