This article originally appeared about a week ago in the Early To Rise newsletter which I subscribe to.  It has an article in it that stood out to me because it is something I've been thinking about for awhile now and it's something that I am thinking about offering as a service.  So it was nice to see Edwin talking about how businesses can boost their website traffic by building and optimizing multiple websites.

I think this is one of the best things any small business can do to boost website traffic.  And I say small business because it's a lot easier for smaller businesses or individuals to put this into action because you don't have to jump through bureaucratic loops like every large corporation.

Bottom line is there is no reason why your business can't have multiple websites optimized for different services you offer.  Here's the article below.

By Edwin Huertas

The more traffic your website gets, the greater your chances of making sales. It's a simple precept of Internet marketing. Today, I'm going to show you how setting up “satellite sites” can skyrocket your traffic… and boost your sales in the process.

These additional traffic-building sites aren't as complex as your primary website. In fact, they are often very simple – targeting one specific aspect of your business.

Think of your primary website as a storefront on the Net. If you have multiple storefronts (i.e., satellite sites) – each with unique content – you're likely to get more “eyeballs” in front of your products or services. And, as you know, the more eyeballs that read through your sales copy, the more sales you'll make.

One reason that satellite sites help draw more traffic is that you can submit them to the search engines separately. This means that more of your pages will show up on the search results pages when Web users type in your keywords. Just think – if one of your satellite sites AND your primary website rank highly for the same keyword, you could dominate that search engine results page!

I've been setting up satellite sites for ETR's website. Right now, we have eight of them. Each of these sites is averaging about 30-40 new visitors per day. As time goes on, this traffic will increase. My goal is to have 100+ new satellite sites finished by the end of next year.

Imagine if you had 100 satellite sites, each bringing in highly targeted traffic. Even if each site brought in only 20 or 30 visits per day, that would be an extra 60,000 to 80,000 visits per month!

Now before you start throwing up satellite websites, you need to know that there's a methodology to setting up good ones. In fact, doing it the wrong way can hurt you more than help.

Satellite Site Set-Up Guideline #1: Make sure each satellite site has unique content.

Search engines are smart. And they do not like sites that have identical content. They consider websites like these “cookie cutters.” If you have cookie-cutter satellite sites, the search engines may punish you by not giving those sites any priority. Even worse, you could be blacklisted and not show up in their results at all.

To avoid this, you have to make sure that each and every satellite site has unique, distinctive content.

At ETR, for instance, we sell a program that teaches people how to make money by importing goods from China. So I created one satellite that was optimized for “China importing secrets” – and I filled the site with content relating only to that aspect of the program.

When you do a Google search for “China importing secrets,” this satellite site will usually be within the top 10 positions. It is bringing in 20 to 30 new visits per day, and each visit comes in via a targeted keyword search performed on a major search engine.

Satellite Site Set-Up Guideline #2: Make sure your site is “big” enough for the search engines to find it.

It's easy to toss up a single-page satellite site – but don't expect it to attract any traffic. Search engines (especially Google) love sites that have plenty of pages – and content – for them to index. How many pages will depend on your business – but sites with 100+ pages tend to do better than those with fewer pages.

If you're thinking, “Wow, that's a lot of pages!” don't worry. You will begin to see additional traffic with 10 or 20 pages (sometimes even less). And then, as you add more pages with new content, you will see more traffic.

To get that content, I like to hire freelance writers to create articles for me. I ask them to base those articles on information that has been posted by respected publications. For instance, if I need content relating to the medical industry, I might ask them to visit medical journals and government sites to find studies or news releases that they can comment on or summarize.

Satellite Site Set-Up Guideline #3: Each site should have a unique IP address.

A website's IP address is a numerical identification (like a telephone number) that allows people (and search engines) to connect to it. Most hosting companies provide shared hosting accounts that use the same IP for all satellite sites. This is bad for your traffic-attracting efforts, because the search engines will recognize those sites as being related to one another.

If the content on each site is completely different, you won't get flagged – but it's much better to have unique IP addresses for them. That tells the search engines that they are separate websites. Contact your hosting provider to find out how you can do this.

Satellite Site Set-Up Guideline #4: Optimize each satellite site properly.

One of the best – and easiest – ways to optimize your satellite sites is to make each one focus on only one aspect of your business. Let's say you have a primary website about pets. You could make a separate satellite site for each category of products that you offer: pet food, pet medication, grooming, training, etc. That way, each site stands a chance of getting more targeted traffic.

If you plan on putting up multiple satellite websites, follow the rules. Make sure that each one has its own individual IP address and at least 10 pages of unique content… for starters.

You can also link to your primary site from each satellite site for extra “link juice,” but that's an entirely different subject. For now, just get at least one satellite site up and running using the guidelines above… and watch the traffic begin to flow in.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.