By Jason Poulos (@TheSaganaki)
Whether it’s a massive power outage, contaminated food issue or an ethics disagreement, a crisis can strike your client at any time. To properly manage communications around the issue, a page on their website, subdomain or microsite might be created to help inform people about what’s happening.
But which avenue is best? Where should your position on the crisis get posted?
Page Addition on a Website
This method will most likely be the easiest and quickest of the three. Assuming that your website has a content management system, adding a new page to the site should be really easy. This approach also will closely associate the crisis with the brand as this page is directly off of the main site. Also, if SEO is a consideration, this option will work best as this new page will be able to inherit the website’s domain authority and “link juice” that has already been established.
Subdomain
If you are looking to take more of a passive role to the crisis, a subdomain off your website might be the answer. A subdomain is essentially a brand new site and will have to be built from the ground up. Not only will a site need to get built, but this new subdomain won’t inherit any authority that your main site might have established. In doing so, this method creates a challenge from an SEO standpoint.
Microsite
There might be a time when minimal branding or association with the crisis is needed. To help communicate the issue, a microsite/new website might be the answer, as the new domain name could contain no branded terms. Just like a subdomain, a ground up site build will need to occur. This new build can give you the opportunity to design a website that looks totally different from an established look and feel. However, this approach takes time.
Although a new domain name can be bought in a matter of minutes, it can take up to 72 hours for the new domain to get fully associated with its web server. When trying to act fast on an issue, a microsite may not be the way to go. Just like a subdomain, you’re starting fresh and having a site that performs well in a search engine will be a challenge. Typically, crisis domains are purchased really quickly and set to expire within a year. Not only will the lack of authority that a new site has work against you, but Google rankings also are influenced by domain expiration and purchase metrics.
All in all, it’s tough to recommend the perfect crisis plan on the web. It all depends on the severity of the crisis and the communication strategy. However, the three options I outlined offer three slightly different approaches to managing a crisis.
With a degree in communication design from VCU as well as experience in web development and digital marketing, Jason brings a unique blend of assets to CRT/tanaka. In 2012 Jason helped win 4 awards for his SEO work on PureCanadaMaple.com. Outside of his digital work, Jason enjoys brewing his own beer and restoring his1970 Chevrolet Nova. Jason is a new father and enjoys spending time with his family and his 150-pound English Mastiff.
Jason, you make some very valid points here. You mention that one of the obstacles of using a microsite is the time it takes for a new domain to get fully associated with its web server. What if you work in a volatile industry where you must always be prepared for crises? If you have a dark site already built, but it’s “dark,” does the same 72-hour rule apply for the domain to get fully associated with its web server?
If you have the microsite fully built it would need to reside on the “live” server so that it can be launched at the drop of a hat.
If that’s the route taken, the site will be “dark” when it’s not getting used to battle a crisis. Meaning, that it doesn’t get indexed by Google and it’s not viewable to anyone that visits it. Essentially it’s in “off mode” but on the server ready to go.
Anytime you launch a new site or move an established website to a different server (moving from a testing server to live server) you will run into some issues associating the new domain with the live web server (DNS propagation).
If you’re working in a volatile industry and you need to make a quick and timely response, a microsite most likely won’t be the answer unless you have a “dark site” poised and ready to go.
On they anytime can be create crisis. And for customer service we need to given instant serve. So web is the best solution for this. So it is very fine article about this.