To multi-site or not

Strategy is king when you’re dealing with limited resources – extra true when you’re dealing with the Web.

I recently had a conversation with a friend who is constantly on the front-lines when dealing with limited resource while effectively executing her responsibilities on the Web. The conversation was one I’ve had countless of times with other Web professionals who, like most, are in the same boat. It centers around meeting a wide range of requirements, and filtering those into a strategy that works for everyone – and more specifically, throwing “sites” at the problem as opposed to strengthening the entire tool-set.

Most of the time when people propose a new site it’s because they don’t feel that the current resources are sufficient for what they “require” – which may be the case, but hardly reason to build something new.

When you build something new you:

• Introduce one more technology to maintain – which has security implications, version control, man hours, etc.
• Dilute you’re user experience (at best) – new navigation, new layout, new new new learning curve
• Divert resource to something other than your core platform – you could build the “tools” being requested into an existing strategy – centralizing resources on a small team is a MUST – you can’t afford to lose ground when you have to fight for every cent you get
• Administration becomes exponentially more complicated and time consuming – checks and balance nearly get lost when offshoots are birthed
• Message gets less focused – with one voice for the Web site things can maintain an clear message from front to back, but with a multi-site strategy things get distorted quickly
• Multi-site strategies often reflect poor planning from a corporate perspective – “needs” need to fall in line with a corporate web strategy, not emotional knee jerking – constituents feel and notice this sort of thing, even if they can’t articulate it
• Data-sharing, and cross-site connectedness becomes increasingly complicated – authentication; need I say more?
• Data management turns into data mismanagement – dated content gets updated on one site and not another, data often gets duplicated, data integrity pretty much takes a beating

Small teams need – must – focus their efforts when it comes to execution online. Every new “thingy” you introduce dilutes your resources either in development or maintenance. You can’t avoid that if you want to move forward, you just have to be very strategic in how you go about the advancement process (and sometimes it does require an offshoot site – but think long and hard before headed that rout).

From my experience, unfortunately, companies totally miss the boat on this one and pursue a new “widget” or site instead of looking out for the user, big picture, and ultimately – the bottom line.