A microsite is a single-purpose website that is easy to build and easy to maintain. The architecture should follow those same principles: easy to set up and requires little to no upkeep. While
Of course, the final look and feel of the site should be tailored to brand and purpose, but there are still some components that should be established in every microsite.
We will take the example of remove.bg, a website that has 37 million monthly visitors according to Similar Web.
The header is one of the most important parts of a page and should be designed with care. The purpose is to show the most relevant information: who is behind the site, what it’s about, and
The main goals of a header are:
• A logo or image that identifies the company or website
• Links to the most important pages on the service
You’ll notice that remove.bg has three links to the left, and another call to action to the right, leaving the header clean and empty.
The homepage on a microsite should be short and include a call to action (and not much else), which will allow it to remain simple and clear.
The simplicity of the homepage allows readers to get straight to the point. No other distractions means that users will see what they came for and then exit quickly.
The metric to watch for here is your bounce rate: the percentage of people that leave without interacting with the page. The benchmark for what your bounce rate should be depends on your industry but a general rule of thumb is anything under 30% is great.
Your bounce rate on other pages will be a lot higher on a microsite. That’s because you serve one purpose, and having a higher bounce rate means people have found what they came to look for.
Remove.bg here has a clear blue button that the eye immediately goes to. Whenever you visit the website, you know that the only goal is uploading your image and downloading it without a background.
The About page is an opportunity for you to advertise either yourself or your campany, so make sure you give it a lot of attention.
A great About page will have the following structure:
• A quote from the founder or CEO; it shows you’re human and gives visitors a reason to like your company
• A picture of your team: people like to know who they’re dealing with and pictures give viewers that impression of trustworthiness
• An introduction of yourself or your company: let people recommend going beyond those three components.
• Include a history of the company: your history shows you’re not only doing what you do, but have been at it for a while which can inspire trust among consumers
• Where are you located? It’s always good to include where people are coming from and where they might be going after viewing
In the about page of remove.bg, they reference their parent company, their team, as well as other projects.
The footer is, of course, where you can put all of your legal information and contact information, but that’s not what it’s about. It’s also a good last call to action for users who are looking for things they may have missed on your site.
The main goals of the footer are:
• A final call to action that can be taken with little or no effort after they have found what they are looking for on your microsite
• Legal information, contact information, etc.
Remove.bg’s footer is actually pretty fun. Instead of just displaying
Depending on where your users come from, you need to have consent to collect their data, even if you use as little as a Google Analytics tag . Microsites fall under the “data collection” category, and you want to make it very clear how the data will be used.
The remove.bg consent form is pretty simple: a checkbox and a small blurb about GDPR so users know what they’re agreeing to.
A good internal linking structure will not only make sure users don’t get frustrated, it will increase the chances of your pages ranking on Google. Ranking at the top of Google for microsites is easier because they are smaller and therefore more specific, but if your pages aren’t linking to each other you won’t see as much success.
Internal links can make or break a site:
• The structure of internal links will show to users (and search engines) what content is the most ranking the page on its merit of quality is always better than an arbitrary ranking through money
• Internal links are easier to follow, which means users will be more likely to interact with your site.
Remove.bg is pretty simple when it comes to internal links, but they do make sure there are no dead ends by linking to other content on their website and using keywords where appropriate.
Another important part of your microsite is nailing the legal details. You can’t just leave it out:
The privacy policy and the terms of use need to be on your website if you collect data from users, so make sure they are user-friendly.
If you don’t provide contact information for any reason, people will become suspicious or annoyed very quickly. Just put all of your contact information in the footer and make it clear you won’t leave them in the dark.
Mobile traffic is a lot more common than many people realize, so having your microsite optimized for every phone would be ideal.
Google AMP speeds up search results, which means that if your pages are set up for AMP, they will be among the top results for Google searches.
Your main goal for an microsite is to quickly provide content that your target audience is searching for, which means you need to make sure everything on your page—from images to links—works well on mobile devices.
Keep in mind that Google AMP can be a helpful tool but it’s not a necessity. There are also other ways to optimize for mobile devices.
Once your site is up and running, you should be able to see how much traffic is coming from mobile devices through an Analytics program like Google Analytics or through a third-party tool like Statcounter .
Conclusion: what you need to remember about microsites
Microsites can be seen as an effort to create “mini content hubs.” The great part about microsites is that you can focus on one specific topic, and make sure your page will provide value for users.
The main takeaway here is to make sure you are providing valuable, helpful information instead of just creating another site that looks like every other site. Sites that provide value will always be seen as more trustworthy and, in the end, search engines will reward them with higher rankings.
The Takeaway:
• Make sure your microsite links to other pages on your site for better ranking on Google
• Keep an eye on mobile traffic – it’s becoming more important every day
• Make sure you provide real value to your users – that’s what matters in the end