Often times attorneys will have multiple websites representing unique areas of practices that may or may not otherwise compliment each other if placed on one single website. This of course is the primary and somewhat understandable reason for a law firm to take this route, however some cases can be a bit more devious.
Let’s assume the primary goal of the multiple sites is honest and intended to promote good will. We’ll also assume we are talking about a mesothelioma lawyer who wants to market the intellectual property side of their practice by means of a secondary website. Mesothelioma law and intellectual property law certainly would not compliment each other if placed within one website on one domain. But if we were to create a sub domain of our primary domain (ie. Iplaw.mesotheliomalawyer.com), we can reap a few benefits.
First, we get to piggyback off our existing, primary domain that has accumulated age, trust, and authority in the eyes of the search engines. It also should have accrued some degree of link equity since its creation that can be very beneficial for your new sub domain. The engines will also most likely crawl and index this new content much faster than if it resided on a separate domain.
The second benefit we need to consider is the idea of user experience in terms of site/firm identity that will ultimately affect trust levels. This is more of a traditional marketing idea to form a united approach in your marketing efforts.
Of course there is some debate over whether one should use sub domains over additional sub directories (domain.com/Iplaw/), though it should be quite easy to determine which method to utilize. Ask yourself, “Are these two sets of content/material (mesothelioma and intellectual property) so different from each other that they should not be on the same website?” If so, sub domains are your answer. If however we are talking about personal injury and car accidents on the same website, then we take the sub directory route as these are complimentary practice areas.
