What is a microsite?

A microsite is a small, focused website separate from your main domain, typically built for a specific campaign, product launch, or initiative. Microsites have their own URL, design, and messaging — they exist independently of your corporate site. Good use cases: product launches requiring their own brand identity, event websites (conferences, webinars), recruitment campaigns with employer branding distinct from corporate, A/B testing radical design approaches, and joint ventures with partners. Bad use cases: permanent content that should build your main site authority, service pages that belong on your primary domain, blog content (always on main domain for SEO), and landing pages for ads (use subfolders instead). SEO consideration: a microsite on a new domain starts with zero domain authority. It will not rank for competitive keywords. If SEO is important, use a subfolder on your main domain (example.com/campaign/) instead. Microsites are justified only when brand isolation is more important than search visibility. Cost: $3,000-15,000 depending on complexity. Timeline: 1-4 weeks. Hosting: typically on Vercel or Netlify for simplicity and performance.