If the second business serves different customers who search for different things, give it its own site. If it serves the same customers, with the same people and name, a clear section of the existing site is enough.

One site, two businesses

An owner with a working business starts a second one alongside it. The obvious place to tell people is the website that already exists, so a page goes up and a new item joins the menu.

A year later the home page is trying to speak to two kinds of customer at once. The menu mixes both, the contact form does not ask which business an enquiry is for, and the photographs alternate.

Neither set of customers is sure they are in the right place.

Sometimes that page should have been a site of its own, and sometimes a proper section. The difference is worth settling before the second business grows.

How the confusion shows

The fourth is the quiet one. Search engines read a site's titles, headings and links to work out what it is about, and a site split between two subjects often shows each audience the other's page first.

When a section is enough

A section works when the second business is really an extension of the first: the same customers, the same people answering the phone, the same name and a related service.

A physiotherapy clinic that adds massage therapy, or a garden centre that starts offering design visits, is selling more to people who already trust it. One site tells that story well.

Give it a proper section rather than a single page: its own group of pages, a clear place in the menu, its own photographs, and a contact form that asks which service the enquiry concerns.

When it needs a site of its own

A separate site makes sense when the customers are different people, searching for different things, who would be puzzled by the first business.

Other signs point the same way: a different name, a different price level or tone, different staff and phone numbers, or a plan to grow, sell or close one business without the other.

If a customer of the second business has to scroll past the first to find what they came for, the section has already outgrown the site.

A worked example

A family pallet company with a yard beside the rail line builds and repairs pallets and crates for warehouses, growers and distributors. Three years ago the owner's son began making furniture from reclaimed pallet wood: benches, shelving and outdoor tables.

The furniture went onto the pallet company's site as a gallery page, then a shop page, then a banner across the top of the home page.

Warehouse buyers looking for a quote on four hundred pallets met photographs of patio tables first. Homeowners who saw a bench on Facebook and searched for it landed on a page about heat-treated pallets and minimum orders.

Furniture enquiries came through a quote form that asked for pallet sizes and loads, and some waited days because the office sorted them with pallet orders.

The furniture now has its own name, domain and small site with a shop, and the pallet site is about pallets again. Each mentions the other in its footer as a sister business.

The old furniture pages redirect to their equivalents on the new site, so links shared on Facebook still work.

Name the second business properly

A business with its own site needs a name written one way, everywhere: on the site, the domain, the listing and the invoices. Settle it before registering the domain.

If the two share a family name, make the difference obvious in the words rather than relying on the logo. Customers search for words.

Register the new domain in the business's own name, on the same account as the first, so both renew together and neither is lost.

What the two can share

Separate sites do not mean separate everything. Both can sit on the same hosting account, be looked after by the same web company and use one Analytics account with a property for each.

They can share photographs where those belong to both stories, and a line in each footer naming the other.

What they should not share is a home page, a menu or a contact form. Those are where customers decide whether they are in the right place.

Listings and reviews

Google's guidelines for Google My Business set out when a second business can have a listing of its own. Where it qualifies, give it one, with its own category and its own site in the website field.

Reviews belong to the business that earned them. A furniture buyer's praise does not help a warehouse manager decide, and the reverse is just as true.

Moving a section out later

Many second businesses start as a section and earn a site later. That is a sensible order, provided the move is planned when it comes.

List every page of the section, give each a matching page on the new site, and set permanent redirects from the old addresses to the new ones.

Then update everything that points at the old pages: listings, social profiles, email signatures, printed cards and any ads.

The counter-case

A second business that is still an experiment, with few customers yet, can start as one page. A separate site for an idea that may not last is money better spent later.

Two sites also mean two sets of upkeep: two domains, two sets of updates, two sets of photographs. Where that is more than the business can take on yet, a well-built section is the right first step.

But once two sets of customers reach the same site and leave confused, separate them: a section for an extension of the business, a site of its own for a different one.

Before the second business grows

  1. Describe each business's customers in one sentence.
  2. List what each group searches for.
  3. Decide on a section or a separate site.
  4. Settle the name before registering any domain.
  5. Give each business its own contact route.
  6. Redirect old pages if the business moves out.
  7. Link the two with one line in each footer.

Step one is the one everything else follows. If the two sentences describe the same people, a section will do; if they describe different people, the second business needs a home of its own.

Keeping each business's name consistent everywhere follows the same logic as a business name spelled two ways.

Frequently asked questions

Can two businesses share one website?

Yes, if the second is an extension of the first, serving the same customers with the same people and name. Give it a proper section, not one page added to the menu.

When does a second business need its own site?

When its customers are different people searching for different things, or it has a different name, price level, staff or plans. Mixing them confuses both audiences.

Does mixing two businesses affect search results?

It can. Search engines work out what a site is about from its titles, headings and links, and a site split between two subjects often shows searchers the wrong page.

What can two separate sites share?

Hosting, the web company that looks after them, an Analytics account with a property for each, some photographs, and a footer line naming the other. Not a home page, menu or contact form.

How do I move a section to a new site?

Give every page a matching page on the new site, redirect each old address permanently, then update listings, social profiles, signatures, printed material and ads that point to the old pages.

Should a new venture start with its own site?

Not always. An idea still being tested can start as a page or section, and earn its own site once it has customers and a name worth keeping.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Two businesses on one website?

Tell us about both. We will suggest whether the second needs a section or a site of its own, and plan the move.

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