You are a new online business owner, and the last thing that you need is one more decision to make. I’m sorry, but I have one more thing for you to consider: How big should your first website be?

There exist two competing views on this quandry and both have studies to support them. Of course, if we automatically knew which was the preferred size, there wouldn’t be a decision that would have to be made at all.

Before I get into the pros and cons of each alternative, I need to let you know what this decision is not. The question is not necessarily related to how large your business will ultimately become. Businesses that run a number of small sites can grow as well as those that concentrate on one major huge site. It also is not necessarily impacted your target niche. The planned size of a website in the beginning can lead to ultimate growth and financial success of the business as a whole.

I should alert you that reading this article will not automatically give you the right answer to this particular question of size. Instead, what I hope to provide is a set of some things for you to consider so that whether you build a small website immediately or lay the groundwork for a mega-site, you’ll understand that decision’s impact upon key variables now and in the future.

Small websites should be concentrated on a narrow sub-niche built around a cohesive, limited set of relatively long-tail keywords. Sites that are designed to become quite large eventually will develop most of their content in the same focused way, but they will also begin search engine optimization on the shorter, very high competition keywords at the same time.

The growth models of the two are very different after each has satisfactorily mastered the beginning, narrow sub-niche. Businesses that begin with a large site as the eventual goal, with fully develop one small sub-niche, then gradually add new sections dedicated to other sub-niches onto their original site. Those who initially built a small site, with intention of always leaving it small, will take a “duplication of success” approach, as they gradually add more an more individual sites to their virtual empire of tiny websites. Thus with each new department in the mega-site model, there is a new set of search phrases upon which to focus. These sites are built upon what is often called the “silo” structure. As the large site grows to twenty departments or categories, the business with small sites might grow to twenty or more individual websites.

As a general rule, the mini-sites can establish positive cash flow more quickly. This is partly due to such a business not investing resources into those most competitive, high level keywords. In the long run however, over the course of many months or even years, the mega-sites can become competitive for the high traffic keywords and might even become recognized as an authority in the broadly based market.

I’ll point to three practical ramifications of how you decide to approach this business decision.

The first has to do with start up cost. Although you’re still beginning relatively small with the site that you plan to become large, the foundation for a larger site must be laid. That means that the site’s eventual architecture must be created and the systems put in place that will eventuall become necessary for operation. Consequently, although the mini-site and the eventual mega-site may be the same size at launch, the model for the larger site costs more at start-up. Laying the foundation for silo sites is inherently costlier than the smaller, less expensive mini-site.

The ways in which you think about your keywords is another important difference. The keyword research for a smaller site will be undertaken to locate a limited number of closely related long term keywords. Special attention will be given to those keywords that are likely to convert immediately With the large site plan, you will conduct your research with two focal points: the lower competition but more targeted long-tails and the highest level, most competitive short tails (which are less likely to convert immediately, but the users of which might be nurtured into eventually becoming customers.

Issues pertaining to page rank is the third practical ramification of your large vs. small decision. The number of pages in a site is one of the variables that is part of the page rank algorithm, assuming the internal linking structure of the site is well optimized. Consequently, it is easier for a large site to achieve a high page rank than for a small site, although you must remember that other variables are even more important in maximizing the total page rank.

So I hope I have given you some food for thought, even though I haven’t provided a clear cut answer to you. Perhaps, though, these considerations give you an inclination as to which approach you should take considering your own unique business circumstances.