Single Website or Multiple Station Websites?

If you own or manage several radio stations, you may wonder whether combining their websites into one or keeping them separate is better. Both options have pros and cons; the best choice depends on your goals, audience, budget, and other factors. Today we will explore some of the advantages and disadvantages of both so you can make the most of your multi-station online presence.

Here are the big items to consider when making this decision.

Cost Factor

Combining several radio station websites into one can simplify your web design and reduce maintenance and hosting costs. Each station domain can forward to their specific pages on this main site.

Time Commitment

A single website will allow you to maintain an online presence faster than spending time across multiple sites.  Multiple websites can sometimes mean you have to duplicate work on each site, like the same contest or promotion running on multiple stations simultaneously.

A single Digital Content Manager should be able to maintain multiple websites easily within a single group.  However, does that person have other responsibilities that may not allow them time for more than one website?

Brand Awareness

A single website can create a unified brand identity for your radio stations. You can showcase the diversity and variety of your content, programs, and personalities under one umbrella.

Using a single domain name across your stations can make it easier for your listeners to remember. It’ll be much easier to cross-promote your stations and encourage your listeners to explore other formats they may not be familiar with.

However, it can reduce your user experience and engagement. User experience is how easy and enjoyable it is for your listeners to use your website. Engagement is how often and how long they interact with your website. A single website must cater to the needs and preferences of a more diverse and broad audience. Listeners might feel less connected to their favorite station if it’s just one of many on your website.

With individual websites, you can customize each design, layout, navigation, content, and feature to complement the station’s spirit and suit your listener’s taste. For example, if your single site has a “newsy” feel, how will the hard rock listener feel about his engagement with the site?  A custom user experience that matches the station brand will make each website more appealing to return visitors.

SEO Challenges

A single website can be optimized to bring better search results for some keywords, but it can be less effective for station-related keywords.  Let’s use the example of a single news website where each station has a dedicated page.  The single-site strategy will work much better for news-related content that is updated often.

However, each radio station will likely lose the SEO battle when competing with other websites for keywords and topics relating to them individually, like “country music radio (your town).”  So, if one or more of your stations have active competitors in the market with individual websites, each of your stations will likely lose the SEO game to them.  The other stations will have more pages containing keywords specifically targeted at them.

Sellable Real Estate

Each station may have a customized page or two on a single website, whereas they would have much more on an individual site.  You likely have clients that have their favorite stations to advertise on.  It may be a harder sell for them to buy an all-encompassing website experience that may or may not have their favorite station branding at the forefront.  Plus, selling a station-specific online feature will be much easier if it’s on the station website that the program airs on.

Whether you have one website or multiple, they should always bring a return on your investment.

Single or Multiple: How to Choose?

There is no definitive answer to whether you should combine or separate your radio station websites. The best option for you is going to depend on various factors such as:

– Your goals: What are you trying to achieve with your online presence? How do you want to increase your reach, revenue, loyalty, or reputation?

– Your audience: Whom are you trying to attract and retain with your online presence? What are their needs, preferences, and behaviors?

– Your branding (SEO): How do you want to present yourself and differentiate yourself from other radio stations you may be competing with?  This includes being found by certain keywords within search.

– Your budget: How much can you spend on web design, ongoing maintenance, and hosting?

– Your sellers: Can they sell multiple websites so that you see a return on your website investment each month?  It may be time to get some that can.

Don’t let the budget be the only deciding factor.  Weigh the pros and cons of each direction and decide which suits the best overall picture for you.

If you merge your stations into one website, we recommend that the main hub be a news source rather than a marketing site for your group.  So, when regular visitors first land on your homepage, they immediately see information that might affect them.  Here are some examples:

https://www.adastraradio.com
https://www.enidlive.com
https://www.everettpost.com
https://www.deltaplexnews.com
https://www.myhometowntoday.com
https://www.sierradailynews.com

While combining websites is more affordable and less time-consuming, the former Program Director in me believes each station has a personality that deserves preservation and celebration.  I prefer to see the same station branding, colors, and overall feeling of the station on every website page.  Having separate websites also gives you more flexibility and creativity to tailor your content and features to each audience.  That builds loyalty.

We’re here to support and help you through any decision you make.  You can take your first steps at skyrocketradio.com.