Thread: Is Having a Different Design Template for you Sister Site a Good Idea?

I just recently created a new sister site designed to complement the information found on my already 1 year old site. Both sites are going to be integrated to one another and link back and forth to each other.

My question is, all both sites have a very similar domain name both each are very unique. One is all information and resource based, the other encourages discussion and engagement about the topics discussed and presented on 1 year old site.

Pretty much all I did was create a Open Forum Page for every all Content page on my original site, just that these Open Forum Pages are hosted on a different domain name?

I would like to know if this new sister site merits a completely different design and look due to its completey different nature, or just for continuity keep the same template for both sites.

The way I have it set it now is that the site visitor will be able to immediately know once they have been redirected to either one of the sister sites from the other one. What do you guys think?

Most definitely in my opinion. I had the same question several months ago when I started out. Some folks at myhosting.com Forums recommended to me to have a different layout for both of my sister sites.

One is a floral based site and the other is a wedding floral site. You wouldn't want to get both mixed up!

Awesome, thanks for your input.

I love how you extended your niche into a more specific one which would allow you to create a sister site in the first place.

My concern was just, site visitors leaving my pages because they are being sent to my sister, the two templates are very different from one another. So they may think twice about continuing on.

Not really sure, I am also thinking about the worse case scenario

As an update to this thread,

Originally when I posted the thread both of my sites www.biology-nation.com and www.biologynation.com had two distinct and completely different site design templates.

Both sites looked and felt completely different from one another. My fear was losing site visitors due to the fact that once both sites were fully integrated into one another, they would be sending site visitors back and forth to each other, maybe confusing site visitors into thinking they landed on a completely different site.

Recently updated the site design templates for both domains and made them exactly similiar. So now the transition between both domains is seamless, I am loving it and hopefully now retaining my site visitors as they move through both domains.