You Need Multiple Domain Names —But Avoid This Common Mistake

BY Editor

The first step to launching your business website is choosing a domain name. So you happily register “your business name dot com” and check that task off your list, and move on to the hard work of designing and launching your site.

But not so fast. Did you register multiple domain names for your business? You might be wondering why on Earth you would do that, since you only plan to maintain one site, but registering several domains, even if they don’t host live sites, is actually a smart business move. Not convinced? Ask artists like Taylor Swift, who actually own hundreds of domain names in an effort to protect their brands and intellectual property.

Even if your business isn’t earning billions each year, and your products aren’t household names (yet), there are several important reasons to register and host multiple domain names.

The Top 5 Reasons You Need Multiple Domain Names

One of the cornerstones of a successful business is planning for the future — and preparing for contingencies is a key part of future planning. Even if you are just starting out, then, buying multiple domains is the first step toward planning for future business growth.

However, there are several other reasons to lock down variations on your business name when you launch your site.

1. Future Expansion. If there is even a slight chance that you will grow your business outside of the U.S., you should buy the international versions of your domain in order to rank higher within international search.
2. SEO Value. Speaking of search value, a keyword rich domain name — either your primary domain or one that redirects to your primary site — can increase your search visibility and complement your SEO efforts.
3. User Error. Have you ever misspelled a site name? Imagine how many others have as well — and then have to search for a site when they don’t land where they are expecting. There’s a good chance they will land on a competitor’s site when this happens, so consider registering common misspelling of your business or site name to redirect that traffic to your site despite the errors.
4. Competitive Advantage. The world of online marketing can be cutthroat, and it’s not unheard of for businesses to register names related to their competitors to redirect traffic away from them. By registering different versions of your business name, primary product, etc., you protect your business from competitors.
5. Brand Building. Not only does buying various versions of your name protect your brand, but it can also help build your brand. If you own domains containing the most popular keywords in your industry, you increase traffic to your site and customer associations with your business, since you are likely to pop up every time they search.

Multiple Domain Mistakes

The value of registering multiple domain names cannot be overstated, but if you don’t take the right steps or handle your domains correctly, your efforts could actually harm your business. More specifically:

Avoid duplicate content. It might seem like building multiple websites and populating them with identical content can only help your SEO and drive more people to your sites, but it’s actually the worst thing you can do. Google penalizes duplicate content in search results; essentially, the search engine will choose one version as the primary version to consider in search, and devalue or ignore all of the others. The problem is that it may not use the same primary version in each search, eventually leading to all of your sites being devalued and losing their search ranking.

Check your redirects. You can avoid the problem of duplicate content on all of your domains by setting up the right redirects, which drive traffic from the secondary domains to your primary domain automatically. Avoid simply “parking” all of your domains on the same host, with the same content. Instead, use a 301 redirect to send traffic to the primary domain no matter which domain they reach. Check your redirects on a regular basis to ensure they are still working, since Google penalizes site with broken links and redirects.

Because most domains are relatively inexpensive, you can protect your business and give it the flexibility for future growth by purchasing as many as possible. Keep track of the domains that you own and renew your ownership before it expires to prevent others from snapping them up, and be in a better position to manage your online marketing effectively.