Many business owners ask whether they should buy multiple domains. When done sensibly, there is a lot to be said for registering multiple domain names for one website. It is an investment that rewards businesses in terms of brand protection and business security.
Why You Should Consider Multiple Domains
So let’s discuss some of the benefits of having multiple domains. There are quite a few:
Expansion
Your business may be small and local today, but you expect it to grow and prosper. If your company wants to reach global markets, it is helpful to have country-specific domains. We know that .com domains rank lower than country-specific domains such as .com .au or.co.uk when searching from that country. If you can grow your business offshore, it makes sense to support that transition with domain name extensions that will work in those markets. It may be too late to secure the correct domain endings when that market opportunity begins to unfold for your business.
Misspellings
Once you’ve decided on your ultimate domain name, it’s time to think about different ways you could spell that word. This is particularly true if you use your brand name, and its spelling is tricky. If you can determine obvious misspellings, you should consider doing some domain checking to see if you can buy these misspelt versions. Allowing for misspellings of the name will mean you can direct users who misspell your business name to the correct destination instead of sending visitors to an error page.
Competition
You should register multiple domain names to protect and strengthen your business from competitive activity. Competitors constantly seek ways to confuse your prospects, including registering similar domain names. Don’t allow them to redirect your traffic by using domains that may be confused with your own. Did you know that a new domain name will be released in Australia next month? If you are looking for new ideas and shorter URLs to beat your competition, read more about the benefits of the new .au direct domain here.
Offers
You can register multiple domains to publish different landing pages with custom offers to promote specific products or services. You can link this sub-website to a particular product category within the primary website. Registering variants this way can enable you to effectively market and promote different products and services or even run successful competitions with an offer specific URL.
Search engine optimisation
More than one domain name for a single business can also improve your overall ranking in the Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) results. Make sure any additional domain names are redirected to your primary website homepage with a 301 redirect. You can redirect the traffic from one page to another with a 301 redirect, which will stop pages from competing against each other and improve the site’s relevance, increasing its capacity to rank well in search engine results pages.
Brand
Protecting your brand and online identity is essential for any online business. Securing various names will inevitably boost your brand presence and prevent other companies from hijacking your company’s essence. If you are going to launch a new brand, you should register both the new and old domain names to get your website. Finalise your new website and redirect your old one to the new business brand.
Descriptive domain name
Consider how you search for a brand. Most people try to find a brand using terminology describing the brand's products or services. When registering multiple domains, it may be worth including one representing your brand name and what you do, like JohnSmithAccounting.com.
Search
A website with many domain names attached to it is a lot easier to find. Customers prefer having more than one way of finding you when searching the internet. The benefits of having multiple domains are apparent, but it is essential to strategically consider which additional domain names will deliver the most return for your business. If you’re worried about the cost of hosting and running multiple websites on your different domains, don’t stress. You only need one website to which you can redirect all your existing domains. This way you’ll be able to ensure any person looking for your business finds what they need. For 25 years Webcentral has been helping Australian businesses with everything they need to succeed online. We have registered more than 500,000 domains for Australian business. Register your domain name with Webcentral today.
