There are many diverse ways to boost your search engine optimisation and create leads for your website, but does having multiple domain names help SEO?
This can seem like an unnecessary additional cost, and an extra layer of admin to keep track of.
However, any specialist in SEO West Midlands-based worth their salt will tell you it’s a sound investment.
This article explains why, and the various benefits of having more than one domain name.
To clarify, this is not the same as having more than one website which you need to build or update.
Instead, we are focussing on registering a range of different domain names and then configuring them so they all lead to your home page, or varying them to lead to specific pages on your website. This is something we regularly do as part of our web design services for Shropshire and West Midland clients.
Casting your SEO net out wide
Making your products or services as ‘searchable’ as possible is commercial common sense and there are both easy and more advanced SEO techniques you can use. The more you use, the more leads you will generate.
It’s believed that as much as 68% of all online activity starts with a Google search, which is why keywords are so important.
However, something that can be too easily overlooked is the importance of a domain name in SEO. You need your customers to type your address into browsers and find you.
The ideal situation is that you have covered a wide range of variations that your customers may search on., especially as your customer may have a mental blip and typed your domain name in with a common flaw. So, for example, if you sell Green Devices and your main company internet address is www.greendevices.co.uk, if you also register for greendevices.uk, customers will still find you if their typing is sloppy. As long as Google assists of course.
Also, the terminology that you feel is clear can be open to interpretation to people searching for you and your products. For instance, if your company is called Green Devices and that’s what you sell, what if someone searches for Eco-Friendly Devices? If you have registered ecofriendlydevices.com in your family of domain names, you will scoop up more of those potential customers too.
Registering multiple domain names for defence
This SEO method is also an important way to protect your brand and ringfence the sort of terms customers use when searching for you or your products.
It comes down to this; if you don’t scoop up a range of relevant domain names, your competitors might grab them and put you in the shade. Your more ruthless rivals may take great delight in buying up domain names similar to yours, or with your product descriptions encased in them, drawing away customers who search for you and pointing them to your competitor’s alternatives.
Once a competitor owns a domain name that undercuts your search traffic, there is little or nothing you can do about it!
Unless you can argue in court that you own that trade mark – and that isn’t that easy to do.
However, something that can be too easily overlooked is the importance of a domain name in SEO. You need your customers to type your address into browsers and find you.
The ideal situation is that you have covered a wide range of variations that your customers may search on., especially as your customer may have a mental blip and typed your domain name in with a common flaw. So, for example, if you sell Green Devices and your main company internet address is www.greendevices.co.uk, if you also register for greendevices.uk, customers will still find you if their typing is sloppy. As long as Google assists of course.
Also, the terminology that you feel is clear can be open to interpretation to people searching for you and your products. For instance, if your company is called Green Devices and that’s what you sell, what if someone searches for Eco-Friendly Devices? If you have registered ecofriendlydevices.com in your family of domain names, you will scoop up more of those potential customers too.
Registering multiple domain names for defence
This SEO method is also an important way to protect your brand and ringfence the sort of terms customers use when searching for you or your products.
It comes down to this; if you don’t scoop up a range of relevant domain names, your competitors might grab them and put you in the shade. Your more ruthless rivals may take great delight in buying up domain names similar to yours, or with your product descriptions encased in them, drawing away customers who search for you and pointing them to your competitor’s alternatives.
Once a competitor owns a domain name that undercuts your search traffic, there is little or nothing you can do about it!
Unless you can argue in court that you own that trade mark – and that isn’t that easy to do.
In conclusion
How to juggle multiple domain names
The answer to the question, ‘does having multiple domain names help SEO?’, is clear; Yes. It is an entirely sensible policy that could generate more leads.
However, it can still seem a complex tactic, especially if you’re not sure how to make sure alternative domain names lead to your home or product pages.
For more information on domain names and how they can help your website, please contact us.