Posted December 17, 2021 by Lee
If you run a business or website, you probably already know that choosing the right domain name can be vital to your success. Most consumers will research a brand online before investing, so your website needs to be top-notch with a domain name that clearly represents the type of products or services you offer. Your domain is also an important feature of your overall branding. This is how you want to represent the image of your business and directly relate the feelings and experiences of customers interacting with your brand. So, why do businesses then register multiple domain names? If brand recognition is key, surely this could confuse things. In fact, this is not actually the case, and many businesses can benefit from having multiple domain names. Here’s how.
Segment your audience
Creating multiple domain names can allow you to successfully segment your audience. This essentially means having the opportunity to target different niches. For instance, if your main niche is middle-aged businessmen, for example, you can branch out into other demographics.
You could set up multiple domain names to reach out to these demographics without this getting in the way of your most profitable niche finding your original domain. You can still use the same targeted branding and marketing campaigns on this domain and continue to appeal to your main niche while testing out how your content appeals to others. This can be very useful from a marketing standpoint.
Introduce new products and services
One way to reach out to a new audience by creating a new domain name is to use this to introduce your latest product or service. You could create a new page devoted to the promotion of this product or service. This is also a good idea for temporary offers. For example, if you are a cleaning company, you could provide a “covid cleaning service”. This may be something a little more specific businesses, in particular, are searching for at the moment. You can then optimise this page for SEO with a new domain including keywords relating to this new service.
Take advantage of new TLDs
New top-level domains (TLDs) are emerging all the time, so it’s important to keep your business up to date. These are essentially the letters that follow the “dot” in your domain name. For instance, if you are working as a freelance photographer and want to create a separate eCommerce site to sell your photos alongside the site you use to encourage people to hire you as a photographer, you could use “.store”. This will help your store stand out to both potential customers and search engine bots. You could also create separate ad campaigns with call-to-actions or backlinks to this store on social media, blog posts, Google, and more.
Improve your SEO
Multiple domain names can also help to boost your search engine optimization (SEO) in general. SEO consists of various strategies that help to ensure your website gets to the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs). One of these strategies is the optimization of keywords. For example, a potential customer will type keywords into Google when searching for a particular product or service. You want these keywords to directly match those in your domain name and other content so that the search engine bots will make this link and list your site. The more domain names you have, the more variations of these keywords and phrases you can use, increasing your chances. Alternatively, you could use a second domain name to relate to different topics.
Protect your intellectual property
Your domain is part of your intellectual property. This also includes any other designs, branding, product names, and basically anything you have created yourself as a business. It’s essential to protect this from other individuals or businesses who might want to steal it. By creating and registering multiple domain names, you will be able to prevent others from setting up a variation on your original domain name and offering similar products or services. This will also protect you in the future if you decide to expand.
Rebranding opportunities
The same idea applies here. If you create multiple domain names in anticipation of rebranding, you will secure these for the future. You may have long-term business goals that you don’t have the resources to achieve yet, such as branching out into a new type of service. You also need to study the ever-changing market, consumer behaviours, and emerging trends. For example, you may want to rebrand your business as green, or mobile, or reach out to an entirely new demographic. Protect your ideas for new domain names now ahead of time.
Redirect traffic to your site
Some businesses use multiple domain names to redirect traffic to their original site. This means using a 301 redirect to send users to one website, rather than creating multiple duplicate websites. It’s worth pointing out that having multiple duplicate websites will not be good for your SEO as Google will view it as spammy. This goes the same for keyword stuffing or other attempts to “trick” search engine bots. It’s also important to keep users in mind and ensure that the multiple domains you create are all relevant, keyword-wise, to the content on your original site.
Create additional websites
You could also, on the other hand, create additional websites. This depends on whether you have the time and resources to do so, and ideas for relevant content to fill them with. There are certain reasons why companies will create multiple pages to offer the same basic products and services. They could be used when businesses serve different locations, for example. In this case, you will need to ensure the content is different enough between each page and optimise local SEO according to each location. You could also ensure your domain includes the name of the town or district as well.
Expand internationally
If you’re planning on expanding your business internationally in the future you may want to consider investing in country-specific TLDs. Adding these as domain aliases may help boost your SEO abroad and give you a big advantage. You don’t want to miss out on international business because your domain is restricted by geography. Nowadays, the global market is much more accessible so as you scale your business you can take advantage of this.
As you can see, there are several reasons why multiple domain names can help your business. If you’re not sure which is the right approach for you, you could work with a web host. They’ll be able to provide you with professional insights into the type of business you run and your industry.
Use new domains for specific promotions
New domains can also be created for specific promotions. You may want to advertise a new event and make an entire landing page for it. This will be useful if potential attendees are searching for this type of event specifically. You will be able to generate plenty of brand publicity in this way. Multiple domains can also be used for cross-promotional opportunities. It’s worth noting that if you do create a landing page for a temporary event or offer, you should take it down once it’s over. This will avoid it appearing on search engine results before other more important or relevant pages.
Track your marketing progress
One of the best things about having multiple domain names is that you can test the performance of each one. You can monitor how visitors interact with them and find out which are working the best at drawing traffic. This is also ideal if you want to test out new products and services, target new demographics, or analyse keyword performance. Creating new domains is, therefore, a marketing tool combined with the right data analytical software. The more you can learn about your online presence, the better. This will help you find any areas for improvement.
Overcome spelling issues
Business owners and website developers will be familiar with the importance of having a domain that’s easy to spell and pronounce. User errors still frequently occur, however. People may not speak your language natively, they may use an alternative variation, or simply not be that great at spelling. For this reason, it’s a good idea to create multiple versions of the same domain name that are spelled slightly differently. You can use Google to help you come up with the different spellings by simply typing them into the search bar. Also brainstorm different ways of spelling your domain according to its various possible pronunciations.
Make it easy for customers to find you
Customers may also hear your name rather than read it. This could cause problems. As well as not knowing how to spell it exactly, they might misremember entirely. This is why having multiple domain names could increase the likelihood that customers will find you. Think of your own online experiences. How often have you made up a version of the brand or website you’re looking for because you couldn’t remember the name exactly?
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Domain Names
About The Author
Lee is a Website Developer at Unlimited Web Hosting UK Limited.