Dominate in your industry

Multiple domain names can enhance your marketing. For instance, if you register a domain name for one of your products, you can then redirect to a specific product page on your website. This captures the users that search for a product-type because they don't know you yet, or those that can't remember your company name. This second domain name will bring traffic to your main site that you might otherwise have lost. Registering with several domain extensions will also protect your brand and make it harder for your competitors to benefit from your good reputation Having more than one domain name means you can dominate in your industry...

Promote all your products and services

Register domain names for each of your products and services, then redirect to your main website - increasing your online visibility.

Increase the traffic to your website

It’s a no brainer - more signposts, more ways to find you!

Targeted marketing

You can promote a specific service or product, or talk to a particular group of people, or even spotlight an event. Plus, for your social media activities, you could register a short and snappy version of your primary domain name - American Express use Amex.co.

Target different countries with ccTLDs

If you’re planning to market globally, country code domain extensions (ccTLDs) work better with local audiences. Users trust local sites and in certain situations it just makes sense, e.g. searching for a restaurant, buying a car, booking a hair cut. Your sites will also rank higher in local Google search engines, increasing your chances of top rankings. Create a page on your website in French, register your .FR domain name, then redirect to this page.

If you're tempted to add content to your ccTLD pages, remember that it must be unique. Whilst Google doesn't penalise for duplicated content in this instance, your sites won't be indexed so they won't show up in search results. Content on these pages should include local information and contact details, plus it should be in the appropriate language.

Increase search engine mentions

If I submit my site to a search engine more than once, how many times will I appear on the page? Let's say that you're currently listed fourth in search results. If you submit twice more with the same domain name, you won’t fill positions five and six. But if you have several domain names, you can submit them all and grab more positions.

Protect your brand and your online identity

It's still the case that .COM is the preferred domain for business owners trying to establish themselves online. But the new domain extensions are increasing in popularity and their credibility is growing. To protect your brand and online presence, you should consider which are appropriate to your business and register them before others in your industry steal your thunder. Plus you should register common variations of spelling, singular/plural versions, and misspellings.

Will multiple domain names affect my SEO?

Registering keyword domain names can play a vital part in your branding strategy. Names registered for each of your products gives visitors more ways to find you. But you need to steer them and search engines in the right direction so that your main site gets the credit.

To promote the domain names that are pointing towards your main site, set up 301 redirects/URL forwarding. Search engines will see this as a permanent rerouting of traffic.

Bogus case history - multiple domain names

I’ve used this example before, so apologies for repeating myself but it illustrates what I mean. So tough - I’m using it again.

1. Make-believe restaurant, Food On Your Plate, is located in London. Should it register .RESTAURANT, .LONDON or .UK?
2. It's exclusive to the capital, so it registers .LONDON for its main site. It also registers .RESTAURANT and .UK, and redirects them to its main site.
3. It wants to spotlight other features. It offers exotic .COFFEE, Thursday is .PIZZA night, .BEER is half price on Monday. The .MENU changes weekly and diners are invited to submit .RECIPES. Finally, customer .REVIEWS are published.
4. The future looks rosy and the restaurant plans to open branches in other countries. It registers .FR, and .DE, creating pages on the main site in French and German, then redirects the .FR and .DE to them.

Enough for now. Setting up Google Analytics is next so visitors’ searches can be checked for common variations, and competitors will be monitored for similar names. Then it may be time to register some more domain names…

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