Most of us have done a ‘land grab’ and bought several different domain names for our business at some time. I just want to clear one thing up right now –
Multiple domains will no longer help with SEO and improving your Google Search Rank (there is one exception as mentioned below).
The biggest danger of having multiple domain names if not done correctly is that Google may treat your site as having duplicate content, and so your search rank can effectively be diluted. If abc.com.au and abc123.com.au both point to the same website, then Google will treat this as 2 separate websites – with duplicate content. In the past having multiple domains worked, but those days are long gone. Honest good content is what works now.
There must be some benefit of having multiple domains?
There are, and I’ll go through these below –
- Misspelling. If your business name can be easily misspelled, then having each variation will be of benefit. It is important that each misspelled domain must be setup as a ‘301 redirect’ so that Google will not treat your page as duplicated content.
- Country specific websites. If your business has holdings in multiple countries, then having a domain for each country is a great idea. You have to remember to make this effective though, you need to have a unique website for each of those domains. Avoid duplicate content at all costs!
- Restricting Competitors. Some people like to ensure their competitors don’t register a specific domain. Keep in mind though that if your competitor has a business name closely related to your .com.au domain you registered, it may be possible for them to seize control.
- Expansion. Maybe you’re planning for the future. Sitting on a couple of domains can’t hurt!
- Marketing. It can help to have a domain specific to a product or service you’re offering when advertising in offline media. For example, having a domain like sealtours.com.au redirecting to your to company website, such as abctours.com.au can help people recognise you as being the leader in seal tours.
Here’s what Matt Cutts from Google has to say about multiple domain names –
