Is It Worth Having Multiple Domains?
Multiple Domains
Having multiple domains means having more than one website for the same, or a similar, company. It can also be a case when pointing or redirecting multiple domain names to one or two websites only. Then domains like that are considered to be “supporting” domains for securing the business name or supplementing type-in traffic.Your domain name or URL is what you type in your web browser to find your website. It could be intentional or just accidental. But if there are domain names that sound like they should be part of your brand and you don’t own them, there’s nothing to prevent someone from buying it. Once they own it, there is not very much you can do!
The Pros of Multiple Domains
Several factors can play into the decision to buy more than one domain name. Do any of these apply to you?
The risk of typos
If your domain contains any uncommon or unique words, it’s possible that people will either mistype it or not know how to spell it. In this case, it’s a good idea to purchase the domain names that cover likely misspellings of your name. So that you can automatically forward people who accidently make a typo when entering your URL to your correct domain.
Look-alike or sound-alike names
If a competitor sets up a similar-sounding domain name and website. Your potential customers might be tricked into visiting that site instead of yours. To prevent this, consider purchasing potential “copycats” of your domain name.
Name change
If your brand or business used to have a different name, it’s a good idea to purchase the old name as well as the new name to make sure everyone can find you. Or, if you want to change your company name, you should buy and host the website on the new domain name, and set up the old domain name to forward to the new one.
Other Factors:
Descriptive name
Different people might think of your brand or website in different ways, and not always by its official name. Depending on what services you provide or products you sell, you may want to register a domain name that describes your business alongside the business name itself. This is especially true if your business name is not yet established. Or if it has a distinctive quality or location that doesn’t align with the name. You can also use a more descriptive domain name to point to a particular page on your site like a blog or order page.
New TLDs:
Domain endings or TLDs like .plumbing and .photography, present a great opportunity for you to register a memorable and unique domain name. If you already have a traditional domain ending like .com or .net, purchasing a domain with a different TLD alongside it may allow you to stand out from the crowd and highlight a specific focus of your brand.
The Cons of Multiple Domains
The issues related to maintain multiple sites are as much practical as they are SEO related.
Ranking
There is zero benefit to having multiple sites depicting the same product or company. Often the sites can be penalized for identical or double content even if published in different languages. And there could be some negatives. Such as scattered back links to your sites or garnering bad links to phishing sites, which require significant technical troubleshooting.
Can’t find you – People tend to look up a company by name. So multiple domain names can make it difficult (not to mention confusing) for a prospect or customer to find what they need.
Loss of authority – Longevity is necessary for a domain name; changing it hurts the site’s credibility.
Expenses – The time and money required for building and maintenance (including fixing problems) increase with the number of sites you have to maintain.
Diluted identity – Depending on your brand, splitting off products and services on different sites could undermine the power and market influence of your company.
Merging issues – If you decide later to move to a single website, the migration needs to be done correctly (which means more expense).