SEO Myths: Multiple Domain Names

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Multiple domain names aren’t as helpful as you think.

It’s a common myth that purchasing multiple domain names and pointing them toward your main website address will help your website rank better. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t approve of “parking” and it won’t improve your SEO. That being said, there are a few reasons as to why you may wish to purchase multiple domain names:

Protect your brand/business name

It is often recommended that businesses purchase domain names related to their brand or business name. This is for purely protective measures only. Not only does it protect your business from another company purchasing your name but can also help your clients find you. After all, how many times have you gone to a domain name only to find that the website was nowhere near what you were looking for? Or was a site of the competition?

Purchase common misspellings and typos

If your domain name can be easily misspelled or mistyped, it is wise to buy the misspelled versions as well. By doing this, you are giving your clients another way to easily access your website.

Purchase variations of your business name

Can your business name be shortened? Do you often go by an abbreviation? Are you often referred to by your products? If you can think of any reason why someone might type something else in as a URL (than what you currently have as your website address) then it may be useful to buy that as a domain as well.

So, now just what do you do with all of these domain names? You absolutely do not want duplicate content or websites on each of the domains because the search engines will penalize you. Instead, you need to redirect the additional domains to your website URL. Of course, there can be additional costs involved in maintaining a domain with a redirect. This is when you need to reevaluate your list of domains and determine which names bring about a positive return on investment by directing qualified visitors to your site.

Once again, multiple domain names pointing to your main site will not help your rankings, though they may help your traffic if they are being used. It is unwise to buy large quantities of keyword rich domain names with the intention of forwarding them to your site to help with rankings. This will not work. It is also not recommended to post a one-page site on a domain name and then link it to your main website. The search engines will catch this one quick.