So you have finally taken the plunge and started your new business. You might have designed a stunning new website, opted for really good and secure web hosting, and have invested in only one single domain name. Isn’t it?
But you need to do something more as well!
A lot of new businesses register through only one domain considering the domain cost or lack of awareness. But it is a fact that having more than one domain name for your business is worth that extra money.
Your domain name is like your digital address. Don’t you think providing more than one route/way to the destination (in this case, your website) can increase the overall website traffic and visitors?
Well, there are several reasons for buying more than one domain name that includes online business growth, establishing a strong online identity, and brand awareness, being more accessible to your online customers or website users. Also safeguarding your website from cyber-crimes.
Here are the five main reasons why you need more than one domain name:
#1 Misspellings & Typos
This is the most common and important reason to buy more than one domain name. Don’t we all depend on our Google/ mobile keyboard autocorrect way too much? There are high chances for your potential customer to make a mistake while typing your website spelling. They can genuinely miss interpret or misjudge your website name.
For instance, let’s consider your domain name is “chocolateandbiscuit.com”, registering other additional domain names such as “chocolatesandbiscuits.com” or “chocolates&biscuits.com” would be beneficial for you. As these typo searches could be redirected to your website and this will increase the traffic or generate sales rather than being not found or worse, getting redirected to your competitor’s websites.
Due to the ever-increasing number of online business pop-ups, there is a possibility that a lot of businesses might have a similar name as yours.
Buying domains with possible misspellings and similar or related names would be a smart move. Similarly, if you want to change your brand name or leverage your new website traffic through old website users or customers, registering multiple domain names and directing them all to the main website would be the right way to go.
Branching Out
Although, you have started your online business for local areas, isn’t expanding your business across the horizons your ultimate goal? Many businesses buy domain names especially for a specific place and redirect the searches to their main domain website.
For example, the most popular shoe brand, Nike, has a main domain website “nike.com” but they also have location-specific domain names like “nike.com.au”, “nike.com.ca”, or “nike.com.uk”
This is beneficial for SEO as well!
Search engines rank location/country-specific domain names higher than the standard “.com” domain name.
Just think about it, by branching out your main domain name with various other additional domain names, you are basically taking up more space in the internet’s search engine as compared to your single domain website.
#3 Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Ranking
“A multiple domain strategy is all about adding more power to your SEO strategy. Instead of ranking with just one domain, you can rank with multiple domains” – Neil Patel, SEO expert.
Well, everyone wants their website to be top-ranked on Google. Everyone wants their business domain website to be easily and quickly searchable. This is where search engine optimization comes into the picture. Having multiple domain names will boost your website’s SEO ranking a lot more as compared to having a single domain name. This could potentially increase the chances of being found by your customer/user as well.
Let’s dive deeper into the SEO aspect of multiple domains. You can use the power of search engine optimization (SEO) through these excellent SEO strategies.
Building Microsites
You can build smaller versions or ecosystems of your business website called microsites with those additional domain names and fill them up with valuable content and try relating or redirecting the users to the main domain website.
Here is an example for you:
Imagine, there’s a website selling kitchen and home appliances, named “sallyappliances.com”, now they have created a microsite named “sallyrecipes.com” which doesn’t necessarily redirect the users to the main domain but they instead relate and market or promote their products through the recipe videos on their microsite.
This certainly takes up more time and effort but it helps in building trust and helps in establishing a community of your customers which will ultimately increase your website sales and SEO.
Redirect 301
As we have already discussed, redirecting is essentially driving your website users to the main website through multiple additional domain names.
Let me tell you a very interesting tale about redirecting,
Through redirecting a well-built and SEO-ranked older website, you can essentially transfer the SEO juice or that SEO power to the newly linked website domain through backlinking. But do keep in mind that Google will eventually remove the old URL or website SEO.
#4 Better Branding/Promotion For Your Online Business
Registering many generic top-level domains (gTLD’s) such as “.live”, “ .store “or ”, .pro ” for various segments of your business can get an immense boost for your online business model. It could help you with new product or services launches and opportunities for newer streams for your business.
Let’s say, you own a homemade candle-based business called “candles&co.com”. Now, you want to promote your newly launched “lavender” flavored candles. You have already set a tone of excitement and eagerness in your customers through advertising the new product. In such situations, you can launch a new domain name like, “lavendercandles&co.com”, and redirect the searches to your main domain.
This will create a hike in website traffic and SEO ranking on your website!!
Likewise, you can register domain names for specific purposes like your website’s offers page, e-commerce store page, etc.
You can launch several promotional offers, pre-sale registration, or give-away campaigns with additional domain names and ultimately redirect them to your main domain website and get increased traffic.
#5 Brand Protection & Cyber-security
Protecting your brand and website from predators and spammers has become of utmost importance than ever due to various reasons.
Firstly, to prevent your competitors from stealing away your thunder. How does that happen?
It might happen that some of your competitors would be on their toes to snatch away the domain names with similar names or relatable domain names to yours. This could potentially confuse your customers which would direct them away from your website traffic to their websites. Few other people (hackers or competitors) will also try to buy your domain just to trick and confuse people. This is a very serious problem that many businesses face. So, buying more than one domain would be a smart and protective move for your brand and your customers as well.
To protect your business from such cyber-crimes right away, buy related or similar domain names. This is an easy and inexpensive way to protect your brand identity and website traffic.
Before going and purchasing those additional domain names right away, here is some factual information that you should be aware of:
Multiple domain names are not for everyone. Well, yes, just like everything, you cannot possibly generalize this concept of multiple domain names for all online businesses and their websites either.
If you’re a small online business focusing only on one aspect for now, such as selling stationary, and have a very unique domain name, multiple domains might not be for you.
However, if you’re a well-established online business or even a small online business for that matter specializing in multiple facets or multiple locations, do Invest in multiple domains and get that extra SEO advantage, increased website traffic, assurance of cybersecurity, and increased sales. The small cost of multiple domains can be an investment for the future of your company.
