If you run a business, having a solid website could be the difference between success and failure. Along with that, choosing your primary top-level domain is the first crucial step. But just like your favorite potato chip, I bet you can’t have just one! Purchasing multiple domain names for your company can increase visibility of your business and protect your brand from hungry competitors. In fact, there are several important reasons you should purchase more than one domain name for your website – even if it means coughing up a little bit of extra cash up front. In this blog post I’m going to break down the purposes for having multiple domains and how it can impact your business.
1. People Can’t Spell
Humans really do make mistakes, especially when putting words on paper and URLs into web browsers. That’s why it’s a great idea to consider snatching up some variations of your primary domain. For instance, Google owns Googel.com and Gooogle.com since these are common mistakes people will make when typing in their web browser’s address bar. When you allow for human error by picking up additional domains, you can capture spelling-challenged users instead of losing them to a competitor.
2. Protect Your Brand
Purchasing multiple domain names for your company website can be a huge aid in protecting you brand in several different ways: Stopping Copycats, Rebranding and Making use of new TLDs. Owning multiple variations of your company domain is a fantastic way to keep consumers from getting confused and new gTLDs give you the ability to get even more creative (for example, using the domain YOURBRAND.shop as your online shops website).
3. Boost Search Engine Optimization
Having more than one domain for your business can also improve your page rankings in search results. But, it’s crucial for me to say that buying domain names for your business should be redirected to your primary landing page using what is called a 301 redirect. When creating a Robots.txt file and an XML sitemap so that search engines can index your site more easily, including 301 redirects from multiple purchased domains to a singular destination makes it even easier for your site to be indexed properly. Google will not penalize you for duplicate content with this redirect, and it is an easy thing to implement through almost any domain registrar or website builder.
4. Expanding Into New Markets
It’s never too early to start thinking about the future of your business, and multiple domains can certainly aid in this endeavor. In fact, if you operate an online business that serves people outside of your home country, investing in country-specific TLDs is practically a must. In order to achieve the best results for international SEO, you will need domains in other country extensions which lead to your site. For instance, if you own an online store for pottery based out of Chicago but sell to Europe and Canada, having ChicagoPottery.co.uk and ChicagoPottery.ca, in addition to your primary domain, will give you a huge advantage. As soon as expanding on an international level becomes a relevant venture for your business, acquiring multiple country-code domains should be done.
