A common misconception for many website owners is the mistaken belief that multiple domains for the same business, containing the same offerings/services, will somehow ensure their success and eliminate the competition.
Some will even go so far to try and hide these multiple domains when SEO is being implemented and the client will only disclose them after the fact, unless they are discovered during the process.
As a result, when one is working on SEO, these misguided clients usually end up fully expecting more than one of their multiple sites to show up at the top of the search results.
The problem here is that these secondary domains usually contain duplicate content and most everyone will tell you this is not a good thing. Although there are rare cases when multiple domains might be effective, it is not something that most SEO professionals would recommend.
So, why would this practice of multiple domains continue to be so popular with many businesses? There are usually two main factors that lead to this misconception and these are given from the perspective of SEO professionals who often run into this issue.
Panic Stricken Domain Buyers
Many businesses will go on a panic buying spree for domains in the belief that if they buy all the keyword oriented domains, they will prevent their competition from rendering their website indistinct. The goal is to try and own all the available domains in the hope that they will beat out the competition in the rankings.
Although there might be an element of truth with this tactic, there is no effect on your SEO and it seldom achieves the goal of blocking out the competition. It would be next to impossible to think of every domain variation and it can get expensive trying to buy too many, not to even mention trying to maintain multiple domains. Most savvy competitors know that better content will increase their rankings, regardless of the domain name.
If you are one that is still determined to own multiple domain names, it would be wise to ensure that all of them are redirected to your main domain site with a 301 redirect.
The Strategy of First Page Domination
Some businesses set out to try and dominate the search results and they believe that buying multiple domains will facilitate this strategy. The thought here is that if they have multiple sites on the first page, the traffic will naturally follow. Although this might happen on occasion, there are some pretty serious negative aspects to this way of thinking.
– Content Duplication Issues – It will be necessary to write all new content for each site, as you cannot use content from another site. The cost and difficulty of writing unique content for multiple sites should never be underestimated.
– Brick and mortar Locations – Multiple websites do not work well if you have a single physical location. It is confusing for your customers and visitors and most SEO professionals will strongly avoid utilizing the same address for multiple websites. Google does not provide effective results for businesses with multiple sites with the same address and might easily be confused for spam.
– Over branding through multiple sites – Branding issues can easily arise with two or more sites. Which one becomes the high end and which site takes the low end? Will the prices be the same for all the sites? What names will you use on your sites? If there is only one phone number, how will you know how to answer it? Even though there might be exceptions, such as targeting different demographics, this conflict-ridden branding effort involves a lot of risks and will definitely require additional work.
Country Specific Domain Exception
When you get into other countries, there is an exception to the usual negative aspects of multiple domains. The aforementioned problems do not apply and a country specific domain actually becomes a necessity. When it comes to achieving the best possible results for international SEO, a country specific TLD (top level domain) is a must. If you are doing business in the United Kingdom, your ranking will improve if you have a .co.uk domain. While you may rank without a country specific TLD, it will prove to be more difficult and this is one exception to the multiple domain tactic that should be fully employed.
The SEO Process and the Indented Listing Option
For those who still intend to own, maintain and run multiple domains and wish these sites to appear in the search results, you must understand that any SEO work will be doubled and the results may vary. Despite what some may tell you there are no free rides or shortcuts, and quick rankings are virtually impossible, even if your main domain is already ranking well.
Any new domain and site will be infinitely more difficult to rank than one that already has history and a semblance of authority in place. One option to seriously consider would be indented listings, which are secondary pages that show up underneath the first main listing for your site. This option will yield better results than trying to accomplish multiple domains for the same search.
