5 Reasons To Own Multiple Domain Names

There are many reasons why any business, small or large, can utilize multiple domain names. In fact, it's a challenge to find any larger business that only has a single domain registered. This is primarily due to the versatility that multiple domain names provide as a form of covering, protecting, and marketing a brand. From the outlook, it may seem confusing why you’d want to register more than one name for one business, but after reading this article you will clearly understand the various advantages it can provide. Let's cover the five primary reasons you should consider owning multiple domain names.

5 REASONS WHY OWNING MULTIPLE DOMAINS NAMES IS IMPORTANT

1. COVERAGE

Global companies or brands covering multiple industries require specific online respresentation, and occassionally these businesses will utilize multiple domain names for geographical or industry expansion purposes.

Certain locations in the world have domain extensions created specifically for those countries or regions. Brands that operates in these areas can register their domain name under these local TLDs (called country-coded top-level domains, or ccTLDs) to establish a localized online presense.  Owning a .com brand name may align with many audiences globally, but is .com always the most popular around the globe for local business? The answer is not always. While .com may be familiar, users from different countries or areas may feel more comfortable engaging with a website that includes their ccTLD. If a business commonly operates multiple countries, it is worth considering multiple domains with different country domain name extensions.

Alternatively, generic TLDs (gTLDs) can also help certain brands place themselves within industries to make them stand out to their audience. For example, using .auto could make sense for certain businesses that have part of their business in the automotive industry. Or tech companies can utilize .io to show off a tech-related release. There are hundreds of different gTLDs available, finding alternatives that align with a business or brand can help you stand out.

2. ORGANIC SEARCH

While Google has come out and said that it doesn’t provide advantages to specific gTLDs, ccTLDs can still take president in certain regions on search results. Meaning that occasionally, certain TLDs can make you more visible to your audience depending on how you’re utilizing them. For example, if your business operates in Germany, registering a .de domain to host all of your German content can make sense, especially if your business has a physical customer-facing location. Having domains and websites for each of the regions your business operates in does require lots of resources to manage, but it can help stand out in more localized organic searches.

3. REDIRECTION

Often, the most common use case for multiple domain names is covering missed opportunities. This means registering domains that have either an alternative TLD or have alternative spelling for the domain name. What this does is ensure that if users misspell or visit the wrong TLD, they are still redirected to the correct destination - your website. Losing traffic due to this can make the difference between successfully landing a sale and missing an opportunity. It’s worth considering how users may commonly misspell your domain and register those domains to fill the gap. It’s usually a fairly inexpensive solution that can pay for itself in the long run if your website receives a high volume of traffic. It also goes hand-in-hand with the next advantage. 

4. PROTECTION

When it comes to navigating the web, it doesn’t take much for users to end up on the wrong website. Usually the consequences are mild, but they can on occasion be more troublesome. Replica/phishing websites exist, trying to get information from users who believe they're on the correct domain name, resulting in important information being shared to the wrong party. Understandably, brands want to protect both their customers and their image, and one of the ways to do so is to register multiple domain names.

By registering multiple domain names, brands small or large can limit the opportunities malicious entities have when trying to take advantage of unknowing users. Covering frequent spelling mistakes is a common tactic brands use to ensure their customers aren’t lost on their journey to a brands site - after all, it can actually make the difference between good and bad user experience. Another strategy is to register a brand name in alternative TLDs to redirect them back to your main site, once again limiting the opportunities of bad players tricking your audience. 
 

5. MARKETING

Beyond covering and protecting your business, using multiple domain names can be very useful for promotional purposes. When it comes to using domains for marketing, there are many use cases that will vary from business to business. For example, perhaps your business is launching a new product and, to promote it, you have an advertising campaign sending users to a promotional one-page landing page. That unique one-page site can include a distinct domain name to help build product awareness for your audience. Some TLDs are even built with this in mind, such as .sale or .promo.

Another common use case for marketing-specific domain names is for tracking purposes. Sending traffic through unique domain names can be helpful when gauging and monitoring campaign results. This can be especially useful when it comes to multi-channel marketing as it pulls all the traffic from one campaign into one site to monitor performance. This becomes even more important if the source of the user is from non-online advertising efforts (such as radio, billboards, tv etc.), where tracking can be more difficult.

Along with tracking, memorability of domain names can be important when advertising. If your domain name is longer, harder to spell, or confusing in some way, it may be time to consider trying to simplify your domain through acquiring a separate domain just for advertising purposes. Having users get lost on the journey to your site does happen, and minimizing this through a campaign-dedicated domain is an optimization strategy to consider. Accessibility is important.

Lastly, search engine optimization (SEO) does come into play when utilizing multiple domains. When it comes to owning multiple distinct brands, consider allowing each to stand out on their own domain. The more specialized and specific the site’s content is, the higher the likelihood that the domain will rank on search results (compared to wide, broader topics). For example, if your company has a customer-oriented content site talking about your products, it may be worth separating the corporate content on your site and having it on its own domain. Just be aware you can also spread yourself thin with too many domains, as managing each separate domain’s SEO requires time and resources.

Some important notes about SEO and multiple domains: 

• Make sure your multiple domains don’t contain duplicate content from your primary website, as this can have negative effects on your domain authority. 
• When redirecting previously owned domain names to your main site, check that domain's backlink profile as it can have a positive or negative effect on your site's authority.
• Be careful redirecting too many domains to your site, as search engines could perceive this as spam, abuse, or misuse. 

When it comes to registering multiple domains for your business or brand, it’s important to consider the hows and whys to properly utilize each of the domains. Whether it's for promotional, protective, discoverability, or just coverage purposes, they all require different names with different integration strategies. If you’re looking to build your domain roster, why not save more? Use our domain search and find any of your domains while using a registrar that makes it easy to manage your portfolio.