Are domains that are purchased on a regular basis an unnecessary expense, or is there an advantage to conserving 20 domains? Tony Wright tackles this week’s Ask An SEO.
This week’s “Ask An SEO” is via Elisa who is from Hyde Park, who asks:
A customer owns around 20 domains with keywords that are closely linked to his business. They’re currently all directed to his website.
Do he need to keep the names? Do you see any benefit to this? Perhaps being the owner of the words. Are there any other things we could be doing with these?
I’m not aware of any strategy to use several domain names. However, many people have multiple domains to ensure that no one else owns the domain. What can we do with these additional domain names?
Recently John Mueller from Google’s John Mueller stated that “keywords in domain names are not worth the hype.”
But, we have people whose whole strategy is to purchase keyword-rich domains, create an accessible site that ranks, and rent or sell the domain to a shady small-scale company.
What’s the bigger issue?
According to some highly-respected SEO experts and myself, the results from search engine pages seem to contradict Mr. Mueller’s ruling, especially in competitive verticals.
So, what’s an unconfused SEO professional to do?
Long-Term: Follow what Google says
My top recommendation – which goes well beyond multiple domain names belonging to one brand – is to follow the guidelines Google suggests.
One caveat: Always follow the things that Google states in the public.
We all know that it’s difficult to determine what Google claims when it seems that indisputable evidence suggests a need for another course of action.
If you’re not Mueller or someone like him, you’re not sure what Google is drawing on its board very soon.
My experience has been that when Google informs webmasters of something that isn’t current, it is the most appropriate advice to follow for whatever Google plans to release into the open soon.
So, if you’re concerned about the resources needed to get your website up to par with the most current guidelines from Google’s web admins, begin to plan the project nonetheless.
Most likely, you’ll have to invest in these changes as soon as you can be successful.
Short-Term: Look For Opportunities
Our role as marketers for search engines is to search for opportunities to help websites deliver the information that our clients want and require.
If you view the search from this perspective, you’ll find ways to advertise your content, branding, and site.
When a company spends enormous time and funds investigating the right technology to be effective for their primary web, site changes can be lost.
Out of all the frameworks available on the market, there are four or five frameworks that I would classify as mainstream and mature.
Suppose your website does not have an issue that has to be solved with a specific technique, or you have the resources to keep a site running that is equipped with the latest technology but may not work as expected. In that case, it is best to use one of the more popular and established technology.
Some examples of such frameworks are WordPress as well as Drupal.
Of course, these advanced platforms come with their problems.
However, solutions are documented for nearly every issue you’ll see in a well-established platform.
If you’re not prepared and select a less advanced platform, If you don’t qualify, you could miss opportunities due to being too distracted by technology.
Other Motives for Lots of Domains
It’s generally unwise to hold several domains in one company.
For multiple domains to be ranked, it is necessary to put effort into each website to which the domain’s address is.
The site must be built.
It would assist if you created engaging and ranked content for your website.
It is crucial to find other websites to join every website you design.
In short: you must conduct the same number of SEO campaigns on your websites.
This can be very time-consuming, expensive, and much effort.
Using a trusted domain with a website architecture that serves all your customers is the ideal choice.
However, if you’re running specific programs or promotions, Creating an online microsite to market these products is expected.
I don’t think that this microsite is going to be ranked organically.
It’s not your intention for those websites to rank organically because the marketing is usually done before the optimal rankings take effect.
You may have some typical typos that users look for on your website.
If this is the case, I recommend buy the errors and redirecting them through a 301-permanent redirection to the main website.
If you’re worried that someone will purchase domain names you don’t own and take traffic away from you, it could be a bigger problem.
There’s no way that you could imagine every possibility that could harm your image.
Make sure you only purchase domains concerned about by those in your organization.
If someone discovers that a domain is already bought, that will not hinder them from trying to harm your business’s image.
You should be prepared for how to handle angry customers.
Domain name purchases aren’t responding.
