5 Things to Consider When Having Multiple Domains
By Tom Foster
Everyone is always eager to buy up as many domains as they can with hopes of one day conquering the world, but then the question always arises: “what am I going to do with all of them?”
Optimistic hopes of having ten different websites with different URL’s to capture more and more traffic (and cases) usually quickly vanish when you take into consideration the time necessary to maintain multiple websites: the initial website design, content, design tweaks after the site is launched, monthly SEO, etc. You can always just forward the domains to one primary URL, but if it’s not setup correctly, it could really hurt you in the long run.
So, here are five tips that you can use when trying to decide what to do with those extra domains that you have laying around:
1. Forwarding/Redirecting
This is usually the most popular way to put those extra domains to good use.
A lot of times, we advise clients of ours to use a primary domain that is keyword-rich since Google and other search engines seem to be putting so much emphasis on the importance of keywords in URLs these days.
However, these website domains tend to be extra long. Take http://www.lawfirmandattorney-internet-marketing.com for example. Obviously, we only had search engine optimization in mind when we chose this domain, and if I had a dollar for every time I had to spend five minutes spelling this out in person or over the phone, I could retire before I’m forty.
So having a domain name that is shorter and easier to put on business cards and commercials, easier to tell potential clients and friends without having to spell out ten words, and just easier to remember usually comes in handy.
Would you rather tell your clients to visit:
http://www.your-florida-car-bus-and-motorcycle-accident-lawyer.com
or
http://www.murphyandfoster.com?
Okay, maybe that first domain is a little overboard, but you get the point.
The easiest way to do this is to forward or redirect the shorter domain to your primary domain, so that you can still capitalize on the SEO “juice” of the keyword-rich domain and still not lose your voice after telling people your website address. So, the question is: what’s the best way to do this?
2. 301 Redirects And Why They’re Awesome
There are two different reasons why you may want to utilize a 301 redirect:
1) Your website is just about to launch, and you have one or two domains that you’d like to point to your primary website (similar to the example above), or
2) You have an old website that wasn’t all that great, and a new website that is just about to launch. Even though your old website is “old and busted”, it still gets a few decent search engine rankings and you don’t want to lose them. Whether your new website is using the same domain as the old one or not, using a 301 redirect to make sure you keep your existing search engine rankings is the best way to do so. Even Google says so.
So, what is a 301 redirect?
Without getting too technical, it basically tells search engine spiders and web browsers that a website or web page has been permanently moved to a new domain, and that the search engines should transfer any “link juice” and search engine rankings to the new website or web page, and browsers should visit the new website or web page instead of the old one.
In terms of setting up a 301 redirect, your webmaster should know how to, or you can read this useful guide on how to do it yourself. But, be careful, you need to know what you’re doing.
Which leads us to tip number 3:
3. Are You Sure That Your Redirect/Forward Is Set Up Correctly?
If your redirect or forward isn’t set up correctly, there is a chance that you could be inadvertently running two different websites with different domains with the same content, which would cause Google and other search engines to view both websites as copycats of each other. This results in: You guessed it, a duplicate content penalty.
Google has publicly stated that there is no such thing as a duplicate content penalty, which I find amusing seeing as I’ve seen two websites over the past two months dropped to page six of Google for search terms that they were ranked on page one for simply because the webmaster didn’t know that their forwarding wasn’t set up correctly.
If you have multiple domains forwarding or redirecting to one URL, here is what you should look for to make sure everything is set up properly:
1. When you type in the domain name that should be redirecting to the primary domain, does the primary domain come up in the browser bar or does the redirecting domain?
In other words, using the example above, where
http://www.murphyandfoster.com
should be redirecting to
http://www.your-florida-car-bus-and-motorcycle-accident-lawyer.com
When you type in http://www.murphyandfoster.com in your browser’s address field, does
http://www.murphyandfoster.com
or
http://www.your-florida-car-bus-and-motorcycle-accident-lawyer.com
load?
If all is done correctly, http://www.your-florida-car-bus-and-motorcycle-accident-lawyer.com should come up in your browser’s address bar, and you should never see http://www.murphyandfoster.com.
If you go to http://www.murphyandfoster.com and http://www.your-florida-car-bus-and-motorcycle-accident-lawyer.comand each domain loads in the browser bar, you probably have a problem.
Here’s another example:
Tom Kiley, a client of ours, has a Boston motorcycle blog. The URL is injuredbikerlaw.com.
Tom had a domain that he bought a few years ago, loudpipessavelives.com, that he wanted to redirect to the Loud Pipes Save Lives page of his blog.
So, when I type in http://www.loudpipessavelives.com in my browser bar
It is setup so that it redirects to his Loud Pipes Saves Lives page, and the URL that is www.loudpipessavelives.com is referring to shows in my browser bar
Which is exactly what we want.
If Loudpipessaveslives.com and his blog page each loaded with different URLs, Google is likely seeing that as two different web pages with the same content, which is a huge no-no.
So again, if you’re able to launch the same website or web page with two different URL’s, and both URL’s show up in your browser bar, it’s likely that you have a problem.
You can also use a website called CopyScape to see if you have website pages that are being looked at as duplicates by the search engines.
4. I Think My Forwarding Is Wrong, What Should I Do?
If you are able to load the same website or web page with two different URL’s and they don’t seem to be forwarding correctly, it’s very likely that you will see a drop in rankings once Google and other search engines realize what’s happening.
You should always contact your webmaster to make sure they’re 100% certain that your forwarding is set up correctly and they can reassure you of it, otherwise you’ll probably wake up one morning and your traffic and search engine rankings have plummeted.
If you have reason to believe that you have already been penalized for a redirecting issue, make sure you or your webmaster do whatever you can to rectify the situation, and then send Google a request for reconsideration. in Webmaster Tools. This can take some time though, so be patient and provide Google with as much technical information as possible when explaining what went wrong.
5. Okay, I’ve Read Enough About Redirecting. I Just Want To Launch Different Websites and/or Blogs for Each Domain That I Have
Easy there, tiger. This sounds like a great idea and is definitely the best way to go, but like we mentioned in the opening paragraph, are you ready to spend the time and/or money necessary to make each site successful?
Let’s say you have six different domains, and you want a website on two of them and a blog on the other four.
Okay, sounds good. Are you going to come up with unique and informative content for each one on your own, or pay someone else to do it? And I’m not just talking about the initial content, I’m talking about updates on a regular basis.
Design and hosting costs aside, the time and money associated with properly maintaining six different websites can be pretty high. A lot of clients underestimate how much time is necessary to maintain one website let alone six.
So you decide to try it on your own, and a few months later, after you run out of time and ideas trying to post content yourself regularly for six different sites, you think about outsourcing your content efforts.
If the average blog post costs an industry average of $25-$30, and you want two pieces of content posted to each site per week (which is still low seeing how newer search engine algorithms are putting more emphasis on content), that’s up to $360 per week, or $1400 per month, not even counting the time you spend reading the content to make sure it’s accurate, the time you spend monitoring your websites’ traffic through analytics programs, and the time necessary to maintain effective search engine marketing and link building efforts (which is pretty much mandatory these days, especially if you’re in a competitive market).
Oh yeah I forgot, you’re supposed to be practicing law on top of all of this.
Just be sure to realize that having multiple websites isn’t as easy as paying a design company a one-time fee and expect it to be off and running in the first three months and the cases to be rolling in. Properly marketing and maintaining a website can be a full-time job, and doing the same for six websites? I hope you have some help.
So, there are five tips that you should think about when you’re trying to decide what to do with all of your unused domains.
All of this, of course, is related to your overall web marketing strategy, which is extremely important to online lead generation. If you’re still unsure of what you should do, or even whether or not your forwarding or redirecting is set up properly, shoot shoot us an email and we’ll be more than happy to take a look.
