SEO Tip: Multiple Domain Names

You might have heard that buying a bunch of domain names and pointing them to your website will help you out with getting your website to the top of searches. This advice is as dated as Warren Beatty.

All You Need is One

The basic rule of thumb is to never have more than one domain name pointing to a single site. This is because Google and others are looking for you to have unique content on your website. If your content is showing up under a handful of names when they are trying to figure out ranking, Google is going to be confused about which is the authority an all of your sites are going to suffer. And so, your domain likely will not rank highest for the words you want it to.

There are Exceptions to Every Rule

There are a few instanced when you would want these redirects. (These are targeted at mistypes in the browser bar and are not targeted in any way at search ranking.) Here are some instances:

  • Your domain name is easy to misspell.
  • You want to own your brand online, you might want to pick up the .com, .net, etc. versions of your domain name.
  • You need country specific domain names for domains outside of the US.

If you do set these up, be sure that they are 301 redirects so that they have no negative repercussions for your website’s rank.

Kandace Brigleb

Producer, co-founder of Needmore. Currently residing on the left coast.