If you own a business, you almost certainly understand how important it is to register a domain name for your company website. For many people, however, buying one domain name isn’t going to be enough.
There are some significant benefits to owning multiple domain names for your business. Take some time to learn more about this option to see if it’s a good idea for you. While reading this article, find out:
- Why do businesses buy more than one domain?
- What types of domains should you consider purchasing?
- How do you manage multiple domains?
- What problems could you face with multiple domains?
Why Businesses Buy More than One Domain
There are many different reasons why businesses consider purchasing multiple different domain names. The following are some of the most common reasons why a business would spend the time and money needed to set up and manage more than one domain:
- Marketing strategies: If you have a specific domain for each service, you may be able to run more precise marketing campaigns
- SEO: Your domain can have a big impact on your search engine results, and having multiple domains can benefit your SEO efforts
- Legal protection: Buying domains related to your business or business name now can help you to avoid the need to sue someone for trying to steal it later
Types of Domains You Should Consider Purchasing
- Multiple top-level domains (TLDs)
- Similar sounding or spelling domains
- Trademarked or patented domains
- Service specific domain names
- Location specific domain names
There are many different types of domains that you could consider purchasing for your company. Each type provides different benefits. Read through the most common types of domains that businesses purchase to see which ones would be the best investment for your company.
Multiple TLDs
The most common type of domain that businesses buy when purchasing multiple domains is simply their own URL with different TLDs. A TLD is the part at the end of the URL after the dot. For example, on Digital.com, the TLD is “.com.”
Securing your business name with multiple different TLDs can help ensure nobody else tries to set up a competing site.
There are hundreds of TLDs, so you don’t need to buy them all. The following are among the most popular so you may want to start with these:
- .com
- .net
- .org
- .info
If your business operates in multiple countries, you also want to secure your company name on each of their TLDs. For example, in the United Kingdom sites generally end with .uk. In Germany, they have the .de TLD.
Similar Sounding or Spelling Domains
If you have found that people often misspell your business name, you may want to purchase domains based on those misspellings. This helps ensure that potential customers who are looking for your business website find their way to you. If you don’t do this, competitors may register the name, or the search engines may never direct them to your page properly.
Trademarked or Patented Domains
If you trademark or patent either your business name or the name of various products that you offer, it’s a good idea to purchase the relevant domains. You can point these domains to specific product pages on your main website or create a separate website that’s dedicated exclusively to that product.
Service-specific Domain Names
If your business offers multiple different types of services, you may want to have a separate domain for each one. For example, if you run a local handyman service, you may benefit from registering a separate domain for your roofing services, remodeling services, appliance repair, and more.
Location-specific Domain Names
Businesses that operate multiple locations often want to purchase a separate domain for each one. Having domains that combine the business name and the city each location is in can be very effective.
This allows you to display the correct contact information to people based on what they’re searching for. In addition, domains that are specific to geographic areas show up more often for local searches on Google and other search engines.
How To Manage Multiple Domains
When you own multiple domains, you have a few different options when it comes to managing them. The first option is to have multiple domains pointing to a single website. For example, if you own the domains www.YourSite.com and www.YourSite.net, you can have them both pointing to the same website files through your control panel.
The other option is to set up a separate website for each domain that you own. When this is the case, you need to essentially create two unique websites and treat them entirely separately. You can manage the backend work from a single control panel, but beyond that, you would simply be running two or more sites.
One last thing to keep in mind when it comes to managing multiple domains is making sure that you’re keeping track of renewing each domain. This is especially important if you didn’t register all of your domains at the same time.
Generally, you can buy a domain name for one year at a time or multiple years. Whichever you decide, you need to make sure that you either have them renewed automatically or that you set reminders to renew them manually when it’s time or you run the risk of losing ownership.
The Problems With Owning Multiple Domains
It is clear that there are many benefits to owning multiple domain names. There are also, however, some potential problems that you need to be aware of. Take note of the following problems or challenges that you may face with owning multiple domains so you can prepare for them ahead of time:
- Ongoing costs: In addition to the initial cost of purchasing the domain, pay the renewal costs each year to maintain ownership
- Need to keep them updated: If you have a separate website for each domain, it can take a lot of time and effort to keep them all updated properly
- May confuse customers: Customers may be confused if they’re shown multiple different URLs for the same company
- Need to manage forwarding: If you’re having multiple domains all forward to one website, you need to make sure to update the settings on each site if you ever change hosts or make other adjustments to your main website
What Should You Do Next?
If you decide that it makes sense for your company to own multiple domain names, the next steps are going to be simple. First, figure out which domain name registrar is going to be best for you. Next, make a list of all the different domains ― including their TLDs ― that you want to purchase. If you have a large list, consider contacting the domain name registrar to see if you can negotiate a discount. If not, simply go through and register each domain separately to your account.
Once you own the domains, set them up with a website. This can be done by pointing that domain to an existing website or creating an entirely new site for each one. Verify that you’re keeping track of each domain and how long you own it. Making sure that you renew the domain before it expires helps ensure that you never lose access to your domains.
