Multiple domain names are used a lot for many domain name owners in order to properly establish a site and make sure that customers do not post incorrect links in the address bar and go to the wrong site entirely. This can pose as a major problem for a lot of businesses, as they will get significantly less traffic through their site and therefore by extension receive less sales enquiries and profits. Most consumers will merely look to another site once they cant get access to a particular domain, and so the way around this is by owning multiple domains that can reach out to customers more if they try to go to one site when the correct one is another (a good example of this is a www version of a site and a non www version, as well as .co.uk vs. .com. multiple domains are used to reference the index page of a certain site and produce the same web page for the person searching.
It has been argued that they are pretty much the same domain name, and so many would ask why they need more than one unique domain for a single site.
In terms of the search engine side of getting more viewers to a site, multiple domains play a big part in this. In the past some providers would purchase multiple domains, sometimes in the hundreds or thousands to go to exactly the same site. This was done so that search engines would index them randomly and the search results would be greatly increased for that site. This spammy method of acquiring high search results is relatively inexpensive and is quick to do when registering multiple domains with a registrar.
However, search engines such as Google have identified this problem and work relentlessly on disallowing this from ever happening. This is because search engines do not tolerate spammy behaviour to get search results, and common knowledge of people who do this is more reliable and efficient than an enforcement policy). Websites with identical content used to be rife in search engine results, but this has been cut down on exponentially as search engine technicians stop these results from getting to the top of rankings.
For instance, the search engine Google which is easily the biggest in the world now bases its ranking system on the quality of links from sites in question. In other words, high popular and traffic links will get your site a higher Google ranking rather than a lot of spammy and thin content. For this reason, it is good to get a lot of external links to a single domain rather than multiple to several domains, as it can greatly affect your Google ranking since spammy links do not work any more.
Bearing this in mind, it is the opinion of a lot of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) practitioners that a single domain with several links should provide much healthier such results in addition to regular visitors. As SEO specialists ourselves, we can confirm this and have several websites that we help out with optimising their search results.
Having multiple entry points is another way of ensuring that you get better traffic to your site whilst keeping them clean and free from toxic links. For instance, the generic domain of a site may start with something such as www.petsupplies.co.uk, and stem off into several subsections about pet supplies, for instance disinfectants, dog diapers and dog toys. This main domain could stem off into these three sub-domains and as a result pick up a lot of traffic to these additional domains (e.g. petsupplies-dogdiapers.co.uk). Each of these subdomains is also a shortcut to the master domain, and can act as "landing pages" for more traffic to the core site.
Protecting your brand and domain type is another important aspect of business these days, as some organisations will look to snatch up derivatives of your domain to either put you out of business or mock your own. For example, a domain such as gardeningtools.co.uk may require the purchase of domains such as gardeningsupplies.co.uk or gardeningitems.co.uk to protect your domain and keep your brand safe. These domains do not need to go unused, however, and web forwarders can be set up to redirect them to your site to avoid any sites with low quality or lack of contact that will bring your ranking down. With a direct link and redirect you can get people to your domain more efficiently.
Another method of doing this to make sure that you are the only site people get to is to purchase derivatives of your domain type with the same name to forward onto your site. For instance, you could have a site such as dogbiscuits.co.uk that is forwarded to by dogbiscuits.com, .org and .net. This means that if a customer types in the extension incorrectly they will still get to your site and as a result they will not go elsewhere and your profits will be significantly increased.
Typing errors are also common among domain names (for instance a lot of people will type Goggle.com rather than Google.com by accident. Setting up redirects for misspellings of your domain can bring great dividends in sending lost souls to your site, as well as halting competitors from picking up on these sales that you may potentially lose out on.
Buying these TLD's may not seem that essential and is sort of harmless if a particular company purchases this domain type. However, if for instance a casino or pornographic company purchased a derivative of your domain it could lead to a lot of confusion and unsafe searching for users. For instance, the most common joke around this sort of idea is that of Pen Island, who own the domain penisland.net and sell various pens. However, as the domain itself can be seen to read something different, someone grabbing another version of the domain could make it into a very undesirable site for those parties involved. For this reason, we absolutely suggest that you take out as many as you can besides the really obscure ones to keep your brand as safe as possible.
Making site-specific domains can also be of great benefit to users wishing to access the same services but specific to the domain or location that it indicates. For instance, Google.com will automatically branch off into the domain that is suitable for the person searching: UK users will be redirected to Google.co.uk whereas French users will be sent to Google.fr. This allows customers to have control over their searching preferences without any inconvenience of forgetting which site they need to use. The automatic redirect is a very good feature, especially for region specific domains as a customer feels that they are appreciated by their service provider and makes them relatable.
If you are buying multiple domains, be sure to not do this in order to get spammy search engine results, as they should be intended for ease of use and additional core site traffic rather than getting multiple domains high up on search rankings. Google are not an unintelligent company and have many technicians working to stop this, so don't think you can bypass them and be safe with your searching.
Be sure to remember emails - you can get email services on all of your domains that you purchase if you would like to. It means that people looking for tech support can send it to the appropriate person rather than spamming the core site with very individualistic problems. Most will go to a catchall account as well as individual accounts which will back up your emails, but a very good spam system is required to get down on spam and filter out any unwanted emails.
Sub domains can also be purchased from most registrars and ISP's in order to make it easier for customers to get to where they want without having to purchase more domain names. This must be governed very closely though and so becoming savvy with DNS entries is important as most providers will not create sub domains for free.
Renewing your domains for extended periods of time is also of the upmost importance. Letting your core domain or any other versions of the domain expire can greatly reduce site traffic and cut down profits by an awful lot. On the flipside, if you are looking to pick up an expired domain this is also a viable option for you and your business. Some domains may not be renewed by people who purchased those years ago, and this bodes well since they are likely to be far more unique and desirable than making a new domain yourself. It also means that if any other member of the public has taken up a registration with a permutation of your domain, you can pick it up and direct all the traffic to your own site.
Alternative domains are available in the marketplace and are more obscure, niche and fit for purpose (e.g. .shop or .xxx). These domain types are generally a bit more expensive, but will still bear great dividends for you and your business. A more obscure domain means that if you desired you could also have a more niche URL as there are far less .shop domains registered than .com or .co.uk, and therefore you could have a name such as fishfood.shop rather than a .com that is less unique such as fishfoodshopincannock.com. It also means that the customer can enjoy a quirky and less conventional domain name, leading them to come back time and time again. Repeat customers who are engaged by your company is exactly what you want, so make sure you pick up a new TLD as many more are coming out every single week.
ICANN is the governing body that controls the registration and structure of the domain name world. This company is a non-profit organisation that merely has the goal of making sure that all domain names are purchased and sold in the correct manner as well as ensuring that the registrars signed up to them are going about their business in the right way. This company has been around ever since domain names first started coming out and therefore is very apt at identifying any mishaps or inconsistencies with the trade of domains.
To conclude, owning a domain name is a way of marketing you and your company in the most efficient manner - owning multiple domain names is mostly beneficial when done to forward to a main site or split the site into subsections, as it gives you more traffic with relevant customers and therefore increased profits. However, there cannot be good without a bad alter-ego, and there are spammy domains purchased by a lot of people in an attempt to acquire higher Google rankings. Owning these multiple domains isn't exactly that necessary from an SEO point of view, but does give your site more natural traffic from the forwarders set up to lead wayward customers on the right path. Rather than go through the anguish of losing a lot of customers through lack of domain purchases, just pick up as many permutations of your domain as you possibly can in order to use them for relevant purposes rather than to force traffic onto your sites.
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