Multiple Domains for SEO?
October 23rd, 2008 by Dan
Online businesses and websites that cover a broad range of topics or one large topic are sometimes broken down into multiple domains and, in content terms, it can make a lot of sense to do so. Certainly where no logical link between the topics exists it is almost essential to use more than one domain name and more than one online identity otherwise it can confuse visitors and provide no clear line. In Search Engine Optimisation terms, though, using a single domain for related topics and pages can help all of your pages to enjoy the benefits of a single Search Engine Optimisation campaign.
Optimising Individual Pages
Search Engine Optimisation typically requires the optimisation of individual pages. However, authority sites that have been established for some time and have developed a large number of links enjoy a special relationship with the search engines. Engines like Google will seemingly rank new pages on these sites very highly for a number of reasons; not least because of the age of the domain and the existence of many links pointing to that domain.
Keeping Readers Happy
It isn’t just the search engines that enjoy a good relationship with authority sites either. The readers of those websites will become more and more entrenched in the character of the site. They will visit more often and will return in the hope of their being new content to read. If you offer bookmark and RSS features then your regular visitors can be instantly notified as soon as a new page is added virtually guaranteeing that they will visit in order to read it.
Adding A Blog To Your Domain
A lot of business websites have benefited from the addition of a number of online elements. Web applications, blogs, forums, newsletters, and other forms of online media can certainly prove popular with readers and they also present certain Search Engine Optimisation opportunities. There is some debate over whether websites benefit more from separating, for instance, their blog and their main site but the general consensus is that a blog can be used to drive traffic to your website and build links; adding that blog to your existing domain or at least adding a redirect in your navigation menu will help your Search Engine Optimisation gains.
Don’t Compromise Your Business For SEO
Search Engine Optimisation is something of a balancing act but it never need compromise your online business activities. If you have multiple domains because you offer multiple, distinct, and different services, then there is certainly no reason to jam them together. Search Engine Optimisation is all about relevance and this includes site relevance as well as link relevance and keyword relevance. Keep the sites separate if they demand it.
Search Engine Optimisation Campaigns
Search engine optimisation is broken down into the on page and off page optimisation of your website’s pages. This means conducting separate keyword research, content writing, and link building for each page. Adding blogs and other forms of online media can be used to target more keywords and if you create a blog that is based on or around the same topic as your main website then add it to that domain for the best results.
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I frequently come across people who believe that 5 x domains = 5 x traffic. It’s often a repeating converstion that it doesn’t work out that way. Often subdomains are a good option.
As you said there are sometimes exceptions. Frequently working with venture capitalists there is a need to seperate things out as parts of the business need to be sold off to different people.
Yes, multiple domains can increase the online business due to search engine visibility, conversions and popularity.
It can be harmful for the site because search engine can’t work on the site due to multiple domains and can confuse the user too.
Single domain can give the same benefit as much as multiple domains can by SEO services and software tools.
Clearly can’t say anything regarding the way having multiple domains, I think it is just an experiment.
It might be beneficial for sites due to search result and search engine performance on the site link indexing the site, ranking site and PR scale.
It all depends on the need of the client and the intent. Multiple domains can work wonders. However at other times it can be a useless cause.
But micro sites can be very useful for a specific product launch or any other kind of promotion.
Here’s what I’m wondering. We have a client who has an ecommerce website, let’s call it guns.com. We’re thinking of setting up eight other sites like peashooter.com and bazooka.com, etc. Each site would be just one page with content and a link back to guns.com.
We feel that multiple links to guns.com is good. Having peashooter.com come up well in search engines will be good and hopefully bring visitors to guns.com. Guns.com is on a totally different server that the eight others. They all will be.on the same server.
Good idea or bad?
Hi Fred – Creating multiple URLs to essentially link back authority to your main site can definately be successful, but remember a brand new domain is almost worthless in the eyes of google, so I would recommend getting a broker to purchase an existing domain – more expensive but a proven way of increasing authority of your main site. If you are going down the root of brand new domains then just fill it with content relating to your main sites keywords. Hope this helps.