What to do with additional domain names?

Today’s Ask An SEO comes from Elise from Hyde Park who asks:

I have a client who owns about 20 domains with keywords closely related to his product. At the moment, everyone forwards to his one website.

Should he keep those names? Is there any advantage to doing this or even owning them? Should we do something with them?

I don’t know of any strategy for using more than one domain, but a lot of people have more than one just so no one else has it. What should we do with all these extra domain names?

Recently Google’s John Mueller stated that “keywords in domain names are overrated.”

But we still have people whose entire business model is to buy keyword-rich domains, build a simple website that ranks, and then sell or lease the domain to an unsuspecting small business.

And the bigger problem?

According to some well-respected SEO experts – and myself – search engine results pages appear to be in violation of Mr. Mueller, especially in specific, competitive verticals.

So what’s a confused SEO professional to do?

Long-term: Do what Google says

My best advice – and this goes far beyond multiple domain names for one brand – is to do what Google says.

One caveat: Do what Google says in public.

And we all know it’s hard to do what Google says when seemingly irrefutable evidence emerges to warrant new action.

But unless you’re Mueller or someone like him, you don’t know what Google has on the drawing board for the near future.

My experience is that when Google tells webmasters something, it may not be true right now, but it will be the best advice for what Google puts out in the near future.

So, if you’re worried about the resources it will take to keep your site up to date with the latest Google Webmaster Tips, start planning the project anyway.

You will more than likely need to invest in change soon if you want to succeed.

Short-term: Look for opportunities

Our job as search engine marketers is to look for opportunities to help websites provide the information our end customers want and need.

If you look at search from this perspective, you’ll find opportunities to promote your content, brand, and website.

When an organization spends an inordinate amount of time and money researching what technology will work for their simple website, the lost opportunities can be enormous.

And among the hundreds of frames out there, there are only four or five that I would consider normal and mature.

Unless your site has a specific problem that a particular technology solves, and/or you have the internal resources to maintain a site with cutting-edge features that may not always work properly, it’s best to use one of the common and mature technologies. .

Examples of these frameworks include WordPress and Drupal.

Of course, even these mature platforms have their problems.

But there are documented fixes for almost every problem you’ll encounter in a mature platform.

If you’re not ready and choose a less mature platform, you will will you end up missing out on opportunities because you’re too busy fighting the technology.

Other reasons for many domains

In most cases, it is a bad idea to have multiple domains for one business.

If you want to rank multiple domains, you need to put work into each website the domain points to.

You need to build the page.

You need to create engaging and rankable content for your website.

You need to make sure that other websites are linked to each website that you create.

In short: you should run as many SEO campaigns as you have websites.

This can be time-consuming, expensive and require unnecessary effort.

The best option is to have one authoritative domain with a website architecture that serves all of your target groups.

But if you have special promotions or programs, it’s common to build a small microsite to promote those products.

Just don’t expect the microsite to rank organically.

In fact, you don’t want these sites to rank organically, as promotion is usually over before optimal ranking can begin.

You may also have common typos that people type when searching for your site.

If this is the case, I recommend that you buy these typos and redirect them via a permanent 301 redirect to your main site.

If you’re worried about people buying domain names you don’t own and stealing your traffic, you may have bigger problems.

There is no way you can think of every permutation that could harm your brand.

Buy only those domains that you care about people in your organization.

If someone finds out that the domain has already been purchased, it won’t stop them from damaging your company’s reputation.

You must be prepared to respond to dissatisfied customers.

Buying domain names is not responding.

More resources:

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Featured image: Tero Vesalainen/Shutterstock

Editor’s note: Ask SEO is a weekly SEO tips column written by some of the top SEO experts in the industry as selected by Search Engine Journal. Have a question about SEO? Fill out our form. You might see your answer in the next #AskanSEO post!