- We're talking about why you should own multiple domains
for your business,
here on "The Journey."
whether it's for a business or a blog,
or you just really want to slice the pie of the internet,
your domain name is your digital address online.
And if your domain is your address,
your domain extensions is like your zip code
in that it gives you your website visitors
a little bit more information about you.
And when it comes to purchasing a domain name,
there are a lot of common questions
including whether your business needs more than one.
- So there's actually no limit
to the number of domain names that you can buy.
But there's actually just some general considerations
that every business should make
to determine how many domain names they should buy.
- There are so many instances where registering
an additional domain name
could help more people get to your site,
starting with misspellings.
And I think this is one of the most important reasons
to purchase more than one domain name
it's just to protect against user error
because there's always the potential for people
to really misunderstand what your domain name is
when they hear it or make a mistake when typing it.
You want to make it a priority
to own all common misspellings of your company's name
or personal name.
Like my last name is Nealey, yet everyone spells it
L-Y instead of L-E-Y.
So I have justinnealey.com and justinnealy.com
but that's just one example.
To account for those those inevitable errors and typos,
really consider registering domain name variations
for the common misspellings that people make
when searching for your brand
and redirect them to your primary domain.
Google for example, owns google.com and goggle.com
and redirects visitors to google.com.
- Let's also talk about local competition
which you know I'm gonna bring up SEO.
So for search engine optimization purposes,
businesses with various locations,
those multi looks that cater to different audiences,
often take advantage of owning specific domains for each.
Makes sense, right?
So if you have a keyword strategy in mind
for your local market,
having an individual domain for each one
will actually help you to take up more real estate.
And that's great for search results.
So registering country specific domains as well
can help you to prevent your competitors
from profiting, from geographically distant versions
of your brand name.
So that's why brands like Nike for example,
register domains like nike.com.au
and it redirects them to nike.com.
- It's also better for just the overall branding
for your business.
You can register a GTLD such as .store or.pro
to target various communities
and highlight segments of your business.
If you've already have a traditional domain name
that ends in like .com or .net,
purchasing a domain name with a different TLD alongside it
may allow you to really stand out from the crowd
and highlight a specific focus of your brand.
And another way to use a more meaningful TLD
is to help people easily navigate
to specific content on your website.
For example, public companies might use the .info .domain
to really separate out their investor relations information
and a company running a campaign
around environmental initiatives
could have website name .green.
Obviously website name would be a better example.
It would be your business, but you get the gist.
- Now people can and will
buy your domain just to trick people.
I know. Crazy, right?
But a more pressing reason to buy more than one domain
is then to protect your brand
and as well as your customers.
And there are two types of people that will do this:
criminals or competitors
and this is a pretty serious problem
and actually, even for major brands
- Cybercrime can come in different shapes and sizes:
hosting malware, phishing content and other scams.
And if your business name is available, they will buy it.
And at that point, you maybe could try to ask them
to sell it back to you,
but then they can charge really any price they want
to sell it back to you.
- Yeah, same goes if there is a very common misspelling
of your domain name that's still available.
However, however, unlike cyber criminals,
your competitors aren't going to stoop so low
as to commit fraud using your brand name.
But what they can do is register the domains
that you haven't.
- And this could have a significant impact.
I mean firstly, anyone who mistakenly thinks your website
ends in .com,
an assumption that the majority of people make
when it could be .co and they won't find your website
when they type in the address.
A competitor with a similar name may inadvertently
create confusion.
So having related or similar domain names
is an easy and inexpensive way
to protect your identity online.
- So what to do with all of these domains?
Well, when you register a domain,
there's actually no requirement for you to
go ahead and create a website for it.
Just simply set it up and then if anyone visits it,
it'll redirect them to another website.
- Hey and with most registrars,
it's pretty easy to forward multiple domain names
to your website.
So you can simply create one site
and then have all the others redirect.
So if a visitor ends up typing one of those
or clicks a link,
just goes back to your main website.
- Now, many companies do see the benefits
of registering multiple domains.
Think about it.
It protects their business from criminals and competitors
and it also helps customers find them,
making it easier for them to sell to a wider market.
- And with so many TLDs available today,
it's worth taking a look at the opportunities
that these create.
The key is to have a clear game plan for each one
and with a good strategy in place,
you'll be well positioned to make multiple domains
work for you.
So I've got to know.
Do you have multiple domains for your business?
Let us know in the comments below
and smash that Like button while you're at it.
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This is "The Journey."
See you next time.