Multiple Domains for One Site
-
We are building a site for a new miniature golf course. They have a long name, which they don't want me to mention, but it's equivalent to a name like Golden State Golf and Putt. They also have a restaurant with its own name and brand that will be a part of the mini golf course and its website, much how Hotel websites have their restaurants on their sites.
Before becoming our client they purchased golfandputt.com and want to go with this domain for simplicity sake.
In addition to this domain name they purchased 7 others that contain the bussiness' full name in some way, such as:
As well as:
- 3 variations of the golfandputt.com domain
- 3 variations of the restaurants name
They wish to have all of these redirect to the main website or the restaurant page to "help with SEO," as they told me.
From what I have researched on SEOmoz it seems better to simply optimize the website for Golden State Golf and Putt and the restaurant page for the restaurant's name. Additionally, I'm worried that redirecting the domains to the site will actually hurt them in rankings.
If someone can shed some light on what the best practices for this sort of situation are I'd be much appreciative.
Apologies in advance for the lengthy explanation but its a bit of a unique situation.
-
You would want to implement the 301 redirect by going through the htaccess of your server. This redirect is the most effective. If you don't have access to the htaccess then a 301 redirect with php should do the trick. Also don't forget to do it for every page. A lot of companies actually buy a bunch of variations of their domain so that a competitor doesn't buy a second version for negative purposes or for link ads.
-
That's what I figured. Thanks a bunch!
-
Other sites will be able to link to the 301'd domains and this link juice (at least the majority of it) will be passed onto the dominant domain, so i wouldn't sweat it too much,as this won't harm your SERPs (assuming the links are good).
Its just a whole load easier if you are link building that you use one domain as it keeps things a whole lot simpler!
-
Thanks for the quick responses. I will make sure all link building is done for the main domain. However, individuals will still be able to link to the domains that are 301 redirecting if they choose so. So I guess we will just have to pay attention to this?
-
I agree with Justin. "Defensive" use of multiple domains to pick up misspellings or misremembered names can be valid strategy, but I would 301 them to the main site.
Trying to build links, social signals and unique, fresh content for each individual domain for SEO purposes probably isn't a good idea.
-
There is no harm in adding all of the addresses to the website, although i would certainly redirect via 301 to the master, dominant (or preferred) domain.
One of the main things you need to be careful of with multiple domains is duplicate content, Google will view the website for www.goldenstategolfandputt.com and www.goldenstategolfandputt.net as two different websites even if they are the same website but just reached via a different domain. Therefore if not addressed you would get penalised for duplicate content, to overcome this problem do either a 301 redirect or a rel=canonical to resolve this.
Also unless there is a very good reason, i would ensure from a simplicity's point of view that all linking, internal and external points to a single chosen domain as managing inbound links to multiple domains can be a real pain.
In essence, there is no problem with using multiple domains, plenty of people do it to protect their brand, to overcome misspellings, passing off etc etc.
Hope that helps
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
What should I do with 10 Similar Domains pointing to one site?
Hello,
Technical SEO | | thealika
I was recently put in charge of one website with about 15 extra Domains. I previously asked if Domain Parking hurts your SEO as duplicate content - and i learned that the answer seems to be yes. My next logical question is:
What should I do with all those EMD, keyword friendly domains? As I understand, 301 redirecting the domains to the root domain is a safe bet, but that means the extra domains will point to the original root domain no mater what comes after the forward slash. So www.ExtraDomain.com/AboutUS will point to www.OriginalDomain.com - is there a way to keep the forward slashes relavent to the content on the original root domain, if so How? Your Advice, Links, and Comments are greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Nikita0 -
Domain authority not showing on root domain?
I was going through our site earlier w/ the mozBar (still learning the tools, new here) and saw the attached image. There were far more links to the subdomain (#s on the left) than the root domain (#s on right). This is strange to me, because we are not using any subdomains. All links point to either our root domain or subfolders off our root domain. Is this hurting our ranking for the root domain? Not sure what's up with this. Zz9j0.jpg
Technical SEO | | askotzko0 -
Multiple Domains on 1 IP Address
We have multiple domains on the same C Block IP Address. Our main site is an eCommerce site, and we have separate domains for each of the following: our company blog (and other niche blogs), forum site, articles site and corporate site. They are all on the same server and hosted by the same web-hosting company. They all have unique and different content. Speaking strictly from a technical standpoint, could this be hurting us? Can you please make a recommendation for the best practices when it comes to multiple domains like these and having separate or the same IP Addresses? Thank you!
Technical SEO | | Motivators0 -
Deleted Old Site - Relaunched on Same Domain
Now I have a bunch of links that are dead. (45 to be exact) What should I do? Rebuild the links, 301 redirect them to the homepage, 410 them? I didn't get a lot of external traffic from the links (maybe ~500 uniques/mo). Of that traffic, most of the users would bounce, my SEO wasn't very good so the content they received wasn't as relevant as it could have been. I'm not really worried about losing the traffic, but rather minimizing any penalty from google.
Technical SEO | | winefolly1 -
Lots of Domains Going Nowhere - Point to a Real Domain?
I have hundreds of domains that I have purchased over the years that arent going anywhere except GoDaddy's Cash Parking system, which returns very little revenue, if at all. I wonder if it would make more sense to just point these domains to actually e-commerce sites that I own. If so, how best to take these domains and point them so that SEO credit is given properly. Most of these available domains dont have anything to do with the e-commerce stores. So not sure it would help. Furthermore, if I were to purchase new domains that were more relevant to the keywords to our e-commerce sites, how best to set them up so we can generate traffic on them and point them over to the actual domains? Many thanks.
Technical SEO | | findachristianjob0 -
Domain with more Languages
Hey folks! I was wondering what you would do. I do have a Website. The website is provided in 8 other languages. Right now every language has it's own Domain name. The domain name is always the country in the language. I'm thinking about combine everything to one domain and hope to get some great linkjuice from the other 7 domains. So it would be www.example.com/en/ www.example.com/fr/ and so on. How do you handle that. Would this have a big positive impact on that one domain I'm forwarding to?
Technical SEO | | leitpix
I really think so!0