There has been a rise in companies offering alternative versions of domain names. e.g. you may own www.mybusinessname.com.au. You then receive an email or letter (that commonly looks like an invoice) for www.mybusinessname.net.au. Do you really need it?
The idea is that you can have more than one domain name pointing to one website.
Reasons Why
The main reason why people buy multiple domains is protect their brand online. While some business owners go into panic mode, buying 10 + domain names, this is not needed. Sometimes it is valid to purchase a couple of domain names (e.g. the .com.au and the .com versions) to protect them from competitors however, there is no need to go overboard.
If you wanted to create a separate website to promote another area of your business, having a second domain name would be required. Avoid duplicate content (e.g. same wording) and consider the additional costs of having a second website. You may be better spending that money on promoting your main website.
One of your domain names can be used to measure the effectiveness of your advertising efforts. Also, if you have a shortened version of your domain name, it might look nicer on newspaper ads and business cards. A 'shorter' domain name may also be easier to spell or remember.
Reasons Why Not
Essentially, owning multiple domain names that all point back to the same website very rarely helps with your website's search engine performance. In some instances, it can even damage it.
“These additional domains actually provide very little benefit and in some cases can even harm your SEO campaign.” (source: http://blog.ineedhits.com).
The search engines are smarter than ever. Their job to weed out those trying to “trick” the system and reward those websites that abide by their guidelines.
Get advice from different domain name suppliers and also compare prices.
For more information you can contact Web-Sta on 0415 142 178 or visit
www.web-sta.com.au.
www.web-sta.com.au.
