Are Multiple Domain Names Always a Bad Idea

[Stewart]

Although multiple domain names pointing at a single site are generally not a good idea Aarron Walter suggests in his book "Building Findable Websites" that setting up a second domain name and using hyphens to make the name more search engine readable e.g. www.cheap-clothes-4-babies.co.uk as well as www.cheapclothes4babies.co.uk could be the away forward where keywords are in the URL. Then submit the hyphenated name to the search engines and use the other URL for more human related marketing.

I'm wondering what's the best way to set this up and is it likely to deliver a positive benefit in search engine ranking ?Has anyone perhaps dabbled in this approach ?

Stewart

[David]

Interesting question Stewart. In theory, the hyphenated version should be better for SEO but I've never tested this.

How to actually do it (properly) is a little more complicated. First, you'll need to have a hosting account that allows you to include "parked" domains. You can then park any alternative domains on top of the primary domain. Then, to keep search engines happy, you ought to include a 301 redirect in the .htaccess files so that search engines don't split the rank of the site between the different domains (at least that's the conventional wisdom).

It's certainly worth further investigation.

[Stewart]

Should one choose which is the primary and secondary carefully or is there likely to be no impact ?

Also I presumed that multiple domains are not a good idea and that the search engines don't like and even punish this approach, but can you overcome this with 301 redirects and submit a number of them ?

[David]

Should one choose which is the primary and secondary carefully or is there likely to be no impact ?

Difficult to say. The primary domain name is the one that people will see in the address bar and will therefore be copied and pasted (you hope) into links on other websites. My preference would be to use the memorable version for this.


Also I presumed that multiple domains are not a good idea and that the search engines don't like and even punish this approach, but can you overcome this with 301 redirects and submit a number of them ?

Correct and yes you can. Here's an extract from one of my .htaccess files:



RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^cadtutor.net$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.cadtutor.net/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^cadtutor.org$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.cadtutor.org$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.cadtutor.net/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^cadtutor.biz$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.cadtutor.biz$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.cadtutor.net/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^cadtutor.info$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.cadtutor.info$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.cadtutor.net/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^cadtutor.mobi$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.cadtutor.mobi$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.cadtutor.net/$1 [R=301,L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^cadtutor.co.uk$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.cadtutor.co.uk$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.cadtutor.net/$1 [R=301,L]


The above rules redirect the .org, .biz, .info and .co.uk domains to the .net domain AND any domain without "www" to the www.domain.net (http://www.domain.net) version.

In the above case, the .net domain is the primary and all the others are parked on top of it.

[James]

Perhaps I have misunderstood this topic, but I struggle to understand the benefits of registering a hyphenated URL.

For one, hyphens get in the way and lead to mistakes when typed.

Second, my advice has always been "choose one domain name wisely and concentrate all efforts on it, and it alone".

I understand why you might register .net, .biz, .eu variants - for brand protection but surely not for traffic gains?

[David]

James, I think the idea is that the domain without hyphens would be for normal use but that a hyphenated version is just "out there". In theory, this would reveal keywords within non-hyphenated domains to search engines and improve ranking. I'm not entirely convinced but Aarron Walter recommends this approach in his book. He suggests submitting the hyphenated version to seach engines but use the non-hyphenated version for general use.

There seems to be a slight twist of logic in this that I can't quite resolve. If the search engine finds a 301 permanent redirect for the hyphenated version, doesn't that mean that it will be dropped for indexing purposes? Conversely, if there is no redirect, you effectively have 2 sites and your ranking is affected.

[James]

There seems to be a slight twist of logic in this that I can't quite resolve. If the search engine finds a 301 permanent redirect for the hyphenated version, doesn't that mean that it will be dropped for indexing purposes? Conversely, if there is no redirect, you effectively have 2 sites and your ranking is affected.

Yes, this is what I thought. And I am sure Google can read keywords whether there is a hyphen or not.