Multiple Domains: How To Use Them Correctly
ByThat statement definitely applies to Internet marketing. When I first began building Cactus Canyon, I knew a “little bit” about subdomains. I had the bonehead idea of making a subdomain for one of my main keywords. It seemed like a really good idea at the time. However, it was a major mistake.
There are MANY ways to shoot yourself in the foot.
One big area of confusion for beginning marketers is the issue of using multiple domains to complement their main site. When done correctly, extra domains can benefit your main site. However, improper use of them will REALLY hurt!
I’ve been talking with a friend over the past few days whose Google traffic has drastically decreased over the past few months. I suspect the last Google algorithm change caught up with them.
This is one example of how NOT to use multiple domains:
My friend has a great site. It has many hundreds of high quality pages and Google loved it; it was making a nice monthly income…until page views began falling dramatically.
It made no sense to me. I saw NOTHING wrong with the site. In fact, in my opinion, the site is a perfect example of how to do things RIGHT. So what was wrong?
Almost offhandedly, my friend mentioned something about having other domains she had masked and pointing to her single site.
Uh oh….
Worse still, what “looked” like the main site (and the one all the backlinks were linking to) was actually one of the masked domains!
Double Uh Oh……
Actually, my friend did not do it; a person helping with the site and hosting did it. They made this one masked domain their “main” site because it had the best name. The original and “real” site did not have a good domain name; that’s why they chose to mask to it.
Oh, and just FYI, GoDaddy offers this masking option for forwarding domains without any disclaimers for how it could hurt SEO. Shame on them.
Probably what happened was that Google put some extra tweaks in their latest update which brought this mistake to their attention sooner rather than later (they would have eventually caught up with this).
My friend had built an entire brand and site on a non-existent foundation. The masking is really an iFrame…it’s not really there. Worse still, there were a handful of other domains doing the same thing. It looked like multiple, identical sites but with different domain names…all owned by the same person! ….triple uh oh!
The good news is that the 2 main URLs in question are both still in the Google index. Therefore, this problem should be easily corrected. I really expect for things to be back to normal in a few months with respect to page views.
What about buying extra domains to complement your main site? Sure, you can do that…just use them correctly.
For example, if you buy the .org, .net, .us versions of your .com domain, you have two choices. You can just do a 301 redirect from those extra domains to your main site. That is safe. A 301redirect means that if someone goes to that URL in their browser they are redirected to the main site AND the URL changes to the main domain (unlike masking).
Your other choice is to develop those other domains into small, keyword targeted mini sites that link back to your main site. ONLY do this if you create valuable and original content for the sites. Do not simply toss up some content with your link included. Make a 4 or 5 page site optimized for one small aspect of your business. With add-on hosting, these mini sites costs nothing extra vs. just having the domain parked or redirected.
Again, it’s OK to buy the related domains. But don’t believe they will, by themselves, bring your main site traffic…even by doing a proper 301 redirect. For example, if your main site is EasyDogTraining.com, simply having the domain TrainDogs.com won’t result in significant, if any, traffic. (People would have to actually type into their browser TrainDogs.com…that will rarely happen.)
Besides the quick lesson on how to use multiple domains, I hope also you learned to double check all your decisions while beginning your business. This is just one example, of how something that looked like a “good idea”, could sabotage all your other efforts.
Keyword subdomains are a bad idea? So if I have homeexerciseequipment.com, I shouldn’t have homeexerciseequipment.com/treadmills?
Why is this bad?
I’ve heard people suggest using a fairly long keyword packed main site URL (for Google) but using a shorter, easy to remember URL (for Humans) which redirects to the main site.
I used to do this myself but not any more. From what you’ve said it seems Google would be ok with this though. It might even be a good idea as long as it doesn’t confuse people when they’re redirected?
Masking does sound a little ‘black hat’ though, even if not intentional. Good original content within the rules will always win. Anything dodgy and Google will find out and hit you hard eventually.
Excellent article again, thanks.
Steve ,
You have got me worried now. When I original started my site I also got the .org and .net just in case I wanted to expand into other similar areas in the future. Being a beginner I went with GoDaddy for hosting not realizing at the time I could host anywhere.
Anyway GoDaddy has pointed the .org and .net to the main .com and I do not know how they did it. If you type the .org or .net it appears as .com so I think it is OK but am not sure, how can I check.
Thanks, Bob
homeexerciseequipment.com/treadmills is not a subdomain. that’s just a subfolder on your domain. That is fine.
It would be a subdomain if you linked it as treadmills.homeexerciseequipment.com
Hi Jason,
Having a long domain is fine for the search engines. Having a short one that 301 redirects to it is virtually useless unless you have off-line advertising using it. No one is usually going to type the exact domain into a browser to find that short domain name.
Many people get confused on this. Let’s say I had a site called http://www.HandmadeCustomDogCollars.com ….and then I had another domain with a 301 redirect to that main site named www. CustomCollars.com
That alone will not send more traffic to your main site. Only those who actually type that into a browser (NOT a search engine) would find your site….and how many would do that? Not many.
Yes, if you type in the .org version of the domain and it redirects and the browser ends up on the .com site, that is fine. That is a correct redirect. Masking means it would go to the .com site but it would look like it was actually on the .org site.
I’m glad you just said what masking meant. I’m totally non-techie and had no idea what you were talking about in the blog post.
Hi Steve,
Excellent stuff! Again!
Your posts wake me up when they land like bombs in my inbox. Love reading them!
It’s great to have someone out there keeping on top of all this stuff so that I can keep updated while getting on with my business.
Yes, if the hosts know about the penalties etc, they should say…
What about spun content on the mini-sites??
Thanks
Derek
Thanks Derek…..I won’t go into it too much here, but there are some ways to make some money with spun content on mini sites. But it won’t ever be your bread and butter most likely. Also, you really have to know the process well; it’s no place to begin for the beginners out there reading this.
Hi Steve…Hope all is well with you,
What about “Parked Domains” would that have the same effect as the 301 redirect or does the url remain in the browser ??
I haven’t done it yet but was thinking about it and the timing of this info is great as usual.
Thanks Steve and all the best….Peter
Sorry for the late reply! Sure, you can forward a parked domain to another site…just use the 301 choice to do it with….do not mask.
Thanks Steve, Take care….Peter
Steve,
This is such a great article. I passed your site on to someone else today who’s having trouble defining their niche. Thanks for all the help you provide here!
Very goood article! Internet marketing is something that you definitely have to study all the time. Seems like there’s always something new coming out.
Hi Steve,
I am trying to consolidate domains I had parked wrongly on my main corporate site… I have http://www.ebsi.ie for 11 years now but we rebranded to more keyword rich and international http://www.ebsiexportacademy.com about 4 years ago… so a 4yo domain… then I parked another keyword rich http://www.tradespecialist,org on the site too. I see there are pages from all three in search results.
Should I redirect to the 11yo domain which is short, irish and meaningless or focus all on the more keywordy ebsiexportacademy.com?
Your advice is greatly appreciated!
Best regards
Thomas Smith
Oh no….you have the same exact content on all those sites??
If so, that was really a bad idea. Google hates that.
Whichever site Google saw originally is the one that has to stay….(Unless you COMPLETELY rework the others)
You could do a 310 redirect from the older sites to the newer site….but it must be a 301.
Ugg, I can attest, I had a url that was getting great traffic and growing every day. Then I bought another URL that had a better but similar name. I had it masked to the old one and bam…my traffic started to decline significantly after 30 days. It has taken me 3 month to figure out I should have used a 301 redirect. I am no hoping the traffic returns. lesson learned.