Domain Name Strategies That Work
Many businesses are taking the smart advice of trying to spread out their web presence through multiple domains. They know that only registering one domain name runs the risk of others encroaching on your branding territory, perhaps even using some of your trademarks. They also know that other domains can be used to diversify your marketing approaches.
Many companies are left wondering, “What do I do with these now that I own them?” Here are some ideas.
When to Redirect
The simplest solution is to have every single alternate domain that you purchased divert back to your main page. If the domains you registered only serve the purpose of alternate spellings or phrasing for your brand, a 301 redirect to your main page may be the best idea.
For instance, if you have a resort company in Aruba like ‘The Purple Parrot Hotel and Resort’ and your main domain is thepurpleparrot.com, you can register:
- thepurpleparrot.org
- thepurpleparrot.net
- purpleparrot.com
- purpleparot.com
- thepurpleparrothotel.com
- purpleparrotresort.com
On the other hand, if the domain has the potential to be used for a more useful marketing purpose, a simple redirect will be doing the money you spent a disservice. Some start-up advisors caution against this “quick fix” redirecting strategy because of two main problems:
- It could create redundancy in the search algorithm, which might pass on the alternates in favor of the redirected page. Scary thing, but we’ve seen it happen.
- It can confuse or frustrate people performing web searches. Nothing is worse than searching for a particular product or service, only to be shoved back to a homepage and be forced to navigate from there.
Create Special Pages
The easiest way to avoid redundant redirects is to create different landing pages with unique content for registered domains. The content should provide visitors with the type of material they were looking and can later funnel them to your main domain’s home page. Going back to the Purple Parrot example, you can use domains for different hotspots throughout Aruba, such as:
• Manchegobeachvacations.com
• Eaglebeachvacation.com
• Noordvacations.com
Each of these sites can have unique and relevant content to that area. They should be updated regularly and have a coupled social media component. Everyone can list restaurants, sights and services in the area, but when it comes to lodging they can all direct to the same place: The Purple Parrot.
Brand Representation
A domain can also be used to create a different approach to your overarching marketing strategy.
For instance, if you are a pharmaceutical company with an asthma medication named Resprimax, you can use resprimax.com to serve as a mini-site for the product. You can have all the relevant details for that product including how it works and what symptoms it is used for.
Your site should mention how the product works within the structure of your company and how it fits into your business model.
Letting Go
If none of these examples inspires you, evaluate what you can get out of your domain. A domain that cannot not be used effectively would include the following examples:
- Similar or misspelled version of your domain
- Unique or obscure branding angle for a product or service
- Informational service for related search queries to your area of expertise – This can be a tricky so be careful to make sure you don’t unintentionally let a valuable domain name go that might have some potential applications.
If you find your company has any of these kinds of domains you are paying for, you may consider letting that particular domain expire.
Being discriminating in this way avoids wasting money on superfluous domain names. You will have to make some hard decisions as to the best ways to use the ones you do keep.
With these guidelines in mind, your marketing and search engine optimization can only improve. Enlist the assistance of a qualified marketing company such as Zephoria if you need even more guidance. Besides having hundreds and hundreds of domains in our portfolio we also work with a number of clients with very large domain portfolios. A professional marketing specialist like the Zephoria team can be able to help maximize your return on investment for any domain-related purchases.
Digging Deeper
A few of our favorite domain name generation tools are Brand Bucket and Name Mesh.
To learn more about the value of domains you may want to read this article on the latest trends indicating the impact of a high value domain name.