Multiple Domain Names, SEO and Forwarding

I’ll make this article real short for some of you by answering the big question: buying multiple domain names will not help with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or drive more traffic to your website. But there are some other big benefits and that’s what we’ll explore here.

There are some out there who believe buying up multiple domain names will somehow send more people to their websites. Simply not true. In fact, the only thing you can really do is “forward” those new domain names to an existing website. Forwarding a domain is also technically known in geek-speak as a 301 Permanent Redirect of a URL.  Here’s what forwarding does.  Let’s say you buy abc-xyz.com and forward (redirect) it to your main website at yourwebsiteexample.com.  If or when someone types in the EXACT domain name of  abc-xyz.com, the user will be taken to yourwebsiteexample.com. That’s it. That’s all there is. Exciting, huh? (yawn)

Okay, now for the benefits I mentioned. Here are the reasons why you should buy up multiple domain names:

1. Brand Yourself. You have a brand and people know it by name. Someone is likely going to type your brand name thinking it’s a web address. Anyone who owns a business should at least try to get their business name in a domain name. This also offers protection. Your competitor could buy it too!
2. Virtual Real Estate. You want to buy up the common domain names others may try to use to compete against you. If you have a salon in Pleasanton, you should own every domain name with the words “salon” and “Pleasanton” in it. After all, what’s to keep a salon opening up across the street from you and buying that domain name?
3. Misspellings. Get domain names related to your business, services or products that are commonly misspelled and forward them to your website. For example, my domain is 6×6design.com. I also own (and have forwarded) 6by6design.com, sixbysixdesign.com, etc.

Alright, you have a bunch of domain names and now you want them forwarded to your main website. I made a video tutorial on just how to do this, assuming you are using GoDaddy.com.  Even if you’re using someone else to get domain name from, the procedure is pretty much the same from my experience.

By the way, if you are considering buying more domain names from Godaddy.com and don’t already have an account with them, I’d appreciate it if you’d use my affiliate link here. I get credit for your purchases. All you have to do is click on the Godaddy.com logo.