Please note this article was first published in 14 Oct 2009. Its content may now be out of date. We recommend taking a look at more recent website building blog posts or check out our comprehensive support pages. If you are looking for information on our 14 day free website builder trial we have a large number of webpages that guide you throug the process.
Congratulations! You’re online! You’ve built a website with all the information and incentives your customers need and you’ve launched it under the perfect domain name for your business. It’s punchy, memorable, and describes your online business perfectly. But why stop there? Domain names can be purchased for around £3 a year for a .co.uk and around £10 a year for a .com or a .net. While they are still so cheap to secure, purchasing and pointing more than one domain at your website can be a very clever tactical move for a number of reasons.
You may have already purchased your domain name based on your name or your company name. If your company name features your main keywords then great! If it doesn’t and simply features your name, then it’s a good idea to purchase a second domain, which features your main keywords. If you offer a service within a certain catchment area - include the area name too. For instance: A plumber may have the domain name of: TomPiper.com. A second domain of Plumbingand HeatingLondon.com can help boost your performance on the search engines.
Type-in traffic is when visitors land at your website by entering keywords or a key phrase into their internet browser address bar instead of entering the keywords into a search engine’s search bar, following a hyperlink from another web page or using a bookmark or favourites link. It can be hugely beneficial to secure multiple domain names that describe your business and feature your top key words. As an example, let’s say you sell lollipops; your primary domain may be TomsLollipops.com. You could also try attracting type-in traffic from these other domains: Sweetlollipops.com, Kidslollipops.com, and lollipops-r-us.com.
Hyphens can come into play if you have some very close competitors in your market. Whether they have a similar name to you or not, it’s unfortunately not uncommon for competitors to purchase an almost identical domain name with a simple hyphen in the middle. In doing this, competitors could possibly ride on the back of your branding and can sometimes benefit from your marketing. You could put yourself one step ahead of the game by purchasing the most obvious hyphenated versions of your domain before they do. If your Website is TomsLollipops.com, purchasing Toms-Lollipops.com can also be beneficial to you from a marketing perspective.
It’s quite common for people to make spelling mistakes when they type in keywords, key phrases or indeed domain names. Unless you have a very straightforward and simple business / domain name, it can be a good idea to purchase and point domains that feature the most common spelling mistakes. For instance: if your primary domain is TomsLollipops.com, you might want to secure TomsLolipops.com. You may also want to consider buying the plural and/or singular versions of your domain i.e., TomsLollipop.com.
Purchasing multiple domain names can give you an edge and lets face it, if you can multiply the chances of customers finding you for just a few extra pounds a year, that’s it’s got to be worth doing.
You can search for additional domain names through your control panel. Just click the “Upgrade - Add New Features” button on the left, then click “Register another Domain Name” and use the search bar to see what’s available.
Please remember, this article was first published 14/10/2009. The content may be out of date and you cannot post comments any more. Please check out our new blog.
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