The Case for Owning Multiple Domain Names

Posted by Kristine on 27 September 2013.

So you’ve gone ahead and bought your own domain name. Kudos for taking that first step in establishing your brand online. A good domain name is good branding and a must-have for startups, small businesses and even individuals who want to have a solid online reputation.

If you’re serious about online branding though, it pays to actually own more than one domain. Here are a few benefits of having multiple domain names:

You’ll get more traffic on your website. You can direct your multiple domains to your site and make it easier for people to find you. For instance, if your website is mountaineering.com, you can also buy domains with similar themes such as mountaineers.com, mountainclimbing.com or even ilovetoclimbmountains.com if you want to. When visitors search for these domains or type them on the browser, they will be directed to your website. You’d be in a better position to establish your brand and authority in your field through this strategy.

You’ll outsmart the competition. If you snatch up related domain names first before someone else does, then you just got ahead in the branding game. Your potential competition would have fewer good domain names to choose from and would be less likely to steal your wind.

You’ll own variations of your name. Unless you have a really weird name that’s impossible to spell, chances are someone else has the same name as you. Better register your own domain name then before your namesake does. For good measure, register the variations of your name as well so a Google search will still lead to you. So if you already got johnrobertsmith.com, it’s better to also register jrsmith.com and johnsmith.com.

You’d be a step ahead of phishing scammers. If you run an online business, then securing your customers’ transactions is of utmost importance. Phishing is a scam that steals passwords and credit card details by spoofing a legitimate website. This can be done by having a domain name that’s very similar to a real site. If you acquire domain names with a similar spelling to your domain, then it can no longer be used by scammers and you can direct traffic to your site.

Securing a domain name is very easy and inexpensive (unless it’s already owned by someone else and that person wants to make a lot of money out of it). So you better make your move fast. Registering an available domain name entails much less hassle than haggling with a random person who owns your chosen domain or whining that someone else has already made a brand out of it.