Choosing a domain name for your small business isn’t always the easiest experience. There can be pressure to get it right, especially when you know your domain should nail your brand identity and maximise your business’ chances of being found online. If only you could have it all. Well, you can – almost.
In their effort to get it right, small business owners often forget they’re not limited to choosing just one domain name. Yes, you really can have as many as you like without going to the trouble and expense of building multiple websites. Setting up a 301 redirect is an easy way to forward multiple domains to your main website.
Here are some reasons why it could be beneficial to own a few domains for your business.
Gives you room to expand
Today, you might be a small business with one or two product offerings, but have you thought about the future? If you’ve already got a plan to expand into other products or new markets, now’s the time to snap up the most relevant domain names before someone else beats you to it.
Having alternative domain names for your small business to reflect different product offerings could help you reach more consumers searching keywords online. For example, it could be the difference between fruithampers.com.au and desserthampers.com.au. Meanwhile, country-specific top-level domains (TLDs) such as website.com.au could help you gain a higher search ranking overseas while achieving a more local identity.
Protects your brand from copycat competitors
Imagine you own a high street cafe and another cafe sets up shop immediately next door; it probably won’t be good for business. The same could happen to your website too if you leave the door open for others to buy similar names that could confuse consumers and take traffic away from your business. Owning a few domains that are similar to your main domain is just like buying up that empty retail space next door to your café – but a whole lot cheaper!
People might describe your business in many ways
Owning several descriptive domain names that contain keywords relating to your products or services could increase your chances of being found by potential customers. After all, while consumers might think about your business in different ways, Google uses keywords within your website to determine how highly you rank in a list of search results. Having other descriptive domain names can be particularly useful where you’ve decided to use your business name as your domain name, but it doesn’t directly align with the products or services you offer.
Geographical location and expertise identifiers
The internet is truly a global marketplace, and because of that, some consumers are very aware of where their products come from. So, using TLDs (top-level domains) such as .melbourne or .sydney could instil confidence in consumers that you really know the markets you operate in. In a similar way, TLDs that easily identify your different field(s) of expertise such as .tech or .design could help you become more identifiable than your competitors.
People are human; they make mistakes
Are there any common spelling mistakes that could throw people off target when looking for your website? If there are, this could result in reduced traffic to your website (or potentially lost sales), so it might be worth mitigating these spelling errors by simply owning the misspelt domain name. Similarly, if your business has changed its name, it’s a great idea to own a domain that includes your old name to capture those customers who haven’t yet caught up.
So, don’t put yourself under pressure to find one magic domain name. By exploring all the possibilities, your small business could achieve more exposure than ever before.
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