A look at why you might want multiple websites and why you probably don’t.
There are many different reasons for a business to consider having multiple websites. A good reason to have multiple websites is that your products/services and geographic target market are very different from one another. A bad reason to have multiple websites is to target the same products/services to a wider geographic reach.
Why Bad? It is bad if the content is the same on all the websites.
One of the reasons why multiple websites can be detrimental to your internet visibility is that many people will simply make copies of a website with minimal changes. All that duplicate content is not useful to anyone. This (black-hat SEO) technique was only successful in the early days of Internet Marketing when there wasn’t as much online competition with websites, blogs, and online shops.
What about Multiple Domains? Are they bad?
One domain is usually best.
However, sometimes if your domain is long and difficult for viewers to read/type a secondary domain could be used to point to your main domain – yet make it easy for people to read from graphics and print advertising. Of course, you could always use a QR code to simplify quick access by your viewer.
In terms of SEO, your money and efforts are better off spent focusing on creating new, relevant, compelling content than on purchasing more and more domains. (unless this is an investment)
Multiple Website Case Study
Situation: A client had a service business that supported a wide geographic area. They owned multiple domains and had ten additional websites. They were spending advertising money on each of the websites. The sites were hacked and some additional problems were uncovered by Google Search Console.
Recommendations: Many of the websites were copies, there was a tremendous amount of duplicate content, and portions of the different websites were “broken”. We recommended expanding and improving the Service Area on the main website and taking down the other websites. We also recommended removing a number of unused pages.
Results: The client has a small IT department. They consulted with us over the overall strategy and we had weekly follow-up meetings to review. At the final meeting, we provided a YoastSEO guide to assist with the continued DIY SEO and we went over a realistic, feasible posting strategy.