Do you need to own lots of domain names?

Avoid wasting cash on unnecessary domains

At a recent scoping meeting for a new practice website project, the dentist advised that he held over 30 domain names and that he was looking forward to using them to help propel his new site up the Google rankings. It was not easy explaining that this wasn’t going to help at all – I’ll explain why it doesn’t in a moment.

This practice owner is not alone and there seems to be a popular misconception that lots of domain names will help you establish Google dominance – however this is very misguided. What is worse is that this lack of understanding is being readily exploited by unscrupulous domain vendors who dupe unsuspecting clients by claiming how “useful” lots of domains can be for internet marketing. It’s also common for the domains to be sold at way over market value.

So why don’t lots of domain names help you to rank better in Google?

The simple fact is that a domain name is really only of any use if it has a website associated with it. Search engines don’t index and rank domain names in isolation – they rank websites. So unless your domain name is associated with a high quality website, it doesn’t really help at all.

It is possible to “add-on” additional domains to the primary domain on which a website is published and re-direct it but even then, a web user would have to type the exact name into their web browser to find your site – Google won’t find it based on the add-on domain(s) alone.

Domain scams to watch out for

We’ve probably all seen the spam emails that come in to our mail boxes offering random domain names for sale which are loosely associated with your business and claimed to be extremely valuable? In reality, the domains are a) pretty pointless and b) they are probably available on the open market for a few pounds anyway. Just send this type of mail direct to the trash box and block the sender.

The other mail that we see regularly, claims to be from a foreign “official” domain registrar advising that a company local to them is trying to purchase the foreign version of your domain to rip off your brand. Again these are scam mails which are just trying to get you to pay up silly amounts to get in and purchase first. Consign these mails to the trash bin too please.

More subtle, but also fairly pointless, are the mails from UK registration companies who “urge” you to secure the new domain extension version of your existing domain e.g. .london, .uk etc. You might want to consider this but in reality it’s probably not really worthwhile unless you intend to build a website on it.

Where can additional domains be useful?

There are only three real reasons why you might purchase alternative domains:

• brand protection where relevant
• you intend to build a new website on it or may at some point later on
• to stop a competitor grabbing and using it

Other than that, I wouldn’t waste your cash and time.

Summary

It might be nice to have a bunch of domain names stashed away in your account but in reality, they aren’t much use to you just sat there doing nothing. For certain they won’t help you rank better in Google.

So before you dive in and start buying, please review the list above to make sure that it really makes sense.

If you need any further information about domain names, websites for dentists or affordable business class hosting services, please call the team at Dental Media for free advice on 01332 672548.