How to Develop a Multiple Domain SEO Strategy

How to Develop a Multiple Domain SEO Strategy

Source: Neil Patel Have you ever wondered just how much SEO power you could have? Maybe you’ve been trying to rank for a specific keyword and you k

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multiple domain

Have you ever wondered just how much SEO power you could have?

Maybe you’ve been trying to rank for a specific keyword and you keep losing out to other sites.

Or maybe you’re on page 1 but you’re further down than you’d like to be.

In other words, how can you improve your SEO when you’re already doing everything?

Turns out, it’s possible to have a huge search engine presence using something called a multiple domain strategy.

This is how lots of big businesses dominate the search engine results pages (SERPs).

It’s not a well-known SEO technique because it’s not that obvious. You need to go behind the scenes a little bit to uncover this method in practice.

It can be powerful if you use it the right way. It is very much a long-term strategy, so you shouldn’t expect to see any immediate wins here.

While it’s not for everyone, this technique can give you a considerable SEO boost in the right situation.

So let’s take a look at exactly what a multiple domain strategy is and how you can use it.

What is a multiple domain strategy?

The best way to tell you what a multiple domain strategy is is to show you.

Here’s an example from Moz’s Rand Fishkin that involves real estate giants Zillow and Trulia.

First, you have to know that Zillow owns Trulia. Now that you know that, Google “real estate.”

You’ll probably see both Zillow and Trulia in the first five positions. In fact, this will be true for most keywords related to real estate.

This is a multiple domain strategy in action. Since Zillow and Trulia are essentially the same company, they’re helping to rank their overall brand for certain keywords.

Here’s another example. Go onto Google and type in “user intent.” On page 1, you’ll see these two results from Quick Sprout and Crazy Egg:

As you might know, I founded Quick Sprout and co-founded Crazy Egg.

The idea is that my brand as a whole is performing better for certain keywords.

As you can see, a multiple domain strategy is all about adding more power to your SEO strategy. Instead of ranking with just one domain, you can rank with multiple domains.

This increases the chances that a user will click on a result that links to a site you own.

It’s a bit of an outside-the-box SEO strategy. Most site owners focus on ranking specific pages.

But if you want your brand to rank better, a multiple domain strategy might be for you.

Why use a multiple domain strategy?

I know what you’re thinking: “Neil, why the heck would I ever want to use a multiple domain strategy?”

I’ll admit that it’s not a go-to SEO technique like keyword optimization. But under the right circumstances and for the right businesses, it can make a huge difference.

Here are some reasons why you might want to make use of multiple domains:

You have multiple brands. Just like I have Quick Sprout, Crazy Egg, and Hello Bar, you might own several brands.

This often happens when companies create separate brands to fill a related niche.

Sometimes brands will buy out other brands or create entirely new brands. A good example is how I created the Hello Bar brand to add to my other brands.

Other times, brands create microsites. Procter & Gamble’s P&G Everyday is a great example:

In both cases, you can rank for the same keyword. In theory, this gets your brand out there and helps you rank better for your focus keyword.

There is a specific keyword you want to dominate. If you’re determined to practically own a keyword, this might be a good method to use.

Think of how Zillow and Trulia have a monopoly on the keyword “real estate.” You can do the same thing using multiple domains.

You own more than one site with good link equity. If you’re not familiar with the term “link equity,” here’s how Search Engine Watch describes it:

This is the amount of power your links have. Your sites need to have good link equity if you want this strategy to work well.

Alternatively, if you have the resources to dramatically increase a site’s link equity, you can make this work.

Two types of strategies

There are two strategies you can use that are relatively white hat.

One is what we talked about: building microsites. This requires you to build completely new sites.

The other option is to use 301 redirects to preserve link juice and take advantage of an existing audience.

Let’s look at the pros and cons of each.

Building microsites. This will take the most time and effort, but it can also bring the biggest rewards.

The first step is to decide what gap your microsite is going to fill.

Harry’s, a men’s shaving products store, has a microsite called Five O’Clock that posts about shaving, lifestyle, and productivity.

Their goal is to cater to the typical Harry’s customer, but it’s not just about shaving gear. The microsite is more of a lifestyle blog.

Your microsite should serve some kind of purpose and actually help your users. It shouldn’t just plug your product or service.

If you want to create a microsite, you’ll probably want to buy a new and unique domain, which I’ll talk about below.

301 redirects. The 301 redirect is simple but powerful. Why? It passes 90%–99% of the old link’s ranking on to the new link.

That means if you buy a domain that ranks for a certain keyword and redirect that site to yours, you’ll get the vast majority of the old site’s link juice.

While a 301 redirect will lose some juice, it’s the redirect method of choice. Don’t use a 302!

This is one of the downsides of microsites––you won’t inherit link ranking. But redirecting an old site to a new site is much easier than building a microsite.

There’s one thing you should know: Redirecting from a bought domain will likely pass…

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