Top 10 SEO myths
Myth and misconception No. 5: Multiple domain names
"The more domains I own, the better are my chances to rank high"
This article is accurate as/of January 10, 2003
CORRECTION:
If there is one area on the Web that is abused, this is it. There are several factors
that make this a dangerous strategy. Let's start by outlining the tremendous amount of
work that would be necessary to build, maintain and achieve a high ranking for, let's
say 20 Web sites rather than one only... On top of all that, let's not forget the cost
of the domain names themselves wich some can be very expensive to begin with.
Yahoo now charges US $ 299 per year per Web site
In this hypothetical case, you would have to pay to register and host at least 20
new Web domain names. Since many Internet search engines and directories actually
penalize mirror sites, you would have to spend time building 20 different web
sites. Additionally, you would have to pay to host those 20 Web sites. You would have
to spend time optimizing the same 20 web sites. You would have to spend time submitting
20 web sites (very time consuming). In some instances, you would have to pay to
submit these 20 web sites: Ex.: Yahoo now charges US $ 299 per year per Web site !
You would have to build link popularity to each separate web site. If you are starting
to think that this sounds like a lot of time, effort, energy and expense, you are 100%
right.
Instead, consider this: your other option is to do all of the above, but just to only one site. Now, you may be willing to put in that extra time and expense if it means more chances to rank well in the search engines. The thinking behind this strategy is that you could buy 20 keyword domains and focus the content of each site so narrowly that it will rank very well for a few terms. Experience has taught us that, in reality, it doesn't even come close ! Webmasters who try to use this strategy find themselves doing 20 times the work, and rarely, if not ever, getting the results they would have if they'd simply put all that effort into one single domain to begin with. We like to compare this to the straight line principle: the shortest distance from A to B is still the straight line...
Flagged as "mirror" sites
Why won't all that extra work translate into extra rankings ? Well, there are several
reasons. Depending on the content that you place in these domains, search engines
and directories would flag them as mirror sites and refuse to list them.
You will spread your incoming links (and therefore link popularity) across multiple
domains. This will keep any one of them from ranking as highly as your main domain
would if all the links pointed at it. You have less ability to cross-sell and up-sell
the products that you have listed on one of your extra web sites. A visitor may not
realize that you offer blue widgets as well as green widgets. As a general rule of thumb,
larger sites nearly always outrank smaller sites.
It's going to be difficult to compete with a company that has a 1,000 page web site when your keyword-rich mini-site only has 10 pages. Think about sites like Yahoo! and Amazon.com. They clearly have more than enough information to warrant dozens and dozens of smaller sites, yet they choose to house ALL of these areas of content under their main, single domain name. If you have multiple products and information to offer, make sure that everyone that comes to your site realizes it !
Don't undermine your chances of success by hiding your content on separate domains in an attempt to artificially improve your rankings. It just won't happen. What will happen however is that you will probably make things a lot worse for yourself and your Web site will get penalized. Sometimes, we often wonder ourselves if some engines do adopt an updated "blacklist" of Web sites that have a habit of using illegal and unethical practices and/or that have done so in the past. Some in the industry beleive that, if ever that "blacklist" does exist at all, it is being circulated, probably by email to the other engines. But, there is of course no proof of that anywhere, just a wild "industry hunch".
The only way to get a much higher, prioritized ranking in all major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Alta-Vista and the others is to invest in a quality SEO program done by professionals. Contact GCIS.
Click here for additional important facts on Internet search engines.
Bring a lot more potential customers to your Web site with our award-winning Pagina+™ SEO service and priority site positioner solution. Pagina+™ is now in it's 2.0 version.
Click here for all the information on effective SEO keyword searches.
If you need complete and updated information on any Internet technology subject, we strongly suggest you bookmark our site address: www.gcis.ca or better still, make it your default Home Page start-up address in your Internet browser.
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