How to use a multiple domain strategy for SEO

In a multi domain strategy, several separate domains are used to increase vis­ib­il­ity in search engines. Here, the in­di­vidu­al domains can refer to different target groups, products or regions, for example.

What’s the con­nec­tion between content, domain, and search engines?

The multiple domain strategy is an advanced approach to search engine op­tim­isa­tion (SEO) using multiple domains. In multiple domain SEO, as in all other SEO ap­proaches, the maxim ‘content is king’ applies. To un­der­stand what makes a func­tion­ing multiple domain strategy, let’s first take a look at how content, domains, and search engines are connected.

Normally, a website’s contents can be found under a single domain. For example, imagine a website with the domain example.com. Its contents are usually struc­tured and can be accessed via cor­res­pond­ing URLs. The search engine’s bots primarily crawl the URLs and index the content they contain.

A multi domain setup is evaluated com­pletely dif­fer­ently by search engines. A search engine considers all content under one domain as belonging together. In contrast, multiple domains imply a clear sep­ar­a­tion of content. If you want to benefit from content dis­trib­uted across multiple domains, you need a soph­ist­ic­ated multi domain content strategy.

Structure web content with dir­ect­or­ies

The dir­ect­or­ies follow the domain and form a so-called ‘path’. In principle, these dir­ect­or­ies are similar to the ones on your computer’s hard drive. Here is an example of the URL of a sample site’s logo.

• The domain is followed by the directory ‘images’, where the file ‘logo.png’ is stored: http://example.com/images/logo.png

Structure web content with permalinks

Usually, most of the content on a larger website does not exist as in­di­vidu­al files in dir­ect­or­ies. Instead, the content is generated by a dynamic process. For example, it is loaded from a database and visu­al­ised based on a template. Each piece of content is assigned a fixed URL – called a ‘permalink’. Here are a few examples of possible permalink struc­tures.

• Permalink contains title of article: http://example.com/multiple-domain-strategy
• Permalink contains title of article ‘multiple-domain-strategy’ and category ‘article’: http://example.com/article/multiple-domain-strategy
• Permalink contains title of article and date of pub­lic­a­tion ‘2020/02’: http://example.com/2020/02/multiple-domain-strategy
• Etc., whereby mixed forms are also possible.

Structure content at domain level with multi domain setups

So far, we’ve looked at ways to structure web content below a domain. As you can see, there are many different ap­proaches. In some cases, however, it makes sense to dis­trib­ute web content across multiple domains. This is called a multi domain setup.

As a rule, the use of a multi domain setup increases the com­plex­ity of the entire system. The approach should be well con­sidered before you commit; it is a strategic decision. Above all, multi domain SEO must be con­sidered from the very beginning. So what are the mo­tiv­a­tions for using multiple domains?

Use cus­tom­ised technical in­fra­struc­ture with multi domain setup

A single domain is usually served by a single server. In certain cases, you may want to implement parts of a website with stan­dalone systems. Imagine a company website that contains an online shop and blog in addition to the in­form­at­ive pages. If a single, central system is used for the three areas, bot­tle­necks quickly become apparent. Given a certain level of com­plex­ity, it would be be­ne­fi­cial to manage the three areas sep­ar­ately. A viable approach would be the following, in which three domains are used:

1. Static pages for the company website: www.example.com
2. WordPress for the blog: blog.example.com
3. Magento for the online shop: shop.example.com

Each of these systems is perfectly adapted to the task at hand and is sep­ar­ately retained. If you want to optimise one of the systems, the others are not affected. Fur­ther­more, the in­di­vidu­al systems can be hosted on different servers without issues. The ad­min­is­trat­ive advantage is offset by the need to operate a well-co­ordin­ated multi domain SEO. Otherwise, you risk issues with ranking in­di­vidu­al sites and the external present­a­tion of the brand.

Split groups of content across sites with multi domain setup

Some websites contain vast amounts of content. If the relation between groups of content is weak, it makes sense to organise them in­de­pend­ently. For example, imagine a large, multi-lingual news website. In­de­pend­ent editors oversee the editions for different languages or countries. The different versions do not resemble each other in content or content struc­tures. The following multi domain setup would be suitable here:

1. Homepage auto­mat­ic­ally redirects users to the homepage of the ap­pro­pri­ate edition: www.example.com
2. German edition: de.example.com
3. English Edition: en.example.com
4. Analog for other languages

You may be familiar with the use of language-specific sub­do­mains from Wikipedia. With Wikipedia articles, however, there’s a special feature with regard to multi domain SEO. An article in one language should link to the same article in all other language versions. To realise this, the hreflang attribute of the link element is used. This tells search engine bots that the content under the different domains rep­res­ents one and the same content in different languages.

Let’s look at a final example. With WordPress.com anyone can create their own WordPress website. It’s hosted free of charge and can be operated as a blog or website. Each added WordPress instance is created under its own subdomain, for example example.wordpress.com. Here, sub­do­mains from a SEO point of view are the right choice; if these were sub-dir­ect­or­ies instead, the hosted sites would compete in search results.

Implement a multiple domain strategy with multi domain setup

On a technical level, the core of a multiple domain strategy consists of two com­pon­ents:

1. Dis­trib­ute targeted content to multiple sites under different domains.
2. Link the content or set up specific redirects between contents.

For search engines, this creates a structure that extends beyond a single domain. If im­ple­men­ted correctly, this results in decisive ranking ad­vant­ages. If the in­di­vidu­al sites contain similar keywords, they may dominate the first page of the SERPs. By using different keywords, specific niches can be occupied.

The critical point here is that only the content hosted via the domains counts for SEO. Only indexed content is included in the ranking of the domain. Contrary to popular belief, there is no immediate SEO advantage in re­dir­ect­ing multiple domains to one main domain. Nev­er­the­less, it can make sense to practice domain parking which helps to prevent ty­po­squat­ting and similar ques­tion­able practices.

Choose the right domains for your multiple domain strategy

We tend to use the terms ‘domain’ and ‘subdomain’ in­tu­it­ively. Even just by looking at the name, we can see a clear con­nec­tion between example.com and sub.example.com. However, from a search engine’s per­spect­ive, these are in­de­pend­ent domains. The following table il­lus­trates the terms of the domain hierarchy:

For a multiple domain strategy, you can also use different second level domains. The latter implies a clear visual sep­ar­a­tion and thus has a different effect on our per­cep­tion. The use of sub­do­mains or second level domains offers various ad­vant­ages and dis­ad­vant­ages. Decisive are the desired effects for SEO during domain selection. Here is an overview of possible solutions for two example sites:

When are multiple domains useful for SEO?

A multiple domain strategy is useful in the following cases:

1. As part of a long-term SEO strategy when other SEO tech­niques have been exhausted.
2. To better position an entire brand rather than a single site.
3. To achieve keyword dominance on the first page of SERPs.
4. To expand into new markets, either geo­graph­ic­ally or with new products.

Multiple highly ranked results in SERPs increase the prob­ab­il­ity that a user will click on one of the results. Fur­ther­more, a domain network is more resistant to changes in search engine al­gorithms. A possible penalty then only affects one of the sites.

Two ways to use the multiple domain strategy

To use a multiple domain strategy, first we need several domains. But where do you get them from? In principle, there are four ways to obtain a domain for multiple domain SEO:

1. Create a subdomain as part of a main domain (second-level domain, SLD)
2. Register a new domain
3. Register expired SLD
4. Purchase existing (re­gistered) SLD

Each has ad­vant­ages and dis­ad­vant­ages. We have sum­mar­ised these for you here:

Use mi­cros­ites for multiple domain strategy

A proven way to implement the multiple domain strategy is to build multiple mi­cros­ites. A microsite is a website type with a narrowly defined focus on a specific product. Each of the mi­cros­ites is optimised for a specific niche, audience, or keywords. Links are then created from the pages of the mi­cros­ites to the actual main site. This results in the potential to dominate the SERPs for selected keywords.

You can entrust the creation of a microsite to a freel­an­cer or an agency. However, this may incur con­sid­er­able charges for the website creation. A less expensive option is the MyWebsite Design Service from IONOS. Al­tern­at­ively, create your own microsite with the MyWebsite Website Builder.

In any case, make sure that your microsite has a valid SSL cer­ti­fic­ate. Also, ensure a canonical tag is set for all content to avoid duplicate content and negative con­sequences for your Google ranking.

Use redirects for a multiple domain strategy

Instead of building up mi­cros­ites under several domains, a more direct approach is to buy the existing sites including their domains. It’s best to choose sites or domains with strong rankings for in­ter­est­ing keywords. When using 301 redirects, specific URLs of the purchased sites are re­dir­ec­ted to pages of the main site. Search engines respect 301 redirects and transfer the ‘link juice’. The ranking of the main site for new keywords improves.

This approach requires a lot of planning and subtlety. Although in principle it is possible to redirect the entire domain of a purchased site to a main site, this should be avoided. It is more promising to keep indexable content under a purchased domain and redirect only specific URLs. Search engine expert Neil Patel notes that link juice is in­creas­ingly lost when you replace the old content of the domain.

Examples of multiple domain strategy

Below you’ll find an example of Apple’s multiple domain strategy.

Perform a Google search for the search term “apple id”. As you can see, the first page of search results is dominated by Apple. Three Apple domains are shown:

Pros and cons of a multiple domain strategy

A multi domain strategy can make sense, but usually requires a lot of effort. Since it’s a long-term strategy, it’s more suitable for larger companies. We’ve compiled the ad­vant­ages and dis­ad­vant­ages of multiple domains below:

The two ap­proaches described for a multi domain strategy also differ in terms of their ad­vant­ages and dis­ad­vant­ages. Note that they are by no means mutually exclusive. Rather, a func­tion­ing multiple domain strategy can include both purchased and self-created mi­cros­ites. Depending on the specific use case, linking and re­dir­ect­ing can be employed.