Multiple Domains for One Site

[TVI]

We are building a site for a new miniature golf course.  They have a long name, which they don't want me to mention, but it's equivalent to a name like Golden State Golf and Putt.  They also have a restaurant with its own name and brand that will be a part of the mini golf course and its website, much how Hotel websites have their restaurants on their sites.

Before becoming our client they purchased golfandputt.com and want to go with this domain for simplicity sake.

In addition to this domain name they purchased 7 others that contain the bussiness' full name in some way, such as:

• goldenstategolfandputt.com
• goldenstategolfandputt.net,
• goldenstategolf-guitar.com
• etc.,

As well as:

• 3 variations of the golfandputt.com domain
• 3 variations of the restaurants name

They wish to have all of these redirect to the main website or the restaurant page to "help with SEO," as they told me.

From what I have researched on SEOmoz it seems better to simply optimize the website for Golden State Golf and Putt and the restaurant page for the restaurant's name. Additionally, I'm worried that redirecting the domains to the site will actually hurt them in rankings.

If someone can shed some light on what the best practices for this sort of situation are I'd be much appreciative.

Apologies in advance for the lengthy explanation but its a bit of a unique situation.

[JustinTaylor88]

There is no harm in adding all of the addresses to the website, although i would certainly redirect via 301 to the master, dominant (or preferred) domain.

One of the main things you need to be careful of with multiple domains is duplicate content, Google will view the website for www.goldenstategolfandputt.com and www.goldenstategolfandputt.net as two different websites even if they are the same website but just reached via a different domain. Therefore if not addressed you would get penalised for duplicate content, to overcome this problem do either a 301 redirect or a rel=canonical to resolve this.

Also unless there is a very good reason, i would ensure from a simplicity's point of view that all linking, internal and external points to a single chosen domain as managing inbound links to multiple domains can be a real pain.

In essence, there is no problem with using multiple domains, plenty of people do it to protect their brand, to overcome misspellings, passing off etc etc.

Hope that helps

[JFritton]

I agree with Justin. "Defensive" use of multiple domains to pick up misspellings or misremembered names can be valid strategy, but I would 301 them to the main site.

Trying to build links, social signals and unique, fresh content for each individual domain for SEO purposes probably isn't a good idea.

[TVI]

Thanks for the quick responses.  I will make sure all link building is done for the main domain.  However, individuals will still be able to link to the domains that are 301 redirecting if they choose so.  So I guess we will just have to pay attention to this?

[JustinTaylor88]

Other sites will be able to link to the 301'd domains and this link juice (at least the majority of it) will be passed onto the dominant domain, so i wouldn't sweat it too much,as this won't harm your SERPs (assuming the links are good).

Its just a whole load easier if you are link building that you use one domain as it keeps things a whole lot simpler!

[TVI]

That's what I figured.  Thanks a bunch!

[bronxpad]

You would want to implement the 301 redirect by going through the htaccess of your server. This redirect is the most effective. If you don't have access to the htaccess then a 301 redirect with php should do the trick. Also don't forget to do it for every page. A lot of companies actually buy a bunch of variations of their domain so that a competitor doesn't buy a second version for negative purposes or for link ads.