Multiple domain/website strategy

[Shane]

In light of the ongoing changes happening at Google, I want to start a conversation about the ongoing relevance of the multiple domain and website strategy.

In the past I've always tried to gather up as many good domains as possible that relate to my business, and then develop those domains over time.

Some of those sites would just feed back into my main site, but for the premium domains I would try to build them into businesses in their own right.

This is a strategy that has worked pretty well for me and driven a lot of revenue over the last few years.

But with Google hitting harder, giving more weight to brands and so-called 'real businesses' and the growing importance of authorship (and soon author-rank) is it getting to the point where it's better to put everything into a single business website?

I'm feeling like this is the way it's going, and I'm keen to know what others think.

Cheers

 

[findtim]

i've done the same and it works and i haven't been hit by google because i have always had unique content on all the other sites so they "stand alone" i feel.

no matter what you do i feel content is the most important.

i posted once a proposal to exchange hosting, meaning i could put a valid website on your servers in exchange for one on mine, this would mix things up. at the time the response was negative but i am still open to it if anyone is interested.

tim

 

[Shane]

I totally agree and have taken much the same approach up until now, but the more I read the more I think the strategy's days are numbered.

Authorship is one of the reasons. Apparently 'AuthoRank' is on it's way and will have a big impact on the SERPs. I'm using authorship on two of my sites, but I'm reluctant to use it on more as it may take away that 'stand alone' feel you mentioned.

You could always setup multiple Google+ accounts with authorship for each different website, but the way AuthoRank will supposedly work will make this difficult to do effectively.

Then there's the 'real business' issue where Google are taking more notice of addresses and phone numbers in websites, which can then impact upon rankings.

Sure you can have multiple 1300 numbers and virtual office addresses, but from my reading Google are onto this as well now.

I'm keen to hear what others are hearing/reading/thinking about this issue.

 

[snoopy]

It is a dying model, then again the concept of organic traffic is dying as well. Best use of multiple domains is maximising CTR rates on adwords in my view.

 

[findtim]

the concept of organic traffic is dying as well.

agree, chris and i were talking about that last night at dntsouth and we all should be planning for the envitable fully paid 1st page of google.

"paid places" will come next i expect.

i've seen many 1st pages with only 3-4 organic listing

for now mutiply entry points helps.

i can't see hotfrog, truelocal etcccc going into bidding wars for adwords on competitive names when so many of their listings are free so what is their value going to be when they also get shoved off the 1st page.

tim

tim

 

[CyberClick]

I don't see G going for a fully paid frontpage. Although for most terms, I guess you could make the argument that all front page results are paid with the money going to seo firms.

Still though, this goes against serving the most relevant results. I'd just click through to page 2. It would make G's results less relevant and give competitors a window of opportunity.

I'm still waiting on that call from Yahoo and Bing seeking new ideas to beat the G.

 

[CyberClick]

A wiser idea for the G is to increase participation in adwords and make it more difficult for small business owners to do self seo.

This will push the adwords prices up and therefore G's profits without a great deal of effort. They could effect this by making the free tools harder to access and use while at the same time promoting FREE adwords courses at business centres, etc.

 

[findtim]

........make it more difficult for small business owners to do self seo.
QUOTE]

that happened at the turn of the century ! the closest they get is blogging and they don't even do that regularily.

tim

 

[Shane]

It is a dying model, then again the concept of organic traffic is dying as well. Best use of multiple domains is maximising CTR rates on adwords in my view.

agree, chris and i were talking about that last night at dntsouth and we all should be planning for the envitable fully paid 1st page of google.

I agree too. That was a big part of why I switched my business model from just selling leads to employing staff and actually looking after the leads ourselves.

It meant there was a big hit to profitability, but a massive increase in revenue and now we actually own the clients.

Hopefully by the time organic traffic dies and PPC becomes even more expensive, we'll have a good sized book of clients to sustain the business rather than just owning a bunch of old websites that no longer get any traffic...

I'd just click through to page 2. It would make G's results less relevant and give competitors a window of opportunity.

I'm still waiting on that call from Yahoo and Bing seeking new ideas to beat the G.

I'd do the same, but I think most people (from my experience observing friends and co-workers) don't really differentiate between the paid and organic listings, and would still just click the ads anyway.

I'm hopeful that Bing will become more popular. With Google most of their profit comes from paid search, so they have to squeeze out everything they can, but for Microsoft it's just a tiny piece of the company and they can (hopefully) put more emphasis on gaining market share via a quality product rather than pushing profits.

 

[chris]

Another point is with voice search set to change search, will ranking #1 matter more than ever?

http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/22/go...search-in-latest-chrome-build-we-go-voice-on/

Google has updated Chrome in build 27 to include conversational voice search, a feature it demoed on stage at Google I/O this year that allows you to search by voice, but also transcribes your queries in real time and lets you use natural language, asking Google straightforward questions and getting straightforward answers, both read back to you by dictation and in actual Google search results.

Cheers,
Chris

 

[snoopy]

I'm hopeful that Bing will become more popular. With Google most of their profit comes from paid search, so they have to squeeze out everything they can, but for Microsoft it's just a tiny piece of the company and they can (hopefully) put more emphasis on gaining market share via a quality product rather than pushing profits.

These guys failed long ago and won't ever be competitive. The reason some people use it is because of default search settings on some machines and their only chance of real growth is if people start liking retro 1998 style search engines. It's junk.



Sent via DNTrade mobile

 

[findtim]

I just tried the chrome speaking with about a 33% success rate and I did make it tough for it so basically I am quite impressed.

when I did a search for "Lismore optometrist" it got it correct and then spoke to me, introducing the Lismore optometrist from its google places listing.

tim

 

[helloworld]

I'm building a new site. It's had one hit from a bing search. But yeah, it really is dead although it would be nice to have a decent competitor to Google....or would it?

 

[findtim]

I'm building a new site. It's had one hit from a bing search. But yeah, it really is dead although it would be nice to have a decent competitor to Google....or would it?

I am sure there are thousands of people out there programming the next "google"

ford, then general motors
IBM, then Microsoft, then apple, then ................
lycos, AltaVista, yahoo, inktomi, google, ohhhh and I think there use to be a thing called MSN?

there is always the next thing, its just spotting it early that's interesting.

tim