If you have an eCommerce site, a local business, a blog, or a product you wish to bring into the market, you are probably trying to rank higher on Google. However, search engines obey their rules, and you might find that, no matter how powerful your SEO strategy is, you cannot rank higher than your current position.

This, for some, can be nothing more than a mild inconvenience. However, for some who rely on the visibility that Google can provide, can be a severe issue.

But, if you are already doing everything you can to optimize your site, how can you climb higher up the SERP (Search Engine Result Page)? One of the lesser-known SEO techniques that can give your site a boost is the multiple-domain strategy.

However, before investing money and effort in this technique, it is essential to keep in mind that it is a long-term strategy that is not bound to yield immediate results.  Here is what you need to know.

What Is a Multiple-Domain Strategy?

A multiple-domain strategy, or a multiple domain name strategy, is an SEO technique that allows you to leverage the authority link structure, authority, and traffic of more than one site. Unlike – say – keywords, a multiple-domain strategy is not something that works equally for every site. For some, it might make sense to invest in similar domain names and prevent possible competition.

However, for some, a multiple-domain strategy involves owning multiple sites and adding power to your existing SEO campaign. In fact, if you have more sites and they both rank on the SERP, you will be immediately doubling the number of visitors clicking on one of the two sites. You can also use the two sites to strengthen each other’s authority. Of course, this strategy requires you to double up your SEO efforts!

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Why Use a Multiple-Domain Strategy?

Using a multiple-domain strategy is not always the right option for every site. And, a decision to use this strategy should come after you have analyzed the consequences on your budget and operations. However, this strategy can be highly effective if you have one of the two goals below:

• You want to dominate a keyword – competing against other sites for a certain keyword is one thing. However, fully owning that keyword can give you much more power. Having multiple websites all competing for a certain keyword allows you to monopolize it and redirect all traffic searching for that keyword to your site.
• You wish to combine the strength of multiple sites – if you already have more than one site and each of them is doing well in terms of link equity and ranking, you can combine the strength of the two to boost both rankings.

Types of Multiple-Domain Strategies

So, now you know that having multiple domains can help you achieve your SEO goals. However, of course, to avoid harming your ranking through black hat techniques, it is essential to know how to use multiple domains in a legitimate way.

When choosing this path, there are two types of strategies that are relatively white-hat and allow you to strengthen your SEO power: building microsites and using 301 redirects. Here is what you need to know.

Having Multiple Microsites

A multiple microsites strategy involves creating several sites with specific domain names that you can use to strengthen the ranking of one or more of your websites. Having multiple microsites has important advantages and disadvantages.

Firstly, this technique allows you to retain the link juice or power of each link, which is vital to preserving the site’s authority. Additionally, while creating additional sites can involve a significant investment of time and effort, it is also the technique that is most rewarding.

In fact, having more sites in your portfolio allows you to strengthen the main site, advertise your products on multiple domains, and truly help your users. Make sure you are covering multiple micro-niches within your industry.

Using 301 Redirects

Using 301 redirects allows you to pass over 90% of your old link’s ranking power onto the new one. This means that if you buy established sites that are already ranking well for a keyword and you engineer a redirect to your current site, you can benefit from all the SEO work that has been carried out on that site.

While you might not be able to transfer the old site’s ranking to your new site, this option is much easier than building a variety of microsites and can be beneficial in that it allows you to retain most of the link juice.

Putting Multiple-Domain Strategies into Practice

So, now that you know how to use the multiple-domain strategy without hurting your SEO, you are ready to buy new domains. Make sure you are not buying the same domain with all the different extensions as this can penalize you!