Is It Ok To Have Multiple Sites For One Business?

[JamesMason67]

Hi
Is there anything to stop me having multiple websites for the same business?

As an example, I am a London builder say (Im not). I want to collect more leads and have more presence on page one for my keywords say "Builders London" and "London Builders".

Is there anything to stop me having different sites on different domains eg London Building Company, Builders Of London, Capital Builders etc., etc., (Im sure these are taken, and are just examples) and potentially almost monopolising page one of Google for these keywords, with the appropriate SEO team in place of course. Is this allowed by Google if the same owner owns the multiple sites? I guess you would need to have a chat with HMRC also.

Any thoughts anyone? Thank you
James

 

[faradaykeynes]

In theory no restrictions
BUT if you are ltd company then you need to display your company details on site some where, you can have different trading names.

If all site will have unique contents then its good if same contents then that wont rank welll in google, might have adverse effect, possibly end up in google sandbox

 

[JamesMason67]

Thanks for that, but if they were all individually designed and with different content etc., then no problem?

 

[faradaykeynes]

humm no but how practical would that be in terms of time and resources that is a big question. Generally businesses try to develop customer awareness and web presence for one good site and contents including logo.

I personally don't think it will benefit you to have several trading names for one nature of business unless it is different kind of activity e.g
If IT company is into kids cloths then it makes sense to keep both seperate

 

[JamesMason67]

Maybe wrong thread, but how would this work with HMRC. Would it be legal to have these sites as lead gathering instruments as opposed to individual businesses? My logic tells me it would be problematic. Will talk to my CA. Hmm...Interesting

 

[JamesMason67]

I am thinking you have more chance of a phone call to one of your "businesses" if you had a few "businesses" on page one for London Builders.
Thanks for getting back to me again.
James

 

[faradaykeynes]

HMRC is not concerned how many website you have for your business as long as all book keeping and compliance is done properly

It depends what is business activity, taking builders example i dont think so it will generate you enough leads and SEO takes quite a time, its not overnight thing like ppc

 

[JamesMason67]

Ok, was just an idea I had. It still seems feasible to me as long as we had the SEO budget, however I appreciate you are an accountant and will know a lot more about this than I do. Thank you

Has anybody else more than one website generating leads for them, and if so do you think its worth the effort?
Cheers,
Jay

 

[faradaykeynes]

Perhaps you can do localized Google PPC and social media campaign with keywords relevant to local market for your main builders site

and don't forget the best method is actual networking

 

[faradaykeynes]

I have very strong IT background including Web desiging, SEO, PPC and computer networking. I use to run part time IT business when i was working as full time accountant. I stopped IT stuffed before i started my own accountancy practice but try keep up with IT theory as it helps my clients and makes me happy

 

[JamesMason67]

I have certainly been looking at ppc but it seems very daunting to me and the professionals seem very expensive, but then so is having too little work I guess. A tricky one. Thanks for all your help sir, much appreciated.

 

[JamesMason67]

Very handy set of skills you have there..

 

[faradaykeynes]

PPC is like stock exchange , if you dont know where and how to invest you will lose money like hell and hiring professionals is not always the right thing, its better if you understand how it works and then you can filter out true professionals to cowboys

 

[lynxus]

Yes,
Nothing wrong with it.

I have a "Lot" of keyword based websites. Each one has unique content based on said keyword. If the user wants to dig deeper and say sign up etc then it would redirect them to my main sign up page after they enter their data.

Its a good way to capture people from many keywords by using different sites rather than trying to get one site ranking for MANY keywords.

 

[JamesMason67]

Thank you. You are not the first person to say this to me..

 

[JamesMason67]

Lynux, that what I was thinking, but now Im not so sure??

 

[JamesMason67]

Sorry Lynxus

 

[JamesMason67]

Anyone else? All in one basket or multiple sites. If you were at the top of page one what would be the point of putting all your seo resources into that instead of developing other sites into positions 2,3 and 4 etc? Thats the bit I am having problems getting my head round?

 

[Ninja Commerce]

Hi James.

Basically, yes you can do it (I've had clients ask a similar question before).

From HMRC point of view you have no problem at all, all websites are a part of the same business (you could actually make them all separate businesses if you wanted to, but that would be pointless and make your accounts 10 times more complicated).

Additionally, you won't be breaking Google's guidelines...

If you try to promote them all through Adwords Google would not allow that, but for organic listings you are fine.

BUT the biggest reason not to do this is that it's almost certainly not optimal in terms of ROI.

It takes a fair amount of work to get to page one for any terms worth getting there for. Getting 10 different websites onto page one will take a lot of work, work that you could better spend doing something else.

Why not spend all of that effort on one site and either target more key phrases or target higher volume phrases OR spend the extra effort exploring other ways of attracting visitors (PR, paid advertising etc...)

And finally:

For the particular terms you want to rank for; have you checked whether there are any integrated results (videos, images, local listings etc...) or might there be in the future?

If you dominate page one, but Google goes and adds a load of places listings above your no1 search position, you will suddenly lose a load of traffic.

Hope that helps.

 

[lynxus]

The question I would ask myself is ..
If im a Builder, in london and I was willing to work anywhere in the UK and build anything.. Why wouldnt i buy....
builderslondon.com
buildersbristol.com
londonbuilders.com
buildersinlondon.com
buildersinbristol.com
southwestbuilders.com
southeastbuilders.com
midlandsbuilders.com

etc etc

 

[JamesMason67]

Thanks guys. I meant maybe try get the top 3 positions for my keywords.

I appreciate trying to get ten on page one would be far too complicated and expensive. I live in Edinburgh, and for a few reasons try to work fairly locally, so it would just be local sounding domains I would be after. Really appreciate your comments guys. Cheers.

 

[ITsoldUK]

Is it possible/ok? Yes

Is there a danger from Google? Not really as long as the content is unique and you dont whack up a link farm from all the sites you own to each other

Is it a path I would recommend in your game? Not a chance and I will tell you 3 reasons why...

1. I don't search Google for builders and nor do a great number of people. 1 well crafted site as a brochure is all you need imho.

2. You will never sustain the cost v reward balance. I spend around 16 hours a week seoing 1 site. Never mind fitting in my day job

3. You will be chasing fools gold. Yes an seo partner will do well out of you but your r.o.i. is gonna be a big challenge to be +

Just coz you have a keyword rich domain does not give you a golden bullet to rank high in the serps

You would be better off building one site for one market and making that work then develop different areas within the site within a sound nav structure.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using UK Business Forums

 

[JamesMason67]

Thank you for taking the time to write. I have to disagree with your point about people not getting builders online tho. It is where 90% of my new work comes from.

The only reason I am contemplating this is that it was a relatively simple matter for my seo guy to get me a very high ranking on my top keywords and this site is getting me lots of leads. It seems reasonable to me that having another two or three sites at maybe a grand each including seo and build costs all on the front page of Google would be a great long term investment. If I can get even 25% more leads having the 3 extra sites, I would be delighted, and I dont think thats unreasonable to hope for.

In the long term I'm convinced this would be a good move. Has anyone tried this, and could perhaps share their experiences good or bad? Thanks again ITSold

 

Thanks guys. I meant maybe try get the top 3 positions for my keywords.

I appreciate trying to get ten on page one would be far too complicated and expensive. I live in Edinburgh, and for a few reasons try to work fairly locally, so it would just be local sounding domains I would be after. Really appreciate your comments guys. Cheers.

Not so hard getting multiple sites to rank on page one when its a small geo target like Edinburgh.

I always recommend that any business should certainly have more than 1 site supporting it,preferable about 6 ish.

putting all your eggs in 1 basket is a risky business on the web .IMHO

 

[ITsoldUK]

OK...I hear what you are saying and after many years in this industry I would still say what you are suggesting is a potential waste of time and cash that you could channel elsewhere.

Are your 3, 4, 5 or more websites going to be promoting you and your business?

Yes.

So in essence in the grand scheme of things you are going to be competing against yourself.

Granted the location may differ slightly but overall you are going to try and outrank yourself?

I am not convinced and will agree to differ...

I like 1 site turning in 100,000k rather than 10 turning in 10,000k.

The numbers may add up but at what cost long term...

Sent from my GT-I9300 using UK Business Forums

 

OK...I hear what you are saying and after many years in this industry I would still say what you are suggesting is a potential waste of time and cash that you could channel elsewhere.

Are your 3, 4, 5 or more websites going to be promoting you and your business?

Yes.

So in essence in the grand scheme of things you are going to be competing against yourself.

Granted the location may differ slightly but overall you are going to try and outrank yourself?

I am not convinced and will agree to differ...

I like 1 site turning in 100,000k rather than 10 turning in 10,000k.

The numbers may add up but at what cost long term...

Sent from my GT-I9300 using UK Business Forums

You do not target the same terms for each site.

We have 4 results on this page:

http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&scli...644,d.d2k&fp=4afaf636663ff54f&biw=939&bih=561

 

[JamesMason67]

IT, I hear what you are saying, but my numbers are different. I get 10 visits a day and one enquiry on average, and in my game thats good going.

What Im trying to do is mop up the odd enquiry that may go to a competitor. For instance the person searches, doesnt fancy my number one ranked site. Opens another couple at maybe 2nd or 3rd position, sees a site she likes. Calls up, and Im in. This would have been a call to a competitor as she didnt like something about my top ranking site or whatever. You see what im getting at?

The fact you have a great site doesnt mean they will ask you to quote, or only the best site for a given keyword would get the call and thats not how it works. I may be wrong tho. Thanks guys
James

 

[iKam]

No problem at all as long as you don't try to act like another business

 

[faradaykeynes]

IT, I hear what you are saying, but my numbers are different. I get 10 visits a day and one enquiry on average, and in my game thats good going.

What Im trying to do is mop up the odd enquiry that may go to a competitor. For instance the person searches, doesnt fancy my number one ranked site. Opens another couple at maybe 2nd or 3rd position, sees a site she likes. Calls up, and Im in. This would have been a call to a competitor as she didnt like something about my top ranking site or whatever. You see what im getting at?

The fact you have a great site doesnt mean they will ask you to quote, or only the best site for a given keyword would get the call and thats not how it works. I may be wrong tho. Thanks guys
James

How big is your building company?
In your example lets say you manage to bring 3 of your site to google top page and someone books 3 appointment through those sites and one gets only ONE visit from you, do you not think they will go back to google and try be in touch again.
There is a risk of -ive social media against your company, especially from your competitors that this company is trying to get more customers by using more then one site, this would damage your reputation, also if you are ltd company then one thing will be common among all sites and that is your company details.

Its better to have one site with emphasis on location areas your want to target and work you specialise in. You can have dedicated pages with relevant keywords based on location all under one site

 

[JamesMason67]

Thanks again guys
Reason I started this thread, is I have a friend in a joinery business (no names), who does just what Im suggesting ie he built more than one website. He has a wee office in town with a manned landline. He has one website with his office address on it, and another with his home address on it. One has a landline number (office) phone number, and the other has a 0800 number which diverts to his mobile, with some or other technology that tells him someone has called the 0800 number. He tells me he gets quite a few calls from his second site which is well positioned too. These would have gone to a competitor.

Not really worked out a strategy for a call to each of the businesses yet. Maybe pass it on to a friend in the trade. I dont think its a reason not to do it tho.

 

[ITsoldUK]

You do not target the same terms for each site.

We have 4 results on this page:

http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&scli...644,d.d2k&fp=4afaf636663ff54f&biw=939&bih=561

I see this and understand the ethos but why dilute your efforts?

I would rather have one killer site rather than 5 average wouldnt you?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using UK Business Forums

 

I see this and understand the ethos but why dilute your efforts?

I would rather have one killer site rather than 5 average wouldnt you?

Absolutely not,having all ones eggs in one basket is a risky business as many sites have found to there cost.

You have no control over the search engines,so by spreading the risk you minimise the all or nothing effect.

One will also have the added benefit of being able to target a great deal more search terms,remembering that for most sites the major search terms mostly bring in a small amount of the sites traffic compared to the long tail.

 

[ITsoldUK]

Absolutely not,having all ones eggs in one basket is a risky business as many sites have found to there cost.

You have no control over the search engines,so by spreading the risk you minimise the all or nothing effect.

One will also have the added benefit of being able to target a great deal more search terms,remembering that for most sites the major search terms mostly bring in a small amount of the sites traffic compared to the long tail.

Sorry Earl but I am going to have agree to differ.

My sole basket is fine and the structure allows my number of search terms to be infinite.

It also allows my hypothetical super site to develop and devour smaller less content rich sites overtime as my natural link count increases with my domain authority.

You are right IF you put your eggs in one basket and rely on SERPs alone to bring in the buck...on this I agree.

SEO needs to be a part of the marketing mix not the total sum.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using UK Business Forums

 

[terryuk]

If you're only targeting a few low competition / search phrases you can use parasite listing to populate the page 1 rather than making ten more sites which won't generate much attention aside from your ego.

I.e classified ads, business listings etc.



You might find http://www.searchenginejournal.com/8-strategies-to-get-multiple-first-page-rankings-on-google/59528/ answers some question

 

[JamesMason67]

Thanks for that Terry, Good man.

 

[Ian J]

if they were all individually designed and with different content etc., then no problem?

I have several sites all optimized for slightly different phrases but I have the address and telephone numbers on a graphic so that G doesn't spot the same contact details on each site.

The real pain is writing sufficient unique content for each site

 

[keymanbroker]

Jay,

Here's a couple of things for you to think about (to save you time and money!)

Firstly, I think it's sensible to have more than one "property" on page of google if you want to totally dominate your industry. BUT, if you're already ranking your main website number 1 for your main keyword, say "London builders" then it would be beneficial for you to be creative with your other ranking sites. For example, why not rank a Youtube video and a Facebook page as well? That way you have a website, a video and a social networking page all on page one. This means that you appeal to people in very different ways.

The added bonus of this is that it's MUCH cheaper because you don't need to build more websites and facebook/youtube can be much easier and cheaper to rank than websites.

The other thing I would suggest is that if you are building other websites, why not go after OTHER keywords with them instead. If you follow the above suggestion you are already going to dominate google for "london builders". Therefore, make your next website targeted towards "builders in london" for example.

Being number 1 on google for multiple keywords (with multiple websites) will generate more business than having 5 websites going after the same keyword.

 

[neil358]

Hi James,

i have four sites that seem to do very well in regards to ranking on page one.
First and main site is the main business named site, then two others are mixture of key words that i want or think that they could be helpful in the domain name, then the last is a site regarding safety with a small (very) shop.

All these other sites interlink with the main site.

I feel as though it has benefitted the business in regards to helping to gain better listing posistion on my main business site. Also i am covering other options for search terms regarding placement on page one.

The main business site i pay my web designer to do, edit etc, the others i have designed and control myself, very cheap too or even free to start with, then after one year i pay the domain name registration (approx £5 for i think two years!). Though i think that this may have finished, i got one site free for 2 years and then about 8 months ago, another one free for a year. My last invoice was for the 2 year one at £5, waiting for the one year to come around too see how much it will be.

I have done alot of SEO with the main business site, though hardly anything with the other sites as i dont need too as this seems to be taken care of, all of this has to be honest cost me pennies - pounds rather than hundreds - thousands, yes it has taken me time and i have also learnt new skills. Which is good.

So to answer your question: Yes i think that it is benefical to have a couple of sites, though as people have mentioned before, different content etc. Though with domain names ie: extensions-london, loft-conversion-london etc, these can then point the customer to your main site aswell as giving them the information they need, ie contact number to call! If they also click through to your main site then even better in my eyes. IE please see our main site here}. Its also acts as a link ;-)

All of the sites i have are different content, though all have a good wide and varied amount of information. This has not only worked on Google, but also on other search engines. So i would say yes it has benefited my business in some way, though i cant measure it as if you i ask customers where they found my details, they answer online Googled it!!!! So it can be hard to ascertain which site they landed on, though there are analytics, statcounter etc to check, but it seems to work for me, i know that some businesses advertising works in one area and it may not work for another area.

Give it a go i say, keep costs down on design etc get a good domain name with some key words in (some people say that is not a good idea though it works for my business (builder-london, extension-london, loft-conversion-london - my web chap said longer domains are no good, how many times have you put in a domain name on a search.....I know i never do and if they know your name then they will know your number, website etc.

Remember the internet is not instant it will take a bit of time to catch up.

Hope this helps and you will have to let me know if you do get some sites and if there is or is not a difference.

 

[JamesMason67]

Keyman, Neil. Thank you very much

 

[Alan]

Many of our clients have multiple sites and it works for them. Some have slightly different offerings, to put in context of building, for instance a site on extensions, a site on renovation, a site on new builds. Some just have different sites targeting different geo-locations (your earlier post with domain names suggested that strategy)

Sites don't need to be expensive to rank on google. And depending on competition for the keywords the SEO doesn't have to be too hard.