Two businesses one website?

[nilega]

I currently run a successful well know website but the company name was chosen years ago before branched out into other products. The current name is very specific to our main product and I would like to set up another brand to encompass everything we do. My problem comes in that I don't want to totally ditch the original name as it is so well known. Would it be ok to have two urls heading to one website which essential would have both logos on the page? Do you have any suggestions of how I can get around this? I preferably don't want to run two websites due to cost and what would essentially be doubling up. Any suggestions gratefully received. Thanks

 

[DigitalSuperMarket.com]

Hi, just to clarify, what's the reason for wanting to set up a new URL?

 

[nilega]

I want to essentially have a company that has a name that covers everything we sell.

 

[DigitalSuperMarket.com]

Ok. How is most of your traffic getting to your website at the moment? Is it from customers finding your existing website in search, or by going directly to your existing site?

 

[WebshopMechanic]

Hi @nilega

There is no problem using forwarding domains to send people to a website. It allows you to market a particular brand and then send them to a certain landing page.

I guess there are two issues with what you are saying.

1. The current domain (which is product focused) is the one that people know and that is probably ranked in the search engines around your products. If you've built up a decent level of brand exposure and organic traffic you don't want to jeopardise that by changing the focus of the site too much. Being niche or product-focused is a good thing.

If you change the website url to the new all-encompassing domain name then you will pretty much lose all ranking 'brownie points'. Yes you can set up 301 redirects but you would have diluted the focus of the site.

2. I think the confusing thing from a customer perspective will be when they land on your site looking for the product and then they are hit with a more generic product offering. For example, if I sold washing machines at washingmachine.com and then people landed on the site and saw I sold TVs, Radios, Printers, Laptops, etc, it just wouldn't sit right.

I would alway steer my clients down the road of a single domain due to cost and resource to manage but without understanding exactly what the situation is (i.e the url and products) then it's a little difficult to advise.

Sorry, I'm not sure if that helps or not.

Matt

 

[nilega]

Matt

Thanks for your reply. My current website ozoverboots. This was set up when I set up the business in 2015. Subsequently we have added a whole range of clothing for farmers to buy as an add on to the overboots. I would like to set up something that focuses on the workwear for farmers as well but essential it would be the same website. The overboots are my main product so don't want to lose focus on them. Hope this gives you a bit more of an insight.

Hannah

 

[nilega]

Would two domain names to one site knock out our top spot on google?

 

[WebshopMechanic]

Hi Hannah,

If I were you then I'd stick with your existing set-up and website. The additional products are complimentary so I don't see a problem there.

I think new people will mostly arrive on your site due to the Ozoverboot product and use case. The fact that will see other products is a bonus because they do compliment the product and they are still focused towards the same target customer.

My opinion would be to still make your site primarily focused at the main product. Remember, you've built the business up around that product and the problem that your product solves. You want to continue to keep growing the reach, awareness and sales of this. Nothing should get in the way of that because that's where the value is for a customer.

The clothing side really comes into play as a driver of revenue from your existing customers who have already purchased the main product. This is where you build loyalty to your brand and increase the lifetime value of your customers.

So, in short, don't dilute the website or the messaging. Stay true to your product but use cross-sells and up-sells (like product bundles) to increase spend.

Hope that helps.

Matt

P.S That's just my two-penneth.

 

[nilega]

Matt

Thank you for your thoughts. I suppose my ultimate question is: If I redirect from another url based on agricultural clothing would that push me down the search list or would will the ozoverboots name still be at the top?

 

[Fagin2021]

Matt

Thank you for your thoughts. I suppose my ultimate question is: If I redirect from another url based on agricultural clothing would that push me down the search list or would will the ozoverboots name still be at the top?

This is a bit confusing! Why would you want to redirect from a different url to ozoverboots rather than just link to ozoverboots?

I think Matt has it spot on. At the moment ozoverboots totally dominates the SERPS for searches on the company name - videos, social media etc etc. You have a brand - so just build on it for your related products (like Virgin Media, Virgin Trains, Virgin Atlantic).

If you start a new 'farmwear' site you're going to have to optimise individual pages for overalls, waterproofs etc so why not put that effort into the current product pages which lack even the most basic optimisation?

 

[WebshopMechanic]

If you leave everything on the site and then use a different domain for marketing only (e.g ozclothing.com) then you wouldn't suffer any drop because you're simply directing people to the ozoverboot domain.

The only time you may suffer from search cannibalisation is if you had two sites competing for the same keywords. Even then, you could ensure that both are optimised but one better than the other. Google would usually find the most relevant site for the topic or type of search.

 

[Larry Fong]

You can set-up a subdomain of the new business or make a compartment of landing pages of the new niches with different style of layout. Then the audience can identify where to go once they arrive to your site.

 

[Prahlad]

you can use that website to promote other Sites, using banners and Links Buiding.

I here recommend you the best way you can choose another site and Promote using the privious one.

 

[Ditso]

Domain age and Authority is important for ranking purposes. To start a new site is tedious to build all that up.(again)

So I can't see the point in starting a new website then simply pointing visitors to the old one.

I'd just add new sections/categories and brand it for the higher level broad range rather than just the narrower initial niche.

Sort of "come for the X, stay for the Y" type of thing.

You will build up Google ranking authority 100x faster for the newer products/service pages by piggy backing on the existing site.

If each of the new pages are Keyword optimised and people click through to the site from the SERPS then quite frankly what the domain is called is almost immaterial.

 

[The Byre]

IBM buys and sells businesses. IBM sells hardware. IBM sells software. IBM sells network services. IBM sells cloud computing. IBM educates to post-graduate level. But all those things are called IBM.

Aldi sells groceries in stores around Planet Earth. It also buys and sells property, insurance, holidays, petrol and Diesel fuel, online shopping and probably a whole host of other things I have forgotten. It even has a venture capital arm that buys into SMEs, esp. in retail and food and drink. But you know who you are dealing with - except Trader Joe's that it now owns totally.

One Brand! You dilute your message at your peril!

 

[Chris Hanson]

Better to have one business with multiple websites as business administration is more complex. Our main company name is SheffLOCK as you can imagine we a Sheffield locksmiths but want to work county wide. We found it difficult to gather clients from neighbouring cities within the county so we purchased specific domain names for the areas .

You could build on farmwear.co.uk as an example with a title of Farmwear from Ozoverboots etc.

 

[Brey White]

You can create another URL and then redirect it to your main website. Also, if you do so, then it's not gonna harm your ranking on search engines, URL redirects are a genuine way to send traffic from one URL to another, and search engines like Google doesn't gonna p[enalise you for that.

 

[fisicx]

You can create another URL and then redirect it to your main website. Also, if you do so, then it's not gonna harm your ranking on search engines, URL redirects are a genuine way to send traffic from one URL to another, and search engines like Google doesn't gonna p[enalise you for that.

Did you even read the question?