RegisterMultipleDomainNamesWillSearch

If I Register Multiple Domain Names, Will I Be Penalized By Search Engines?




When you register domain names, does the thought of falling out of favor with the major search engines make you nervous? Are you unsure whether or not you can register multiple domain names without being penalized? As long as you play by the right set of rules, you will be fine.

The Internet is rife with the buzz of panic from website owners who have been blacklisted by the major search engines. Because so much gossip is running rampant online, it is often hard to discern truth from fact.

The simple truth is that indeed, some business owners have had their websites taken out of the search engine results for various reasons. The big search engines hate black hat SEO, keyword stuffing and mirror sites. All of these dastardly techniques to get unfair web traffic can get your site on the naughty list.

But what about innocent business owners that register domain names? If you're simply trying to buy up all the .org, .biz and other related sites that are named the same as your main domain name, you’ll be fine. Or, if you're buying up country domain names because you have an interest in expanding your business overseas, you are not in any danger.

However, some business owners have less than honorable intentions when they register domain names. You cannot point multiple domain names at a single location and hope to fool the search engines into thinking they are different sites with different content.

Therefore, before you buy up every domain name that has anything remotely to do with the goods or services you are trying to market, think twice before you point them all at the same content. The search engines are savvy to this trick, and it won't work in your favor. They will come down on you hard for such an offense. This is known as the mirror site penalty. The search engines will pick only one of your sites to recognize as the proper, original site, and you won't get any say about which one they pick. Internal links can get seriously messed up, and your search engine results will fall dramatically. The moral of the story? Play by the search engines' rules.

The rules are simple, and you need to follow them. Don't try to pass off the same content on sub domains, other domains or multiple pages. Make sure your content on each page is unique. Also, don't use sneaky redirects or page cloaking. Make sure each URL offers something valuable and unique to the online community, and you will be just fine.

Pleading ignorance is no defense. You simply cannot ignore the rules of the search engines or hope to be the only website owner that won't get busted. The search engines make these rules for a reason. They only want to endorse quality sites, and they are very serious about their policies. So, be sure to play by the rules, and you can register domain names until your heart is content.