What many business registrants fail to recognise, is that their domain name is often part of the brand they are operating. That is, customers know and associate a particular domain with the company, even if the two are not necessarily aligned. In essence, you will have a portion of your web traffic that comes from direct ‘type-in’ entries, which you may compromise by failing to clarify any changes.

When one does decide to change their domain, they should always let their target audience know about the change beforehand. This can be done via announcements or banners on the website’s home page, or through mailing list correspondence. One could also retain the former domain for a limited period to advise of the changes and redirect traffic accordingly, however, you don’t want to be relying on this method too long if you are pursuing a change in branding and looking to keep costs down. Having said that, if the domain could become valuable property to competitors, you may want to maintain its registration.

One way to circumvent a change in web address is through a “301 redirect”, which redirects web traffic from your old name to your new domain. This strategy relies on a little bit of tech know-how. Basically, commands are installed on the old domain to notify web traffic about the change in domain, before then transferring them automatically. Depending on the complexity of the website in question, the migration can vary in difficulty.

The other aspect to consider, is the tangible performance that your former domain was achieving. If you’re switching to a name with a higher domain authority score, increased web traffic, or improved search ranking, then your worries will be minimal. On the other hand, if you’re transitioning to a newer domain or one that lags current performance, you’ll want to map out how you’re going to bring this up to the same standard pretty quickly, or your business performance could deteriorate.

Something else that should not be taken for granted are the links pointing towards your website. Not only does this include internal links which you may need to update, but also those from other sites. Unless you’re prepared to keep the old domain active, these links will effectively become useless. In such circumstances, you’ll need to ask external parties to update their links to reflect your website’s new domain, which can often amount to nothing short of an arduous task.

That’s it for this occasion, stay tuned for our next educational article. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Best wishes,
The Netfleet Team

http://www.netfleet.com.au

“Everybody knows me by my current domain! I don’t want to change!”

Sure, at first it might seem like the prospect of all that hard work and marketing which went into your domain could go to waste – however, fear not! The best thing about domains is that you don’t have to limit yourself to one domain per website. In fact, the smartest operators in the industry (for example, think carsales.com.au) have multiple domain names all pointing to their main website. Such was the extent that Carsales placed on the value of obtaining carsales.com, they pursued the name for considerable time – in the process, being found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking, before eventually obtaining the name for a rumoured $400,000.

It’s worth noting, domain pointing, which is also referred to as ‘redirecting’, isn’t restricted to same-name domains with alternate TLDs. In fact, it is just as common for owners to redirect different domain names to their preferred website. Pura for instance, owns milk.com.au and points the domain towards their primary site, pura.com.au. Similarly, the likes of Caltex, Dulux and Beaurepaires (just to name a few), all own alternate names in fuel.com.au, paint.com.au and tyres.com.au (respectively).

What becomes apparent is that by owning multiple domain names, and redirecting them to your website, there are numerous benefits. First, by doing this, you can increase your exposure and capture varying degrees of web traffic – particularly those domains with a high level of direct search interest. Secondly, it allows owners to capture traffic that might have otherwise been lost through errors typing in the incorrect TLD. Lastly, and most important for businesses, it provides some degree of safeguarding against existing competitors and new entrants.

So how does it all work? When acquiring a new domain, it’s not a case of ditching the old one and turfing out all your stationary and business cards.

On the contrary, the best practice is to keep your old domain, set it to auto-renew, and grab any new opportunities that fit your profile as they come along. Once you’ve configured the domains accordingly, each domain will resolve to the same website. This means you can even run tests – which domain works best? Which delivers the best return on your marketing investment? You’ll quickly find that the shorter, more memorable ones, far outpace the average domain – and ultimately, you’ll establish that there is only an upside in owning multiple domain names.

That’s it for this occasion, stay tuned for the next of our educational articles.

Best wishes,
The Netfleet Team

http://www.netfleet.com.au