Should you buy several domains for your business?

Most small businesses need one domain, and perhaps one or two extras for a common misspelling or a name customers already know you by. Buying every ending and every variation rarely pays off: each one is another yearly renewal, another login and another thing to forget. Buy an extra domain when you can name the customer it catches. Skip it when the only reason is a vague worry that someone else might take it.

The good reasons to own a second domain

Customers already misspell your name

If you are Kaitlyn's Kakes and people on the phone keep spelling it "Caitlins Cakes", that misspelling is worth owning. Listen for the version customers actually type, not every possible variation. A few clues:

• What people write in emails or on checks when they get your name wrong.
• How your name sounds when said aloud: does it have a silent letter, a double letter, a number or an "and" versus "&"?
• Whether your name has a word people spell two ways, like "Center" or "Centre", "Gray" or "Grey".

One or two of these, pointed at your main site, catch the customers who would otherwise land on nothing or on someone else.

You have an old name people still use

If you changed your business name, renamed after a merger, or bought a business and rebranded, the old domain still carries every old business card, sticker, vehicle and directory listing. Keep renewing it and point it at the new site, for years if you can. Letting it lapse means someone else can buy it, and the customers who still use it get whatever they put there.

A short, easy name for print and radio

Some businesses have a long legal name but a short, spoken name. A plumber called Robert Garcia Plumbing and Drain Services might use garciaplumbing.com everywhere, with the long version as a backup. A short second domain for vehicle lettering, yard signs or a radio spot can be easier to remember than the main one. Your website on business cards, trucks and signs covers how to choose what to print.

Protecting the exact name if it is a real brand

If your business name is distinctive and you trade on it, owning the .com and possibly the .net version can be sensible, mainly so a competitor or a scammer cannot use a near-identical address. This matters more for a brand with some reach than for a local service business whose name includes the owner's surname.

The weak reasons

• Buying every ending (.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .us, .co). Customers type .com almost by habit. Endings beyond that are mostly bought by people who are not your customers.
• Keyword domains for each service or town, like bestroofermiami.com. These used to be sold as a way to get found on Google; they no longer give you any special help, and a separate site per domain splits your effort. A single site with a good page for each service works better.
• Variations nobody types. If you cannot imagine a real customer typing it, you are paying a yearly fee for peace of mind, not customers.
• Fear of "domain squatters". Someone registering a typo of a small local business is rare. If it happens with your exact trademark, there are dispute processes.

What extra domains really cost

The registration fee is the visible cost. The hidden costs are:

• Renewals that creep up. The first year is often discounted; renewals are full price, sometimes much more. Multiply by every domain and every year.
• Upsells. Privacy, protection plans and "premium DNS" are offered for each domain separately.
• Accounts and logins. Domains bought at different registrars over the years end up in different accounts. Keep them all at one registrar if you can.
• Expiry risk. Each domain is another renewal date. One that lapses while it is printed on your van is worse than never having bought it.
• Your time setting up forwarding and checking it still works.

Choosing a registrar: what matters for a small business covers how to compare renewal prices before you buy.

Using the extra domains you keep

An extra domain does nothing until it points somewhere. The right way is to forward it to your main site with a permanent redirect, so anyone who types it ends up on your real website and search engines understand that the main domain is the one that counts.

Do not:

• Put a copy of your website on the second domain. Two identical sites confuse visitors and search engines alike.
• Use "masked" forwarding, which shows your site inside a frame while the browser still shows the second domain. It breaks on phones and confuses people who bookmark the page.
• Leave it parked on the registrar's default page full of ads, which makes your business look abandoned.

The setup, including HTTPS for the forwarded domain, is in domain forwarding: pointing one domain at another.

Email is separate. A forwarded domain does not receive email unless you set that up too. If customers might email the old or misspelled address, add an email forward or an alias for it.

A sensible setup for most small businesses

• One main domain, usually the .com of your business name, used on everything you print.
• Up to two extras, for a real misspelling customers make, an old business name, or a short version you print.
• All at one registrar, in an account in the business's name, with auto-renew on and one card on file.
• Each extra forwarded to the main site with a permanent redirect.

What to do this week

1. List every domain you already own. Check card statements and your registrar accounts.
2. For each one, write down why you have it and where it points.
3. Let the ones with no reason expire at their next renewal, unless they are printed somewhere.
4. Ask two or three customers or friends to type your business name as a web address, and note what they type.
5. Forward every domain you keep to your main site, and test each from your phone.

If your main domain points at a site that no longer reflects your business, sorting that out matters more than any extra domain. You can see your site rebuilt first and keep every address you own pointing at it.