I often come across new clients who have paid a web developer to create multiple sites under multiple domain names. In fact we recently started on a local Houston inbound marketing strategy for a client and came across this same issue. We won’t mention any names, but for this example, let’s say the client’s business name is J. Smith Architects. They do architectural work in Houston and have 3 main websites on three domains:
- JSmithArchitects.com
- NorthHoustonArchitects.com
- BayouCityArchitects.com
(For those of you who don’t know, one of Houston’s nicknames is Bayou City)
They also have 5 other domains that are set to redirect to one of the 3 domains. The intentions behind multiple websites are great and actually very common. Many people believe the advantages of multiple sites are more keywords for better rankings, more domains for a better chance to be ranking higher, and a "the more the merrier" mentality that more sites will make their online presence greater. So, it makes sense that the thought of having multiple sites provides some sort of search engine indexing advantage for better rankings and to ultimately be found more online.
However, this is not the case. In fact, having multiple websites can be the downfall of your online presence. Here’s why: