Have you ever found yourself with extra domain names and wondered, "What Should You Do with Extra Domain Names?"

If so, you're not alone. Many people end up with more domain names than they need, but it's nothing to worry about. Having extra domain names can be a good thing, and there are several smart ways to use them.

Whether you bought them on a whim or for a project that never took off, it's important to know that these domains can still be valuable.

This article is designed to help you understand the potential of your unused domain names and explore your various options.

The Value Of Extra Domain Names

Individuals and businesses often acquire extra domain names for various strategic reasons, potentially adding value to these additional online assets.

The accumulation of extra domain names might initially stem from efforts to protect a brand or expand its digital footprint. For instance, companies might purchase multiple domain variations to prevent competitors from acquiring similar domain names, a form of legal protection and brand safeguarding.

This approach also addresses common issues like misspellings or alternative top-level domains (TLDs) that customers might use inadvertently.

The potential value of these extra domains is multifaceted.

They can be pivotal in specific marketing strategies, allowing businesses to create targeted campaigns for different services or products, each with its dedicated domain.

Parking The Domain: Pros And Cons

It refers to registering a domain name without associating it with fully developed web services like email or a website. Essentially, the domain is reserved for future use or to protect a brand's intellectual property.

Parking can be either passive, where the domain is merely held, or active, where the parked domain displays ads or content related to the owner's main business or interests.

The primary benefit of domain parking is protecting a brand or idea. By securing various domain names, businesses and individuals can prevent competitors or cyber squatters from acquiring them.

This is particularly important for trademarks or key business names. Active parking can also serve as a monetization strategy.

In this scenario, parked domains might display ads, and the owner earns revenue from clicks or impressions.

This can be especially profitable if the domain name is highly sought after or commonly typed into browsers.

However, there are drawbacks to domain parking. From an SEO perspective, parked domains offer little value as they generally lack substantive content and are not well-ranked by search engines.

Selling Extra Domains: Tips And Best Practices

Valuation And Pricing

Establishing the right price is crucial. Factors affecting a domain's value include:

• Length (shorter is often better).
• Keyword relevance.
• Brandability.
• Domain extension (.com is typically most valuable).

Utilize online appraisal tools for a rough estimate and research recent sales of similar domains. Setting a realistic and market-competitive price is key.

Overpricing can deter potential buyers, while underpricing may lead to a loss on your potential earnings.

Listing Platforms

Choose the right platforms to list your domains. Potential buyers frequent popular marketplaces like Sedo, Flippa, and GoDaddy Auctions.

These platforms provide visibility but may charge listing fees or commissions. Alternatively, listing on your website or utilizing social media and professional networks can attract buyers.

However, this may require more effort in marketing.

Creating A Sales Landing Page

Consider setting up a simple sales landing page for domains you actively want to sell. This page can provide contact information and even a brief pitch on the potential value of the domain.

Negotiation Tactics

Be prepared for negotiations. Potential buyers may often propose a lower price than your asking rate. Knowing the minimum price you're willing to accept before entering negotiations.

Be transparent, but also understand the art of negotiation - sometimes, letting the buyer make the first offer can work in your favor.

Transfer Process

Familiarize yourself with the domain transfer process of your registrar. Using an escrow service for the transaction can provide security for both parties, ensuring the transfer of funds and the domain happens without fraud.

Developing Microsites Or Landing Pages

Benefits Of Microsites

Targeted Content and SEO: Microsites allow for creating highly specialized content targeting specific keywords or customer segments. This can improve SEO for niche areas, ranking higher in search results for those specific topics.

Brand Expansion: They allow you to expand or diversify your brand without cluttering your main website. For example, a business can create a microsite for a product launch, offering detailed information and tailored user experience.

Testing Ground: Microsites can test new ideas, marketing strategies, or branding concepts with a lower risk, as they are separate from the main site.

Benefits Of Landing Pages

Focused Conversion Goals: Landing pages are designed with a single goal, such as encouraging sign-ups, downloads, or sales. This focus can lead to higher conversion rates compared to general web pages.

Campaign Specificity: They are ideal for supporting specific marketing or advertising campaigns, providing a direct destination for users from emails, social media, ads, or other marketing channels.

Analytics and Optimization: With a specific focus, it's easier to measure the effectiveness of a landing page. This data can be used for optimizing strategies and improving conversion rates.

Best Practices

Consistent Branding: Ensure that your microsites and landing pages align with your overall brand regarding message, design, and quality.

User Experience: Focus on providing a clear, engaging, and user-friendly experience. Navigation should be intuitive, with a clear call to action.

Integration with Main Site: While they should be distinct, ensure there's a logical connection or pathway back to your main site, helping to funnel users towards your broader offerings.

Forwarding Domains To Enhance Brand Presence

Domain forwarding is a technique where extra domains redirect visitors to your primary website. This strategy can enhance your brand's online presence and has potential SEO benefits.

How To Use Domain Forwarding?

Setup: Forwarding is typically done through your domain registrar's control panel. You can choose between a permanent 301 redirect telling search engines that the domain has permanently moved or a 302 temporary redirect.

Consolidate Traffic: By forwarding multiple domains to your primary site, you can consolidate traffic from various sources. This is particularly useful if you own common misspellings of your main domain, alternative TLDs (like .net, .org), or domain names with keywords relevant to your business.

Branding Benefits

Protecting Brand Identity: Forwarding prevents competitors or cyber-squatters from using similar domain names, thus protecting your brand identity.

Uniformity and Recall: Having multiple related domains forward to a single site ensures that users who mistype your URL or remember it incorrectly still reach your site, enhancing brand recall.

SEO Benefits

Avoiding Content Duplication: Since forwarding domains do not host separate content, this approach avoids duplicate content issues that negatively impact SEO.

Link Building: If any extra domains have existing backlinks, forwarding can transfer some link equity to your primary domain. However, the SEO impact might be limited compared to direct links to your primary domain.

Keyword-Rich Domains: If the extra domains contain keywords relevant to your business, they can serve as a way for users who type these domains directly into their browsers to reach your site. However, it's important to note that keyword-rich domain names have diminished in SEO value over the years.

Using Extra Domains For Email Addresses

Utilizing extra domains to create professional or niche-specific email addresses can be a strategic move, enhancing the perception of your business and catering to specific segments of your market or internal organizational needs.

Professionalism And Branding

Consistency with Brand: Creating email addresses that match your domain enhances brand consistency.

For instance, if you run a consultancy with multiple specialized services, having emails like legal@yourconsultancy.com and finance@yourconsultancy.com offers a professional touch.

Niche Targeting: If your business operates in various niches, using different domains for email can tailor your communication to those segments.

For example, a media company might use media@companyname.com for general inquiries and studio@companynamefilms.com for its film division.

Protecting Your Brand With Extra Domains

Owning extra domain names can serve as a defensive strategy to protect your brand, particularly against cybersquatting and competition. This proactive approach can be crucial in maintaining brand integrity and controlling your online presence.

Cybersquatting Protection

Preventing Misuse: Cybersquatters often register domains similar to popular brands to exploit their traffic or sell them at inflated prices. By owning these domains yourself, you prevent such exploitation.

Avoiding Confusion: Acquiring domains that are common misspellings or variations of your brand name prevents confusion that could arise if others use these domains maliciously or misleadingly.

FAQs

What Are The Key Reasons For A Business To Purchase Multiple Domain Names?

Businesses buy multiple domains for brand protection, targeted marketing, SEO benefits, and legal protection against cybersquatting.

Can Owning Multiple Domains Improve A Company's SEO?

While having multiple domains alone doesn't directly boost SEO, they can be used strategically for targeted marketing and to control niche-specific content, indirectly benefiting SEO.

What Is Domain Parking, And What Are Its Pros And Cons?

Domain parking involves registering a domain without attaching it to active web services. Pros include brand protection and potential monetization through ads; cons include limited SEO benefits and ongoing renewal costs.

How Can Extra Domains Be Used Effectively For Email Communication?

Extra domains can create professional, niche-specific email addresses, enhancing brand consistency and facilitating targeted communication for different business segments or projects.

What Are The Considerations In Selling Extra Domain Names?

When selling extra domains, consider their market valuation, choose appropriate listing platforms, set realistic prices, negotiate effectively, ensure a secure transfer process, and be mindful of legal rights.

How Does Forwarding Extra Domains To A Primary Website Benefit A Brand?

Forwarding extra domains to a primary site can enhance brand presence, protect against cybersquatting, consolidate traffic, and ensure customers reach the intended site, even if they mistyped URLs.

Conclusion

Extra domain names are valuable assets that can be strategically leveraged. Parking domains offer brand protection and potential revenue through advertising, though it may have limited SEO benefits.

Selling extra domains requires careful valuation, choosing the right platforms, and effective negotiation tactics. Developing microsites or landing pages on these domains can boost targeted content and SEO and serve as testing grounds for new ideas.

Domain forwarding enhances brand presence and protects against cybersquatting. Using extra domains for email addresses enhances brand consistency and professionalism.