eZiNFOmgmt

Not long ago I received a question from a friend teaching a class in Entrepreneurship:  "How many different sites (.com .net etc) does a small business need to set up in order to cover the market"?  My response follows.

First, there's the "cover the market" concept.  If someone is capable of creating a new business that can corner the market, they probably should be teaching the class.  I think it's much more important to dwell on capturing enough market share to survive and, hopefully, prosper.  That's where business planning becomes important.  Obviously, the Internet changes the scope of planning, but it doesn't change the principles.

Second, there's the assumption that multiple domains are needed.  Large corporations, like Google, have many, different web sites each focused on a discrete portion of their products or services.  Their web presences is a virtual web in itself with links that make navigation between websites transparent.  Then there's also the use of multiple domain names that are basically synonyms; they all point to one particular primary domain name for that part of the Google system.  Even then, there are two ways that is done.  First, Google purchases as many domain names as possible--even with misspellings; they get redirected to a common site.  Second, Google uses subdomains to divide complex web systems into subparts, e.g. maps.google.com.  Sometimes Google buys a domain name that is a synonym for a subdomain, e.g. googlemaps.com translates to maps.google.com.  They try to cover all the bases so people will find what they are looking for.  Google knows how to do good business planning and marketing, obviously.

Should a small business try to purchase multiple domain names? Probably, but it's not to cover the market. It's to protect a "virtual" trademark. Example: I make a guess at a domain name called http://dogWhispers.com. It exists. That business does not own dogWhispers.net or .org. So I would be free to start a new business. Could I siphon some of their business? Probably. Would they be a threat to my market? Probably. For another $20 per year, I would advise dogwhispers.com to buy the other domain names.

The problem here is not in domain names, but in capturing the market.  Multiple domain names will not capture market; search engines quickly figure out the connections and use the primary websites only.  The challenge still lies in good marketing--including good web marketing.  There are no shortcuts.  Even though consulting companies will call and email you with promises to get you in the top 10 search rankings, you will not capture your market without hard work--business planning.  Search rankings do not always translate to market share.

If your website contains the information people want including well-written text with appropriate keywords, links from other important websites to yours, well written and fast loading code, and web advertising tools from Google and Yahoo you'll gain market share.