SEO- Multiple domain brands or similar names ?

Have a nice sunday today !

Sunday is fo rme a great day to do some researching (web) , walking in nature, reading. (books and web) ...

So I find it fascinating when websites have multiple domains or multiple brands.
Example:

wpbeginner(com) has multiple brands all linked in the footer linked together to all pages.
Microsoft has multiple brand domains. office(com), azure.....al linked together

Best example: dotdashmeredith (com) hast multiple brands beautiful names like coastaliving.....all linked together

Google has multiple subdomains:maps, gmail, maps, etc, etc...(ok, subdomain is not htis topic of my thread)

Along with this, sites like searchengineland(com) telling us that having multiple domains and when you cross link them together is bad for seo and you get duplicate penalty....what is this bullsxxxx......

How google will penalize you for double content when you have multiple websites, multiple topics and content?
Sure it costs you more energy and money to manage all them or when you pay for all your domains social media ads.

Is it better to have multiple different domain names like in the example dotdash, or can you have similar name mutiple domains (but different niches) ?

Like this:

John Doe site has multiple similar names domains , different websites niches;
Main site will be ; johnsezine(com)

multiple similar name domains will be like this;

johnsezine Brands /Channels (in the footer of the website) with host each domain on different hosting. This is the main site niche like about affiliate as a magazine.


johnsguides (com) (hosting hostgator) = affiliate guides (long written articles)
johnsnotes (com) (namecheap) blog about different affiliate models ...
johnsmarketing (or abbreviation like marksters or something) about affiliate marketing,
johnspreneur (com) about affiliate entrepreneurs/ entrepreneurs tips

You see John divide his different subtopics into different domains.
So Johns will be getting multiple google search listings when his domains ranks. He make his name "Johns" a big brand or "TheJohns" = thejohns(com) or someone who has the name Marcus = "themarks(com)"

Doing it so will be little bit confusing for users (correct me if I wrong);

hereisjohns(com)
byjohnny(com)
thejohnnsters(com)

John should stick to "Johns" on his multiple domain names.

Another idea of concept my idol (Dan Lok) Dan Lok has multiple categories on his website, when he divide his categories into multiple domains it would look like this;

danlokchannel(com)
danloktv(com)
danlokvideos(com)
danlokshop(com)
danlokaudio (podcast).......
danlokguides(com)
danlokpreneurs(com)

I hope you get the point here.

what do you think ?
Whould it be better have different multiple brand names like the dotdash meredith website or like the johnsezine model ?

i am not sure you will find that many folks here who would read your long ass post.

I think the best case to follow is amazon.com. in the footer, you will see amazon providing links to all of its brands. and once you go to those brand pages, you will NOT see any cross-links between brands. many years ago, those brands had cross-linking between each other, but amazon stopped that practice.

I do agree with the article on searchengineland on this topic.

Hello @Marco69

It's wise to think about how you will keep growing your business in the long run; building a entire network as your message suggest.

However even when Idk how much experience you have on building successfull/profitable websites; I will suggest you to gain experience achieving your main objetive with at least one.

I knew a few owners of blog networks (legitimate content generators, not PBNs) who tried the strategy you mentioned; but that was when a decent article was enough for ranking almost any long keyword just by including the phrase on the title. Xataka network (webedia) still exist and it could be a good example if you want to analize a case closer to what you have in mind.

Regarding Dan Lok... Those folks gain his audience by simply branding their name. I bet you that the structure with different domain is just a personalized way to serve his content and services.

That particular strategy doesn't seems SEO oriented at all.

Marco69 said:

Another idea of concept my idol (Dan Lok) Dan Lok has multiple categories on his website

Click to expand...

This is usually done by other SEOs who attract branded traffic.

check the site wpbeginner(com)
in the footer they have " Our Sites"

Nameboy
Seedprod
RufflePress......
and many more products

each has its own website, domain and content.

Then you go to nameboy site and there in the footer you find the same links of all their "Our Sites" ......they are linked together.

The same thing on dotdash meredith(com) website.

With a look at seo, when this is so bad, why big sites doing this?

Is it they like burning money or they claim more multiple search results, listing and traffic- these thoughts coming up in my mind...

Why dotdashmeredith site not have this structure, on subfolders, so many people here recommended:

dotdashmeredith/coastalliving.com
instead of coastalliving.com?

Ok, with the Dan Lok site example, he is branding out his name, so in both ways it make sense having subfolders or multiple domains.
Also DanLok/tv or danloktv(com)

Many marketing experts today saying use a unique domain is better then your personal name, it looks like a big ego. Have a unique domain name if it makes sense or not.

Domain name like Zillow or Trulia make no sense for me, ok now I know they are real estate sites

For me it looks like that google indexes unique fantasy domain names quicker , if the name itself make sense or not.

Example: qwuutip makes no sense, but will get indexed faster like a domain with name: marcosmith(com)

I will try to understand why often big sites doing this having multiple brands domains , instead of one domain with category or subfolder, when this is so bad for seo?

Happy Monday to all !

Been thinking about this for so long.
But this is industry level not for small site idea.
Yet, you will still get the idea.

I prefer

Alphabet
Google.com
YouTube.com

Facebook.com
Instagram.com
Whatsapp
Oculus.com

Microsoft.com
Skype.com
Bing.com

Instead of all mixed into one trough subdomain.


Because, each site can have different design, different identity and different brand approaches. Not plus.google.com (fail)

If people suddenly hate amazon.
The whole amazon.com aws.amazon.com tv.amazon.com etc will be affected.

Interesting from that Pepsico screenshot...

I mean a small site can doing this too, having 2-3 brands instead be big like pepsico

So a small site can have multiple topics categories the choice is yours.

When you start with tight budget like me, I would not have more than 2-3 brands and promote only the main site in social media, not all, to avoid of getting burned out fast, when doing multiple tasks every day.

Yes I know this is an endless debate.
So with the new google updates, I understand it so:

Google shows max. 2 search results of one domain - so it looks like having lots of categories (page categories) or subfolder will be useless, google only shows 2 of your site in the search results.

It looks lite that google is forcing /prefer more topic centered content, there are different types of content formats; videos, podcast, articles, infographics......
Also a website only with video content is more topic centerd (or with podcasts) then a mishmash website with lots of categories/ subfolders of one topic. What do you think ?

It looks like with the new updates google is forcing domain diversifity, that means with multiple domains on related keywords too, google will showing multiple search results of your domains, when you have a big main domain- only 2 search results, instead of 3-4 multiple domains.

Some marketers saying, it is best to have a separate domain for video content and separate for podcast content (with text script include on the page) to get good seo ranking for videos and podcasts.
With this you have within a month (example) a website with 10 podcasts (10 pages) and a separate domain with 10-15 videos (10-15 pages) on it.

If that make sense or is a good seo ranking strategy? What is your experience?

Now I ask myself with multiple domains, I must have multiple separate social media accounts?

Or each domain has 1 sm account like this:

domain a: Twitter
domain b: IG
domain: FB
domain d: Tumblr

are Myspace and Livejournal worth it to share content in 2022 to get traffic?

Have a nice day!

Hi guys,

I must ask you here I think google now shows only 2 results of one domain in serp, then I not understand this:

example type in google: Dan Lok media

then multiple Dan Lok posts comes up full the first page in google.
How can that be? Are these categories/ category pages?

type in: Dan Lok, then his multiple domains are coming up and his social media profiles, he has multiple facebook business pages?

But I not understand type in: Dan Lok media, then google page is full with multiple posts/ categories, when google say showing only 2 results of one domain?

I hope someone can explain me this

Randall F; thank you, nice looking smile on your photo, I like it! hehehehe.......

I mean with my domain idea this;

you see Gawker media has multiple sites like: Lifehack, Jezebel, Quartz
Hearst media: Men's Health, and many more branding domains.....

In my eyes yopu can build multi domains and sites (not on subdomain) each has it's own logo and content, like this:

gawkerhack, gawkercube (quartz) , gawkerspin (deadspin) Gawker has similar niches
or ; Hearstfashion, Hearstcosmetic...= Hearst media has subsidiaries, this is not the same.

Then your name Gawker or Hearst will become bigger in google and showing up multiple times in the serps.

So for me Men's Health is a brand name, Gawkerhack too. Yepp, ok they can sell their indivudual brand domain names for huge money and some of them have keyword in the name, it's like building more individual assets.

The other more personal way is like the Dan Lok idea:

danlokshow, danlokcasts (podcasts) or danshow, dancasts, danpreneur, whatsoever; I hope you get the idea, they are similar sub-niches but have their own content, or using variation danthelock (sounds stupid but it's an example) so all these variants will showing up in google.

Or example Teal Swan;
tealswriting, tealscoaching, tealswanshirts..........

These Dan Lok or Teal Swan sites will showing up multiple times in the serps, this is the idea with my name Markus (that is my idea for my name) ;

markshow, markusshow, markcasts, marksmedia, markwriter, and so on.... so the name Markus or variations with mark/marks will become multi times up in the serps, each has it's own content but they are similar sub-niches. Each site have link to the other sites in the footer , this is not bad for seo, many people doing this; dan lok, gawker and many many more.....who have in the footer links to their other sites, check gawker com and so see it in their footer, each site is interlinked.

But when you want build multi separate subsidiaries like the way of Hearst and Gawker, then it's better to have an individual domain name for each, not using the first name in it.

I hope my theory is right......