A common misconception is that having multiple domain names will increase your site’s search engine rankings. It’s not uncommon for a business to own their name as a domain, as well as several keyword-specific domain names.

While that’s not a bad idea, don’t buy extra domain names with the thought that you’ll point them to your existing site for an SEO boost. It just doesn’t work that way. 

Search engines index content – web pages, not domain names. Yes, your choice of domain IS important, but for SEO purposes, only the domain your website sits on matters. Extra domains pointed to the site don’t really hold any content, so there’s nothing on them for a search engine to index. Therefore, they have NO impact on SEO … unless you’ve pointed those extra domains to your site without a proper 301 redirect. In that case, those extra domains can hurt your rankings.

If your site shows up on both mydomain-one.com and mydomain-two.com and all the pages work regardless of which domain has been selected, you’ve got a duplicate content problem that needs to be fixed ASAP.
So what can you do with one or more extra keyword-specific domain names?

1. Go ahead and forward it to a specific page on your site, then use it with an Adwords campaign.
2. Point it to WordPress.com, Blogger.com or Posterous.com and use it as a secondary home for your content. These sites tend to be indexed quickly, and if you post quality content to them, they’ll eventually provide a payoff – offering the potential of high quality links that you control and can point toward your main site. Yes, it’s a lot of work, but well worth the effort.
3. Use your extra domain for a mini-site to promote a well-defined niche within your product / service line or to promote an event or information product.

Bad SEO practices can hurt your efforts. Not just for a day, either. Be sure you know what you’re doing before you waste a lot of time working in the wrong direction.

Have you had to correct a bad SEO decision? How long did it affect you? Don’t be shy – leave us a comment and tell others how to avoid making the same mistake!

For the brick and mortar small business, it’s all about local.

Forget about SEO, blogging, gaining back links, and posting to Facebook and Twitter for just a moment. If you want to draw visitors to your physical storefront, you need to focus on ‘local’ first. Get the local part right, and the rest will begin to make sense. All paths will lead directly to your door. 

Is your business visible on the map?

Navigate to Google Maps and type your business category and location into the search box. Does your business show up? Is it at or near the top of the list? If so, click on your listing. How does it look? Has it been owner-verified?

Now go to Bing’s Business Portal and Yahoo Local and do the same thing. Answer the same questions.

Those are the big three, but what about Yelp.com, MerchantCircle.com, Angie’s List, SuperPages.com, Local.com, Kudzu, Manta, InsiderPages, and do you know if you’re showing up on mobile and GPS enabled devices?

As a local business owner, you need to be highly visible on directory maps. Your listings need to be accurate, consistent, and present you in the best possible light.

Many local directory listings function as external supporting websites – providing not only your business name, address and phone number, but also links to your website, your social media profiles, third party reviews, even image and video uploads, and the ability to post blogs and coupons.

The upside is that the opportunity to increase your online visibility is huge. The downside is that I don’t know of one single business owner who has the time or the patience to make sure he’s listed properly in all the local directories at once.

Here’s what we tell our clients:

Learn the basics by signing up for our List Yourself! video series.

Develop a few business descriptions, approximately 200, 300, and 500 words each. This is where people get hung up. It takes time to think about how your company comes across to potential customers intelligently, with keywords they recognize.

With your business descriptions done, set out to fill out one FREE directory listing a week. Online directories are very aggressive about listing your company for you for a fee, but they mass upload, making it virtually impossible to do accurately. They all offer to list everywhere else. Just do it yourself, but watch the videos and have your descriptions ready to make the most of your time.

Local listing terms are very important, don’t neglect your store’s physical location as it relates to your online SEO. Be sure you’re listed accurately. We offer quite a bit of helpful information like this in our weekly newsletter, The Inside Line on Getting More Business, have you signed up yet? Inside Line subscribers have access to free downloads and reports unavailable anywhere else. Right now, you can learn what to do, and what to avoid to make more money this year in our FREE report, 5 Keys to Higher Sales in 2012. Sign up today to get yours.

Additional Reading:

10 Things You Must Do Now For Your Business

We’ve just returned from a trip to Dallas, TX to participate in Sandi Krakowski’s ‘Divine Call of God on Your Business’ event. It was a wonderful business and personal growth experience, with great speakers and inspiring messages. The two biggest take-aways for me were in the area of relationship building and my readiness to act on things I already know to be true. (More on these in a future post.)

On the way to Texas, we spent the night at a cute, retro motel that we never would have even heard of had it not been for social media and Google Places reviews. We normally spend the night in Rolla, MO on this particular route, but we wanted to push on a little further – and we didn’t want to spend an exorbitant amount on a hotel room. (Pinch a few pennies on the way down and you have more to spend when you get there!)

So I turned on my phone’s GPS and clicked the search by voice feature to find hotels near Joplin, MO. The top results were Google Places listings, one of which was for the Munger Moss Motel. It had a picture of this awesome neon sign and several great reviews from guests who had spent the night there, and also mentioned they had great rates. I followed up with a phone call and was greeted by a pleasant woman who welcomed us to spend the night at only $49. How could I pass that up?

Is your Google Places listing up-to-date? Does it contain any positive reviews? If not, you may be missing out on business from mobile customers. Whenever you have the opportunity, let your customers know in an email where they can review your company. Send them the link with the request; make it easy to build this area of your online exposure.

Check out our video recommendation for the top five places your business needs to be listed, then sign up for our free ‘List Yourself’ course to get the most from your business directory listings.

Are you operating your business month-to-month, even year-to-year, without a plan?

We’re all so busy – too busy, if you ask me. When business is good, we’re so busy filling orders that there’s little time left for anything else. When business is not so good, there’s an urgency to do something, almost anything to bring in new customers. Sound familiar?

It doesn’t have to be feast or famine.

But you won’t fix the problem in 30-minute sound bites. You’re going to need to set aside some time to go deeper, to ask and answer some fundamental questions once again or for the first time, before creating a plan that will direct you through 2012 and beyond.

Questions like:

Why are you in business? For most of us, there’s a much bigger reason than just ‘making a living.’ In fact, if ‘making a living’ is the only reason you’re in business, that’s mindset leads directly to poverty. So what’s your why?

What goals have you set for your business 10 years down the road? Five years? Three years? and for 2012?

Who is your ideal customer? Are you serving that market now? Why or why not?

• What does your ideal customer want?
• How are you serving your current customer base?
• Are you even reaching your ideal customer base?
• How can you do a better job of meeting their needs?
• How can you improve what you offer them?

Do you have a marketing budget?
If you don’t, you’re not serious about growing your business. Effective marketing requires an investment of time, expertise, and money. Leave any one of those items out of the equation and it’s just not going to work. Far too many business owners try throwing money or time at their marketing, but you can spend an awful lot on marketing that takes you nowhere, or spend all your time going in the wrong direction.

Expertise without time or money is just as damaging. You have to be able to implement what you’ve learned, and that often requires additional expense. It can get real frustrating real fast trying to master intelligent marketing practices for your particular business.

Be honest – we’ve all been there.

You need to start somewhere. Setting up a budget will help you get started and show you where the holes are.

Buyer Beware
You’re no doubt getting several calls each week from companies offering to improve your website’s rank on Google. You’re hearing about getting your business on Facebook and Twitter, on television, in local directories, and from companies like Groupon and Living Social. You’re getting calls from big companies and from freelancers – offering everything from full-page phone book ads, websites, and videos to website optimization so your site shows up in local search. It may all sound pretty good. How do you know who to trust? How do you know which you need?

First, return to the basics – to those questions about your why, your goals, and your ideal customer.

Then you listen – to your market AND to those people offering to sell you services. Are they asking ANY of the right questions? If they’ve skipped right on over to how to get your site listed as #1 on Google, they’ve tipped their hand. After all, anybody can get a site listed #1 on Google for something!

Frankly, I’m tired of Internet marketers preying on small businesses. There is no one-size fits all solution – and (SURPRISE!) it’s not all about your website rank. It’s time to look at your business, your goals, and your marketing holistically. Now open a new Google doc or grab a pencil and paper, turn off the distractions, and let the 2012 planning begin in earnest.