We have all heard that “more is better,” but this may not be true when it comes to the number of domains and websites you own. You may be shocked by this statement because it seems that you are more likely to be found on the internet if you have more websites. However, for a small business owner, multiple websites can be damaging. Here are a few reasons why:
Time & Effort to Maintain Websites
It takes a lot of work to keep a website’s design and content up to date. Most small business owners are not web design or marketing experts, so they try to maintain their website during “downtime.” Of course, as most small business owners will attest, they have very little, if any, downtime!
Even if you are skilled in technology and updating a website, the internet is constantly changing. The marketing strategy you are using now could be outdated within months. As technology companies upgrade their devices, the user’s experience on the internet must also be updated. It can be challenging to ensure that your website is user-friendly across numerous platforms or types of devices.
Of course, one of the critical tasks in keeping a website updated is ensuring it has fresh and SEO-friendly content. But, of course, this requires regular attention and organization. The most common way attorneys accomplish this task is by posting blogs regularly, which again, can take significant time away from their practice of law. Trying to post different and exciting blogs for several different websites can be a ton of work.
Updating the design and content of one website on a regular and frequent basis would likely benefit your law firm more than updating several sites every so often.
Multiple Websites with Same Content
Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can save time and effort by using the same content on several different websites and benefit from it. While you may save time and effort, Google will identify the duplicated content and penalize you for it. The algorithms will see re-used content as a bad user experience.
Attempting to use the same content on several different websites will result in all your websites being ranked lower in search engine results. This obviously defeats exactly what you were trying to accomplish. Again, creating and maintaining one exciting and user-friendly website is a better use of your time, effort, and money.
Competing Against Yourself for Rankings
If you happen to have the time, ability, and cash to build and maintain multiple websites, each with original content, you will still be competing against yourself for top rankings in the search engine results. Unless your websites are very different from each other, you most likely are using the same SEO strategy with similar keywords across your sites. As a result, you become your own competition instead of driving online traffic to one website.
There are other problems that can occur if you use multiple websites because Google does not like businesses that have similar names, use the same contact information, and provide the same services. Again, this can hurt your rankings.
Finally, link building is critical in your SEO strategy. Search engine algorithms look at the number of inbound links to your website. The more inbound links or back links you have, the higher your website will rank in searches. Link building takes time, which most small business owners don’t have a lot of, so putting your effort into obtaining hundreds of quality links to one website is more beneficial than just a few links to multiple sites.
Confusion for Clients
If you have multiple websites, it can cause confusion for searchers when they want to be sure they have found you. The client may be confused about which site is yours and feel a loss of trust when websites look similar, offer the same services, and have the same contact information. Most online searchers want websites that are trustworthy and honest. You don’t want potential clients to feel confused or concerned about the validity of your website.
How The Rainmaker Institute Can Help
Your digital presence – particularly your website – is crucial in generating and converting leads. You have worked hard to get where you are, so learn to use technology to your advantage so you can enjoy the fruits of your labor more often while also generating new clients!
The Rainmaker Institute handles your legal marketing so you can focus on lawyering. We will provide content that contains top legal focus keywords, proper page titles, appropriate meta descriptions, target length of content, and images that will boost your attractiveness to Google. In short, we will make great content.
If you are ready to take your law firm to the next level and see your Google ranking improve, we can help. Whether you choose to attend one of our live events or you want a free, confidential consultation, we are here to help!
