Hosting multiple websites on different domains can be a great strategy or a poor strategy for SEO.
Most of the reasons for having multiple sites are more related to business decisions or best practices, such as grouping products into one customer group or splitting them across sites to help users find content as quickly as possible.
But a common question when discussing multiple sites is, "Is it good or bad for SEO?"
Unfortunately (and arguably luckily, depending email list on how you look at it), there is no right answer to this question. There are pros and cons to having multiple sites and having a protective site to protect site content.
To make this easier to understand, let's explore the strengths and weaknesses of SEO and look at best practices for multiple sites. Matching Searcher Intent
Using the Advantages
of Multiple Sites Multiple sites are beneficial to users, especially companies with different brands or offering different products/services.
If you have a group of companies, each with a different website, then it most likely makes sense to have a separate domain name for each company/brand. However, the most useless thing to do is to release each company's individual services or products into different domains.
Shutterfly is an excellent company with multiple websites, ideal for both users and SEOs.
Shutterfly breaks down each company into different domains and links them together. This allows users to easily navigate each website, and if a company decides to use one website or domain for all brands, there won't be so many options.
You also want to make sure that each site is optimized not only for search engines, but also for users. When someone searches, if they come to a clear and concise site, that solves the searcher intent. However, if the site is not optimized for searcher intent, then they will go to other sites, which increases the site's bounce rate and may affect the site's ranking.
Get more Google ad placements
There are other benefits besides giving searchers a clearer product/service match. A site or multiple sites with less competition can also help you take up more Google ad placement with other sites or domains that target similar keyword phrases for different unique content.
A good example would be if you have a combination of sites/brands targeting similar keyword phrases, but you offer different services to meet searcher intent. It makes more sense to separate them into different websites than to make a protective brand with a service dropdown or something like that.