Best 7 Hosting For Multiple Domains
Whether you are a webmaster, developer, internet marketer or just looking to create more than one website, for sure you will need a hosting for multiple domains. If you are at the beginning you can choose a cheap shared hosting plan, which allows you to add-on multiple or even unlimited domains. If you are looking to build multiple sites for your company or for your clients you should choose a VPS plan.
In this article I have put together a list of the best shared hosts that allows hosting multiple domains at affordable rate. If you are looking for VPS hosting, you should check out my top list of the best VPS hosting providers.
Now you might wonder if shared hosting is good for business sites. Well this type of host is great for personal and small business sites. They work very well for company sites, small blogs and other small websites. One downside of shared hosting is that it cant support high traffic. Although hosting companies does not put a cap on the allowed number of hosted sites, your account has limitation on RAM and CPU usage.
That said, lets take a look to the list of cheap hosts that I consider to be the best for hosting multiple domains and small websites.
Option #: Create New Domains
If you want the safest method, opt to create your own brand new domain.
This will allow you to have total control over your domain, and this will probably be the cheapest option too.
Basically, youll need to create a new brand or a microsite around your current brand.
Creating an entirely new brand from scratch is pretty difficult, so I recommend you take the microsite route.
Once you have a purpose, go to Domainsbot.com to help come up with a name:
If you already have a name in mind, write down a few variations and use Domainsbot to see if any of those variations are available. You can also just type in your keyword.
You can then find an available domain and buy it from the registrar of your choice.
Here are a few tips Ive learned in my career:
Use an original URL name. exact match domains. This means that if your keyword is in your URL, your SEO could take a hit.
Aim for a .com address. I dont care what anyone saysa .com is still the most trustworthy TLD. Country extensions, like .co.uk or .com.au are fine too.
How To Create A Redirect With The Cpanel Interface:
You can redirect a website from the Redirects interface in cPanel.
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Best Web Hosting For Multiple Domains
Before anything else, you should have a reliable web host if you plan on building a site. The service will make your platform available online and deliver a high-performing website your visitors expect .The right platform will depend on your site’s niche, size, and needs. You should also take the number of your domains into account. Finally, of course, you should also consider the tool’s features and price.For multiple domains, one of the best services that you can use is Bluehost. It will offer vast hosting options. Meaning, you can expect flexibility between your sites. The app even comes with a domain manager, which will be helpful for your tasks.
For more details, read our complete Bluehost Review or visit the Bluehost website.
What Type Of Control Panel Should I Choose
The final consideration youll want to keep in mind is which control panel the host is currently using for server and site management.
Some control panels are easier to use than others, and choosing a host with the wrong control panel will only make managing multiple domains all the more difficult.
One of the most popular control panels is cPanel, which is very beginner-friendly, while still packing a lot of features.
If you want to quickly manage multiple sites with the same settings, then you might also have the ability to use WHM.
Also Check: How Much To Purchase A Domain Name
Managing Multiple Domains Via A Single Admin Panel
Managing all of these websites and all of the different hosting packages can be difficult and expensive.
That is why many website owners choose to host packages that offer multiple domain hosting options.
This option allows you to host all of your different domain names with a single hosting provider.
Then you can access all of your sites through a single administration interface, instead of having a separate admin panel for each one.
Redirect Multiple Domains To One Domain
I have about 18 domains that need to be redirected to a new one. It has to work both with or without www prepended.
I’ve tried this:
< IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteEngine on Rewritecond % !^www\.domain\.com RewriteRule ^$ http://www.domain.com/$1 < /IfModule>
That gives me a redirect loop .
- Because the at the end of each domain was not in your answer, and that solved my problem.
RewriteEngine onRewriteCond % ^domain1.com RewriteCond % ^domain2.com RewriteCond % ^domain3.com RewriteCond % ^domain4.com RewriteCond % ^domain5.comRewriteRule ^$ http://www.newdomain.com/$1
This will redirect all your 18 domains to your new single domain www.newdomain.com.
Otherwise you can use following code to redirect each domain if they are on separate hosting:
RewriteCond % ^domain.comRewriteRule ^$ http://www.newdomain.com/$1
- 3Domains with leading www will not be affected by this. You can include such domains by using: RewriteCond % ^/??domain1.com AvatarNov 9 ’16 at 8:47
- Can you explain why this doesn’t work when the final domain is “https” and one of the domains is the same name eg bob.com and the final rule is https://www.bob.com – it returns a mis-configuration error PandaWoodMar 25 ’18 at 1:59
- And how can I handle it if somebody is calling one of my domains with https? E.g. domain1.com.
Instead of redirecting a.com, b.com, c.com to newdomain.com you can do this:
Redirect everything that is notnewdomain.com to http://www.newdomain.com
Good Redirection!
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The Pros And Cons Of Using Multiple Domains
Having multiple domains means having more than one website for the same, or a similar, company.
It can also be a case when pointing or redirecting multiple domain names to one or two websites only. Then domains like that are considered to be supporting domains for securing the business name or supplementing type-in traffic.
Some online businesses think having more than one website might seem like a good idea, especially if you have a product or service that appeals to different audiences. A site for each target audience makes it possible to customize the messaging, sales materials, and other that hook a particular potential customer. For example, a website for engineers will use a different approach than one for school teachers, so a cross-over product might be difficult to pitch on a single site.
What To Do If You Have Already Registered Multiple Domains For Your Site
The answer is simple. Pick one and stick to it. Figure out which domain name resonates best with you and your business model. Preferably a short one with the .com extension , easy to remember and type. The rest of your domain pack should be permanently redirected to this main domain. The 301 permanent url redirection can be easily set up at your domain registrar or directly with your web hosting provider.
Each website owner is going to have a unique combination of goals and priorities. Those, not a fabulous web hosting package, need to guide this kind of domain decision.
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It Is Recommended To Use One Gtm Container Per Domain
Having the previous example in mind, always think about how different those websites . How likely are you going to need a tag, trigger, or variable that is needed only on domain1.com but not on domain2.com.
If the answer is very likely, then you need to use separate GTM containers per domain/subdomain.
Even if you are operating on the same domain but have separate subdomains, for example, blog.mydomain.com, support.mydomain.com, www.mydomain.com, you should use separate GTM containers.
Why? Because those subdomains serve different purposes, their structure is different and, most likely, you will be measuring different things.
- on blog.mydomain.com, you will probably be tracking content consumption, email opt-ins, how visitors engage with your content , etc.
- on support.mydomain.com, you will be tracking how visitors engage with your help articles, how they create or close tickets.
- on www.mydomain.com, you will be tracking how visitors sign up for your product , how they engage with your landing pages, etc.
Most likely, all those websites will have different elements, classes, ids, therefore, your triggers will be very much subdomain-specific. And in that case, one container per one subdomain makes the tag management easier.
A Warning About Unlimited Bandwidth And Storage
Once you sign up for a hosting account that allows multiple domain hosting and you have configured all of your websites under one account, your work is still not done.
You may have the capability to host as many domain names as you want on your new account. However, that doesnt mean you necessarily have the resources to accommodate all those domains and sites.
All hosting accounts, including those that allow for multiple domain hosting, have a limit on how much bandwidth and storage space you can access and use.
In fact, many companies that claim to offer unlimited bandwidth and storage have restrictions hidden in their Terms of Service that limit your use of their server space and resources.
Also Check: How Much Does A Top Level Domain Cost
Multiple Domains Good Or Bad
Taking a narrow view that only considers search engine optimization , the short answer is multiple domains can hurt your page ranking. Many still park multiple domains as aliases for their main website. That was quite popular approach in old internet days. Not today.Also there is no real benefit to having several keyword-rich domains pointing to your website. SEO is done on a single domain name and incorporates many things such as site popularity, the amount and type of content on the site, keywords in meta and title fields, and paying for a spot in the search engine database.
Exceptions can be considered when protecting your website name or business brand. As a rule of thumb, it makes sense to register similar, complementary domains closely related to your site name before someone else does. Ending up with multiple domain names is quite natural. They dont bring much of an advantage to website rankings but will guard your brand recognition and reputation. Additionally, after redirecting, they can be a good source of type-in traffic, given that the domain names are of a high quality .
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If your website serves a simple purpose, such as a portfolio of work samples, using multiple pages on the same site will likely be adequate. If the business model is a bit complicated, then its worth exploring how to leverage several sites. But a few words of caution before you start:
Why You Might Want Another Domain
There are so many instances where registering an additional domain name could help more people get to your site.
For example, if your company has multiple sub-brands, products, or different lines of business, creating a unique domain name for each of those can help people find what they’re looking for more easily. Take Apple, which has iphone.com redirect to the iPhone section of its main website.
You can use an alternate domain name to create a simpler address that’s easier to share on marketing and advertising materials. Take bayareaserchengineacademy.org. Sure, that address is great for helping them index for search engine education, but it’s pretty long to type and share, so they have bayareasea.com redirect to it as well.
Other great uses for multiple domains include:
- Targeting a specific demographic
- Creating an easy-to-remember domain for a specific campaign
A final but important use case is to capture ‘type-in traffic’. This is traffic from visitors erroneously entering what they think is your web address directly into the browser. You may have somecompany.com, but if someone enters some-company.com, sumcompany.com or somecompany.net, will they still reach you? Depending on your domain name and company size, this can help to vacuum up traffic you’d otherwise miss.
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Configure Virtual Host In Nginx To Host Multiple Domains
- Login to Nginx server
- Go to the location where youve installed Nginx.
There are multiple ways to achieve this. Either you can modify nginx.conf file or custom file if you have any. You may also create a custom.conf under conf.d folder. Choose what works for you and take a backup if modifying an existing file.
- Create a server block for both URLs as I have shown below.
server }server }
Note: Change the value for root, server_name based on your requirement.
- Restart Nginx and test both URLs
Dont forget to update the DNS record of your URL to map to server IP. Once done, you should be able to access the URLs which are getting served through the above configuration you made.
That was the quick guide to hosting multiple domains in a single web server instance like Apache or Nginx. Once your website is live, dont forget to test it against security vulnerabilities.
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What Is A Multiple Domain Strategy
The best way to tell you what a multiple domain strategy is to show you.
Heres an example from Mozs Rand Fishkin that involves real estate giants Zillow and Trulia.
First, you have to know that Zillow owns Trulia. Now that you know that, Google real estate.
Youll probably see both Zillow and Trulia in the first five positions. In fact, this will be true for most keywords related to real estate.
This is a multiple domain strategy in action. Since Zillow and Trulia are essentially the same company, theyre helping to rank their overall brand for certain keywords.
Heres another example. Go onto Google and type in user intent. On page 1, youll see these two results from Quick Sprout and Crazy Egg:
As you might know, I founded Quick Sprout and co-founded Crazy Egg.
The idea is that my brand as a whole is performing better for certain keywords.
As you can see, a multiple domain strategy is all about adding more power to your SEO strategy. Instead of ranking with just one domain, you can rank with multiple domains.
This increases the chances that a user will click on a result that links to a site you own.
Its a bit of an outside-the-box SEO strategy. Most site owners focus on ranking specific pages.
But if you want your brand to rank better, a multiple domain strategy might be for you.
Also Check: What To Do After Domain Purchase