Web Hosting Guide

Multiple domain web hosting is incredibly common. Web hosting companies encourage this and many people who use web hosting find that multiple domains not only makes sense but are in fact becoming more and more necessary.

There are a number of reasons for having multiple domains and any web hosting company that wants to be considered competitive will allow hosting of multiple domains from one web hosting account.

What is the reason for having multiple domains?

There are many reasons to have multiple domains. One of the most common is simply because the person with the web hosting account has multiple projects on the web under different domain names. They choose to host them all off their web hosting account, which allows them to more easily manage all the web sites they have up.

By utilizing one primary hosting account the user can see statistics and manage the mail server for all of the domains from one control panel and having email redirected from one domain to another is easier when it is all handled internally.

Another incredibly common reason to have multiple domain names registered is to make sure that the person who owns a .com name also owns the .net and other internet extensions. It can be very difficult to do business should a business own and use the .com but a competitor or spammer gets hold of the .net extension.

Some businesses have even gone so far as to secure other domains with similar names or misspellings. The most notable instance of this was when misspellings of one of the most popular web portals and search engines would take the person to a page with explicit material. That site now owns those domains and likely paid a pretty penny for them. When a company or person has multiple domains that need to go to one location, redirecting them is very easy to do and can be handled within the control panel for all of them.

Other web hosting customers will set up mirror sites for each domain to better track traffic to each extension simply to know if there is one that is working better than the others.

Security - Another factor worthy of consideration

For those really serious about security, having multiple domains on their web hosting account can significantly enhance security. Rather than having all of the administrative functions associated with email addresses revolving around the domain that the public sees, many individuals and businesses will have a secondary domain name that is often a random selection of numbers and letters at a lesser used extension as their primary administrative domain. This domain is not published but is registered to the person.

Some web hosting companies perform this type of protection automatically as it is becoming more and more common place. It also allows the web hosting company to give the customer a parking spot while other domain names are purchased.

How do I go about getting multiple domains?

There are several ways that a person or business can go about securing domain names. Often for both ease of use as well as procuring a higher level of convenience, web hosting clients will in fact utilize their primary web hosting company to secure any domains they may require. While this is convenient and easy to do, there are several downsides to this option as well.

The biggest downside is when you have the web hosting company do the work; they often subsidize the costs and ultimately are the ones that own the domain. If you decide to change web hosting companies, getting the domain at that point can become a problem. Some web hosting companies will be easy to work with but others will be difficult in the hopes that you just give up and stay with their web hosting services.

The other route to go with registering domain names is to go through a domain registration company. The benefits of going with a domain registration service are in the end the person who registers the domain owns the domain. The other benefit is that at times the registration of domains more directly is cheaper than using one's web hosting company to do this service for them. The downside to this method of obtaining domains is that once they are registered to a person or company, the web hosting company has to be notified and some background work is performed to make sure that when someone types in that domain it is routed properly to the specified web hosting company the person is using.

Getting multiple domains is really a very easy feat to accomplish and it is incredibly common. All web hosting companies allow multiple domain names, however, some basic packages do limit the number of domains that can be registered to the account.

For the person who is just beginning, this will likely not be a large concern; however, later on it could be an issue. Luckily, most web hosting companies allow their customers to easily upgrade their web hosting package to have more domains very easily.