An eCommerce website is the ideal candidate for domain mapping. You may have hundreds of product pages, categories, subcategories, or archives, each of which could be accessed via an independent microsite to target a different audience, perhaps in another country or region.
The optimal approach to organize this setup and maximize sales is by creating Microsites through domain mapping, which empowers your brand with personalized targeting based on your customer’s language or location, giving them a domain more familiar to them or their interests.
The Domain Mapping System plugin simplifies the process of creating microsites for your eCommerce website through domain mapping
In this post, we’ll explore the best practices for domain mapping specifically tailored to eCommerce websites so you can maximize sales
Domain Mapping Overview
What Is An Alias Domain?
When you have a primary domain configured on your website, you can set up a second domain to point to your hosting server and website as well. This is called an alias domain.
An alias domain allows users to access the same content on the primary website using a different domain name. One typical use for alias domains is for branding purposes or to simplify access to specific pages of a website or service.
For instance, your-domain.net could be an alias domain for your-domain.com, with all the site pages available on the alias domain as on the primary domain, or perhaps just a few of them
What is a Subdomain?
A subdomain is a prefix to your primary domain. For example:
`subdomain.your-domain.com`
Subdomains are not limited to organizing sections of a website; you can have a complete standalone microsite on a subdomain.
What is a Subdirectory?
A subdirectory in web hosting and domain structure is a folder within the root domain of the website. The subdirectory comes after the main domain name in the URL. It is used to organize and categorize website content.
For example, if you set up a folder or page called documentation, then yourdomain.com/documentation/ is the subdirectory URL. You can also have a Cicrosite setup under yourdomain.com/documentation/.
Subdirectories allow for hierarchical organization of web content, enabling easier management and navigation.
Benefits of Creating Microsites for Your eCommerce Website
Enhanced Branding
Microsites offer a powerful means to expand your brand’s reach and engage with new potential customers. By creating Microsites tailored to specific categories not covered by your main branding message, you can effectively attract and engage with new audiences.
SEO Benefits
With Microsites, you have the ability to optimize each domain individually for search engines. By targeting a niche area of your eCommerce operation with each microsite, it becomes much easier for search engines to index and rank your pages appropriately. Consequently, this can boost click-through rates and ultimately drive sales.
Improved User Experience
Microsites offer a personalized and streamlined user experience, catering to factors such as geo-location, age, and more. By segmenting each microsite to focus on specific product lines based on these factors, visitors can easily access relevant information, leading to higher conversion rates and increased customer satisfaction.
Perfect For Running Targeted Campaigns
Microsites help with facilitating targeted advertising campaigns. For example, when launching a new advertising campaign, a Microsite serves as an optimal dedicated hub for all related activities. This ensures your main website remains unaffected while providing users with a seamless experience on the promotional Microsite. Additionally, tracking analytics for the campaign becomes more straightforward, allowing for efficient optimization as needed
Best Practices
- Choose the right domain structure for your setup
If your eCommerce store sells to multiple regions, it’s a best practice to implement country code top-level domains or subdomains. This strategy localizes your website for specific countries and helps to improve search engine visibility for those regions.
In terms of structure, using subdirectory mapping is also regarded as a best practice for SEO purposes.
Be careful when mapping Alias domains to your entire site or existing pages, as it can adversely impact your search rankings to have duplicated content. The best practice when using Alias domains is to create new pages for the Alias domains, with unique content on each of those pages.
In the future, we plan to have a method to dynamically specify the content on each page that should be selectively visible when accessing the page via a mapped domain, avoiding duplicate content issues.
Opt for a subdomain structure when creating a microsite that can function independently. Ideally, it should be a distinct entity but aligned with your brand. A prime example is a documentation Microsite for a product. While it operates as a standalone entity, it shares your branding; however, its content differs significantly. This content is often geared toward supporting customer retention efforts, rather than focusing on marketing and sales efforts.
- Implement Security for all Mapped Domains
Mapped domains are susceptible to the same security threats as regular domains, requiring robust safeguards against both known and unknown cyber threats.
For eCommerce sites, cyber threats pose a distinct challenge, as any malware attack can directly impact sales and profitability.
As a best practice, you must implement SSL certificates for each alias domain on your eCommerce site for heightened encryption levels and comprehensive protection against threats.
Additionally, prioritize regular updates for plugins, themes and WordPress core, as these are common targets for malware and other attacks on WordPress websites.
- SEO Best Practices for Mapped Domains
The essence of implementing SEO best practices for eCommerce sites lies in maintaining consistency, optimizing content, and enhancing user experience across mapped domains. Key strategies include:
Redirects
Apply 301 redirects from mapped domains to the corresponding pages on the primary domain to consolidate link equity and prevent duplicate content issues. This ensures that search engines recognize the primary domain as the authoritative source.
Local SEO targeting
If mapped domains target specific geographic regions, optimize them for local SEO by including relevant location-based keywords, business information, and schema markup. This enhances visibility in local search results and improves targeting for local audiences.
Canonicalization and handling duplicate content
Where you have multiple versions of product pages within your eCommerce setup, use canonical tags on mapped domain pages to specify the preferred version. without this, some of your content may be flagged by search engines as duplicate or spam.
Using canonical tags on mapped domain pages is a SEO best practice that helps to maintain content integrity, avoid duplicate content penalties, and ensure that search engines properly index and rank the preferred version of the content.
Conclusion
To sum up, implementing effective domain mapping strategies is essential for optimizing your eCommerce website. By leveraging Microsites and adhering to domain mapping best practices (such as SEO optimization, streamlined management, and personalized user experiences) you can enhance branding, improve conversions, and stay ahead in the competitive eCommerce landscape.
